Tom Cavanaugh

My stageplay BEHOLD is one of three winners of the 2011 Robert J. Pickering Awards for Playwrighting Excellence. Born in Newark, New Jersey. I received a B.S. in Computer Science and Business Administration from Seton Hall University. In May of 2000, I received an M.F.A. from the Actors Studio Drama School at the New School for Social Research in New York City.

My playwriting professors at the Actors Studio Drama School included: Romulus Linney, Jim Ryan, Jeffrey Sweet and Laura Maria Censabella. In 1999 while at the Studio, I was a semi-finalist in the Chesterfield Films Writers Foundation Project in Los Angeles.

My one-act play THE CIRCUS STILL COMES TO TOWN was produced as part of the Thesis Repertory Season at Circle in the Square Downtown (NYC). Veteran playwright Jonathan Reynolds and director/actor Carlyn Glynn mentored the production.

I served as Associate Producer for Ensemble Studio Theatre (NYC) in 2000 and my short plays 50TH & 8TH and AMEN were produced there in special presentation. 50TH & 8TH was selected a few months later for a showcase production by the Atlantic Theater Company in New York City.

Under the guidance of playwright Edward Allan Baker, I wrote the one act play DINER TALK in a workshop at Ensemble Studio Theatre. DINER TALK was awarded first prize in the Jersey Voices One Act Play Festival and was produced that summer in Maplewood, New Jersey.

I won my first screenplay competition in 2002 and was featured as a “Writer to Watch” in the March/April 2006 issue of “Script” magazine. HARVEST, a short erotic thriller, won third prize in Toucan Films Short Screenplay Competition in Burbank, CA. THE HEROES OF ’76, a coming of age screenplay about a boy growing up in Asbury Park in 1976, was a semi-finalist in the 2003 Sundance Institute Feature Film Development Project.

My short film THE SHIFT won the best short prize at the Garden State Film Festival in March, 2007, and received its international debut at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival in the Exposition’s Short Film Corner.

My play WONDER recently received The Irene Bashore Award from FIRSTAGES L.A. I have been a member of the Dramatists Guild of America, Inc. since 1998 and is currently living in North Hollywood.