Martin Zimmerman is a creator of worlds. His universes are built with language and plot, and are conjured into existence onstage. As both a playwright and an actor, the senior is closely attuned to the people and stories he brings to life.
Zimmerman started acting as a senior in high school. After winning the lead role in the first play he auditioned for, he knew he had found his passion.
He decided early on that he wanted to major in theater studies at Duke and as a freshman acted in the New Works Festival, an annual spring event showcasing plays written, produced, directed and acted by students.
Participating in the production of newly written student plays led him to writing himself.
"I was on the inside process of seeing a new play and I thought it would be great to be at the beginning of that process," he said.
The success of his short play The Grizzly Bear, written in his sophomore year and performed in the 2005 New Works Festival, was all the encouragement he needed.
He wrote his first full-length play, Eyes Like Fire Opals, as a junior, and completed his second, Three Movements, as his senior honors thesis. He is currently applying to graduate schools and intends to pursue dramatic writing as a profession.
"I think Martin is a very talented playwright with a keen ear for dialogue and an ability to distill a story to its most compelling components," said Andrea Stolowitz, assistant professor of theater studies. "Martin's interest and indeed the breadth of his work is far-reaching and original; he is always seeking new forms and themes."
Zimmerman describes his writing as close examinations of characters, the decisions they make and the irrationality that governs human life. He said he sees his characters as very tightly woven to the narratives of their lives and his understanding of this has deepened during his time at Duke.
"I don't really have a style," he said. "I like to think that each play has its own world created by language-language that is completely married to the story being told."
Three Movements is the culmination of more than a year's worth of work. The show is a fictional piece inspired by the life of famous ballet choreographer George Balanchine, whose relationship to his dancers changes when his wife, one of his best performers, contracts polio.
The idea for this play came to Zimmerman after a friend told him about Balanchine.
"I'm inspired by the stories I hear," he said. "I very much believe that characters are manifestations of what they do, so their actions describe their personalities."
Three Movements, written by Martin Zimmerman and directed by senior Marshall Botvinick, Trinity '06, will be performed Feb. 8-10 at 8 p.m. and Feb. 11 at 2 p.m. in Sheafer Theater.
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