About

Photo by Emi Clark

Awards and Recognition:

  • Resident Playwright, Chicago Dramatists
  • 2010
  • Joseph Jefferson Award for Best New Work in Chicago,
    Nominee
  • Otis Guernsey New Voices in American Playwriting Award,
    Nominee
  • Woodward/Newman Drama Award,
    Finalist
  • 2009
  • Heideman Award,
    Finalist
  • 2008
  • Seven Devils Playwrights Conference,
    Selected
  • Atwater Playhouse & Write Brothers, Inc. Playwriting Award,
    Second Place
  • Princess Grace Award,
    Semi-Finalist
  • PlayLabs,
    Semi-Finalist
  • 2007
  • Austin Film Festival,
    Semi-Finalist
For a copy of Andrew’s resume, click here.

Professional Bio:

ANDREW HINDERAKER is a Resident Playwright at Chicago Dramatists. His play, SUICIDE, INCORPORATED, will open at the Roundabout Theatre’s Underground in November 2011.  It was developed at the Seven Devils Playwrights Conference and premiered at Chicago’s Gift Theatre in June 2010 to critical acclaim.  The production enjoyed a twice-extended sold-out run and was nominated for multiple Jeff Awards, including Best New Work.  Hinderaker’s follow-up, KINGSVILLE, premiered at Chicago’s Stage Left Theatre in October 2010.  It was featured in American Theater Magazine and named a finalist for the Woodward/Newman Drama Award.

Hinderaker’s plays have been developed and produced at such theatre companies as the Araca Group, Steppenwolf, Rattlestick, Victory Gardens, American Theater Company, and several others. Additional recognitions for Hinderaker’s work include a nomination for the 2010 Otis Guernsey New Voices in American Playwriting Award, and Finalist/Semi-Finalist status for the Princess Grace Award, the Heideman Award, and the Austin Film Festival.  He holds two degrees from Stanford University, and is currently pursuing his M.F.A in Playwriting at the University of Texas at Austin.

Unprofessional Bio:

Andrew Hinderaker is as uncomfortable talking about himself in the third person as he is having his headshot taken. Maybe it’s because I’m a Midwesterner. You grow up in Wisconsin, you can’t help but apologize for the self-indulgence required to create your own website. Really, I just wanted a place where people could read about my work and drop me a line, if interested.

Here’s something else about the Midwest. I’ve fallen asleep in a doctor’s waiting room in Wisconsin, and when I woke, complete strangers were whispering because they didn’t want to wake me. See, to me, you take that mindset—that the person next to you matters—and you superimpose it on a mainstream American culture that usually nurtures the opposite… and now you’ve got an interesting tension for a play. My work’s often set in brutal places—companies that edit suicide notes, schools where students legally carry guns to class—and explores how human connections form in the most unfeeling of places. To me, it is this hard earned intimacy that is at the heart of theater, the belief that honesty only happens when face to face with a living, breathing person.

And if this all sounds a little heady or pretentious, don’t be fooled. I’m as influenced by Dumb & Dumber as I am by Chekhov and McPherson. I’m the guy who groans when rehearsal’s inevitably scheduled during the Final Four. My work is approachable, and so am I. Drop me a line.