Robert Kaplow (born c. 1954) is an American novelist and teacher[1] whose coming-of-age novel was made into a film titled Me and Orson Welles.[2] The story is about "youthful creative ambition" and has received positive reviews from The New York Times which described it as "nimble, likable and smart."[2] Kaplow has written nine books and used to teach English language and film studies at Summit High SchoolinNew Jersey.[3]
One of Kaplow's later novels is sprinkled with references to Westfield. “Westfield remains for me the geography of my youth. I'm still very drawn to the place, though I don't live there,” Kaplow said in 2009.[6]
He graduated from Rutgers University, the state university of New Jersey.
Kaplow conceived the idea for the book while being a student at Rutgers University. He saw a photo in the periodical Theatre Arts Monthly from 1937 with Orson Welles with a young man.[7] Kaplow wondered what the young man might have been thinking. He wrote the story, but it took about nine years to find a publisher.[7] It was made into a film by director Richard Linklater which was released in 2009.[2]The Guardian critic Sophie Martelli described the film as a "schmaltzy yet charming coming-of-age story."[8]Me and Orson Welles was a New York Times bestseller[citation needed] and the film in 2008 starred Zac Efron and Claire Danes. The movie was filmed in the Gaiety Theatre on the Isle of Man. Kaplow's most recent novel is a satire of writers, critics, and publishers. For National Public Radio's Morning Edition, Mr. Kaplow created "Moe Moskowitz and the Punsters," a series of musical and satirical pop-culture parodies.[9] These musical parodies were released on two CDs: Steven Spielberg, Give Me Some of Your Money and Cancel My Subscription: The Worst of NPR.
Kaplow admitted that he had written admiring letters to a Victorian house on the north side of Westfield. His students recalled, “He had this idea to start writing letters to the house — not the occupants but to the house.” He eventually befriended the family who lived there; they even let him housesit once.[10]
Alex Icicle: A Romance in Ten Torrid Chapters, the comic rant of an over-educated and under-loved eighth-grader obsessively in love with a girl who doesn't know he's alive, and
Alessandra in Love, a comic tale about the romantic tribulations of a sardonic and intelligent high school junior, and
The Cat Who Killed Lillian Jackson Braun: A Parody, satirizing the books of Lilian Jackson Braun and the mystery genre, and
Me and Orson Welles: A Novel (2003), a romantic coming-of-age story set in 1937 around the founding of Orson Welles' Mercury Theatre, and
Playland: A Slightly Subversive Love Story (2022), the tale of a teenage couple attempting to navigate a life together in New York in the summer of 1972, and
^"Hipp celebration spotlights excellence"Archived 2016-01-12 at the Wayback Machine, New Jersey Education Association, December 1, 2014. Accessed October 26, 2015. "This year’s honorees were former NJEA President Barbara Keshishian, a 1968 graduate of North Bergen High School; author and educator Robert Kaplow, a 1972 graduate of Westfield High School; and jazz guitarist Julio Fernandez, a 1972 graduate of Hoboken High School."
^Keill, Liz. "After 'going Hollywood,' Kaplow is back at Summit High School", Independent Press, December 15, 2009. Accessed October 26, 2015. "Kaplow's novel is sprinkled with references to Westfield, as Efron's character takes the train back and forth to Manhattan. 'I was raised in Westfield and attended Westfield High School,' Kaplow said."
^ abRobert Kaplow (December 10, 2003). "'Me and Orson Welles': Photo of Young Boy with Famous Actor Inspires Novel". NPR. Retrieved 2010-01-10. ...I remember 10 years ago ... looking through a copy of Theatre Arts Monthly from 1937, ... Next to him was a young man ... What does this moment feel like from the kid's point of view...
^Sophie Martelli (6 December 2009). "Me and Orson Welles by Robert Kaplow". The Guardian. Retrieved 2010-01-10. A schmaltzy yet charming coming-of-age story, it is dominated by its portrait of Orson "I am the Mercury Theatre" Welles: the artist and rising star; the charismatic tyrant.
