Neil+LaBute


 * Neil N. LaBute** (born March 19, 1963) is an [|American] [|film director], [|screenwriter] and [|playwright].

Early life
LaBute was born in [|Detroit, Michigan], the son of Marian, a hospital receptionist, and Richard LaBute, a long-haul truck driver. LaBute is of [|French Canadian], English and Irish ancestry, and was raised in [|Spokane, Washington]. He studied [|theater] at [|Brigham Young University] (BYU), where he joined [|The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints]. At BYU he also met actor [|Aaron Eckhart], who would later play leading roles in several of his films. He produced a number of plays that pushed the envelope of what was acceptable at the conservative religious university, some of which were shut down after their premieres. However, he also was honored as one of the "most promising undergraduate playwrights" at the BYU theater department's annual awards. LaBute also did graduate work at the [|University of Kansas], [|New York University], and the [|Royal Academy of London].

Career
In 1993, he returned to [|Brigham Young University] to premiere his play //[|In the Company of Men]//, for which he received an award from the [|Association for Mormon Letters]. He taught drama and film at [|IPFW] in [|Fort Wayne, Indiana] in the early 1990s where he adapted and filmed the play, shot over two weeks and costing $25,000, beginning his career as a [|film director]. The film won the Filmmakers Trophy at the [|Sundance Film Festival], and major awards and nominations at the [|Deauville Film Festival], the [|Independent Spirit Awards], the Thessaloniki Film Festival, the Society of Texas Film Critics Awards and the [|New York Film Critics Circle]. LaBute has received high praise from critics for his edgy and unsettling portrayals of human relationships. //[|In the Company of Men]// portrays two misogynist businessmen (one played by Eckhart) cruelly plotting to romance and emotionally destroy a deaf woman. His next film //[|Your Friends & Neighbors]// (1998), with an ensemble cast including Eckhart and [|Ben Stiller], was a shockingly honest portrayal of the sex lives of three suburban couples. In 2000 he wrote an off-Broadway play entitled //[|Bash: Latter-Day Plays]//, a set of three short plays (//Iphigenia in orem//, //A gaggle of saints//, and //Medea redux//) depicting essentially good [|Latter-day Saints] doing disturbing and violent things. One of the plays was a much-talked-about one-person performance by [|Calista Flockhart]. This play resulted in his being [|disfellowshipped] from the LDS Church. He has since formally left the LDS Church. LaBute's 2002 play //[|The Mercy Seat]// was one of the first major theatrical responses to the [|September 11, 2001 attacks]. Set on September 12, it concerns a man who worked at the [|World Trade Center] but was away from the office during the attack — with his mistress. Expecting that his family believes that he was killed in the towers' collapse, he contemplates using the tragedy to run away and start a new life with his lover. Starring [|Liev Schreiber] and [|Sigourney Weaver], the play was a commercial and critical success. [//[|citation needed]//] LaBute's //[|The Wicker Man]//, was an American version of a [|British cult classic]. His first [|horror film], it starred [|Nicolas Cage] and [|Ellen Burstyn] and was released on September 1, 2006 by [|Warner Bros. Pictures] to scathing critical reviews and mediocre box office. //[|reasons to be pretty]// played Off-Broadway May 14-July 5, 2008 in a production by [|MCC Theater] at The Lucille Lortel Theatre. LaBute's first ever Broadway production is //[|reasons to be pretty]// which began previews at the [|Lyceum Theatre] on March 6, 2009 with an opening on April 2, 2009. The play was nominated for three 2009 Tony Awards—including Best Play, Best Leading Actor in a Play (Thomas Sadoski), and Best Featured Actress in a Play (Marin Ireland) -- but did not win in any category. //reasons// opened to good reviews and continued to pick up fans, but, not enough to sustain its existence on Broadway. The producers ended the run early, with the last performance on June 14, 2009. Critics have responded to his plays as having a [|misanthropic] tone. Rob Weinert-Kendt in "The Village Voice" referred to LaBute as "American theater's reigning misanthrope." "The New York Times" said that critics labeled him a misanthrope, on the release of his film, //[|Your Friends & Neighbors].// The UK's "Independent" dubbed him "America's misanthrope par excellence." Citing "In the Company of Men" and "The Shape of Things," critic Daniel Kimmel identified a thread running through his work: "LaBute is a misanthrope who assumes that only callous people who use and abuse others can survive." Critics labeled him a [|misogynist] after his "In the Company of Men." LaBute directed //[|Death at a Funeral]//, a remake of a 2007 British film of the same name. It was written by Dean Craig (who also wrote the original screenplay) and starred [|Chris Rock]. LaBute wrote a new Introduction and new scenes for the Chicago Shakespeare Theater production of The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare from April 7 to June 6, 2010. LaBute framed the classic play in overtly metatheatrical terms and added a lesbian romance in a subplot.(source-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neil_LaBute) __**PLAYS**__ //﻿//
 * //reasons to be pretty // (2008 - MCC Theater/2009 - Lyceum Theatre)
 * //Helter Skelter/Land of the Dead // (2008 - The Bush Theatre)
 * //The Break of Noon // Premiere-MCC Theater- October 28/December 10, 2010 West Coast Premiere-Geffen Theater-January 25/March 6, 2011
 * //"The New Testament," (a world premiere)/"Helter Skelter,"(also directed by LaBute) // (2009-Open Fist Theatre Company, Los Angeles)
 * //Some White Chick // (2009 - Southwark Playhouse)
 * //The Furies // (2009 - World Premiere Weekend)
 * //LINKS//**

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