Don Thompson (producer, playwright)

Don Thompson
Don Thompson
Born	(1956-10-19) October 19, 1956 Long Beach, California, U.S.
Nationality	American
Alma mater	UCLA
Occupation	producer, filmmaker, playwright
Years active	1982–present
Spouse(s)	Diana Takata

Don Thompson is an American producer, filmmaker and playwright. He is most notable for the film Clouds,^[1] the Sundance and Cinema for Peace award-winning documentary Tibet in Song,^[2][3][4] and the plays L.A. Book of the Dead,^[5][6] Tibet Does Not Exist^{[7][8][9][10]} and Democracy: A Work in Progress.^[11][12][13]

Education and Career

Thompson attended UCLA Film School, and was mentored by Richard Walter, Chair of UCLA’s screenwriting program.

While at UCLA, Thompson developed a full-length screen play that was a finalist in the Samuel Goldwyn screenwriting awards.^[14]

Playwriting

Thompson’s first major creative success was the anti-war play L.A. Book of the Dead which was first performed at the Ensemble Studio Theatre, Los Angeles, in 1982 (director Renee Tadlock).^[5] L.A. Book of the Dead was revived in 1987 by the Rough Theater Company, and continued to be performed as a reader’s theater piece throughout the 1990s.^[6][14]

In 1995, his play Tibet Does Not Exist was first performed at the Gene Frankel theater in New York City and later, Off-Broadway (1997) by the Theater for Human Rights.^[7][8][15] The play was also performed at Oregon Stage Works in 2005 and revived at Nicu’s Spoon Theater in New York City in 2009.^[10][16] The play was published in paperback in 1998 with a foreword by Robert Thurman and the Dalai Lama.^[14]

Thompson has also developed two plays through the Maryland Ensemble Theater, Democracy: A Work in Progress (2004) and The God of this World (2014).^{[11][17][18][19]}

Filmmaking and Producing

In 1999, Thompson produced, directed and wrote his first feature film, Clouds, based on a screenplay he developed while at UCLA.^[14] The film won awards, including Best New Director at the Brooklyn Film Festival, a Feature Film award at the New York Independent Film Festival, and Juror’s Choice for Narrative Feature at the Brooklyn Arts Council Film and Video Festival.^[14][20] William Arntz was a producer on the project, and also a co-producer of Thompson’s play, Tibet Does Not Exist.^[8]

In 2000, Thompson founded, with partner Diana Takata, the production company nextPix.^[21] Notable of the nextPix projects is the Sundance award-winning documentary Tibet in Song, directed by former political prisoner of conscience Ngawang Choephel. Thompson was a producer on the film.^[3][4][22]

Essays

After 2002, Thompson also became active as an Internet essayist. In collaboration with Michael Neff of WebDelSol Thompson and Neff published two separate anthologies of essays through Del Sol Press, Your Life Is A Movie (2006) and A World Without War (2012).^[23][24]

Filmography

• 2000 – Clouds (producer/director/writer - with William Arntz)
• 2001 – Singing the Bones (co-producer - dir. Gordon Halloran)
• 2009 – Tibet in Song (co-producer - dir. Ngawang Choephel)
• 2013 – Bringing Tibet Home (associate producer - dir. Tenzin Tsetan Choklay artist Tenzing Rigdol)
• 2015 – Ned Rifle (executive producer - dir. Hal Hartley)

Plays

• 1982 – L.A. Book of the Dead (premiered at Ensemble Studio Theatre, Los Angeles)
• 1983 – The Wood Rose (performed at Ensemble Studio Theatre, Los Angeles)
• 1985 – Dune Messiah (adapted from the novel by Frank Herbert; performed at SMC Theatre)
• 1995 – Tibet Does Not Exist (premiered in New York at Gene Frankel Theatre in 1995; off-Broadway in 1997 at TPAC; Nicu's Spoon in 2009)
• 2004 – Democracy: A Work in Progress (premiered at Maryland Ensemble Theatre Main Stage)
• 2015 – The God of this World (developed ^[18] and premiered ^[19] at Maryland Ensemble Theatre Main Stage)

References

External links

• Don Thompson at the Internet Movie Database
• Official Website
• Don Thompson on Doolee
• Tibet Does Not Exist at Amazon
• Tibet in Song on Facebook
• Clouds Official Website