Aram Kouyoumdjian

Aram Kouyoumdjian is the winner of Elly Awards for both playwriting ("The Farewells") and directing ("Three Hotels"). His latest work is "Velvet Revolution."



Author's articles

 John Schumacher, left, as Cabot Yearling, Jennifer Pennington as Leona Yearling, and Josh Ansley as Newton Yearling, in William Saroyan's Sweet Song of Love. . Katherine Bedoian

A Sweet Song of Love

Nov 23, 2008: Aram Kouyoumdjian reviews Love’s Old Sweet Song, by William Saroyan, in a Syzygy Theatre Group production directed by Martin Bedoian.  more...



Grinnell Morris, Julie Lancaster, Richard Horvitz and Tisha Terrasini Banker. Ed Krieger

The pull of “Push”

Nov 14, 2008: Kristen Lazarian's play Love Like Blue, which ran at the Whitefire Theatre in Sherman Oaks last year, had a unique structure built around a circular symmetry. This year, Lazarian had raised the stakes on structural innovation with Push, which ended its run at Theatre 40 in Beverly Hills on November 9.  more...



Tigran Kirakosyan as a hungry wolf in “The Stupid Man” .

Theater: Fables and Foibles (from Hovhannes Toumanyan's world)

Oct 15, 2008: Aram Kouyoumdjian reviews the pastiche, "From Toumanyan's World," appearing at Luna Playhouse in Glendale, Calif. He finds it "rather rough around the edges" but "altogether astute" and brimming with energy, "thanks to a spirited cast."  more...



Raffi Barsoumian and Adam Siladi in “The Zoo Story”.

Two Albees, two Barsoumians

Aug 30, 2008: Playwright Edward Albee announced his presence on the theater scene exactly 50 years ago with an explosive one-act piece innocently titled "The Zoo Story." Since then, the author of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, A Delicate Balance, Seascape, and Three Tall Women has become a monumental figure in American theater. Albee, who turned 80 this year, has remained an enfant terrible of the theater, composing subversive fare like The Goat at an age when playwrights would ordinarily be decades removed from their best work.  more...



 

The final days, the final plays

Aug 23, 2008: This month – specifically, its 31st day – marks the 100th anniversary of William Saroyan’s birth. To commemorate this literary giant’s legacy, I have been tracing, through a series of articles, a particular strand of Saroyan’s writing – his contributions to the world of theater.  more...



 

After the magic decade

Mar 15, 2008: In the words of C.W.E. Bigsby, the 1930s proved to be a "magic decade" for William Saroyan. He found literary success amidst the Depression and in 1939, on the eve of World War II, had two plays - My Heart's in the Highlands and The Time of Your Life - on Broadway. The magic of that decade followed Saroyan into the next, and the playwright became a Broadway mainstay during the early years of the 1940s - but not beyond.  more...