Harrison David Rivers (born September 11, 1981) is an American playwright. Rivers' work has won him the Relentless Award,[1]aGLAAD Media Award, a McKnight Fellowship for Playwrights,[2] a Jerome Foundation Many Voices Fellowship,[3] an Emerging Artist of Color Fellowship, a Van Lier Fellowship and the New York Stage & Film's Founders Award.[4] He is based in Saint Paul, Minnesota and is married to Christopher Bineham.[5]
While still a student at Columbia, Rivers was selected to participate in the inaugural "24 Hour Plays: Old Vic New Voices" event at the Atlantic Theatre.[6] He also wrote a short play for The 24 Hour Plays on Broadway (2009) called “And It Seems To Me A Very Good Sign.”[7] His cast included Sam Rockwell, Naomi Watts, John Krasinski and Amber Tamblyn.[8]
Rivers was a member of P73's Interstate 73 Writers' Group and the Emerging Writers Group at the Public Theater (2011–13).[9]
Rivers' play "When Last We Flew" was selected for the Sundance Theatre Lab in 2010. The play went on to be produced in the New York International Fringe Festival where it won awards for Outstanding Play and Outstanding Performance (for Rory Lipede).[10] The play was invited to be a part of the Fringe Encore Series. “When Last We Flew” also won the 2011 GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding New York Theatre: Off Off Broadway.[11]
In 2014, Rivers was awarded a Jerome Many Voices Fellowship from the Playwrights' Center[14] and relocated to Minneapolis, Minnesota. He subsequently received a McKnight Fellowship for Playwrights (2015–16)[15] and was a Core Writer at the Playwrights’ Center from 2016-2019. He currently serves on the Playwrights' Center's Board of Directors.[16]
In 2017, Rivers' play Sweet from National Black Theatre received four nominations at the 45th AUDELCO Awards[18] including: Dramatic Production of the Year, Outstanding Ensemble Performance, Director/Dramatic Production and Playwright. The 45th annual Vivian Robinson AUDELCO Awards recognizes excellence in Black Theatre.
His play Where Storms are Born, produced by the Williamstown Theatre Festival in 2017,[19] won an Edgerton Foundation New Play Award (2017)[20] and was nominated for Outstanding New Play at the 2017 Berkshire Theatre Awards.[21]
Rivers also wrote the book for the musical Five Points, with lyrics by Douglas Lyons and music by Douglas Lyons and Ethan Pakchar, which received its world premiere at Theater Latté Da, in Minneapolis, in 2018.[28] The extended,[29] sold-out[30] production received a MN Theater Award for Exceptional New Work[23] and the BroadwayWorld Minneapolis Award for Outstanding Original/New Work,[31] as well as Lavender Magazine awards for Best New Musical Score and Lyrics and Outstanding New Playwriting (for Rivers' book)[24] and was included on MinnPost's year-end Best Of list for 2018.[32] In 2019, Tony Award-winning choreographer Andy Blankenbuehler joined the creative team as the show's director and choreographer.[33] Blankenbuehler directed a sold-out concert staging of the show at Feinstein's/54 Below in New York City on September 16, 2019.
During the 2018-19 school year, Rivers was a Visiting Assistant Professor of Drama at Kenyon College.[35]
In May and June 2019, Rivers' play To Let Go & Fall received its world premiere production at Theater Latté Da.[36]
Rivers wrote the libretto for the second part of the musical Broadbend, Arkansas. The libretto for the first part of the show is by Ellen Fitzhugh and music & additional lyrics were written by Ted Shen. The show received its world premiere in the fall of 2019 at The Duke on 42nd Street in New York City in a co-production of Transport Group and the Public Theater.[37] The production appeared on Times Square Chronicles'[38] and The Broadway Blog's "Best of 2019" lists, was named one of NewNowNext's "5 New Musicals in NYC to Be Thankful For,"[39] and was designated by AMNY as an "Off-Broadway show worth seeing."[40] It was nominated for three Antonyo Awards (Danyel Fulton for Best Actor in a Musical Off-Broadway, Shen for Best Score and Rivers for Best Book),[41] and was cited by Times Square Chronicles for Best New Off-Broadway Musical, Outstanding Book of a Musical, Outstanding Score, and Best Orchestrations.[42] It streamed online during the summer of 2020.[43]
Rivers was the 2019–2020 Rudolph William Rosati Visiting Writer at Duke University.[44]
In May 2020, Theater Latté Da announced that Rivers would work on two projects as part of its Next Up laboratory series being held in lieu of a 2020-21 season. Rivers and composer Ted Shen were commissioned to write a third part to their musical Broadbend, Arkansas, and Rivers was commissioned to work on "a new piece about the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 alongside the 1927 premiere of the Jerome Kern, Oscar Hammerstein and Edna Ferber's musical, Showboat."[45]
In the fall of 2020, Rivers was a Visiting Assistant Professor of Theater at Macalester College.[46]
