Robert Cohen (playwright)

He has been called a Master Teacher by the Voice and Speech Trainers Association,[1] has been praised as a "walking theatre directory and encyclopedia" by his fellow teachers,[2] and has been honored during his career with the Polish Medal of Honor, the Honoris Causa Professor Degree at Babes-Bolyai University in Romania, UCI's Distinguished Professor of Research, and the Career Achievement Award from the Association for Theatre in Higher Education.

Cohen was born in 1938 in Washington, D.C. His theatrical education began as an undergraduate student at Dartmouth College and UC Berkeley and earned his DFA (Doctorate in Fine Arts) in 1965 at the Yale School of Drama.

[4] Cohen signed his first Equity contract to direct a production of Wilder's Our Town for the Virginia Museum Theater with his Yale classmate Keith Fowler as producer and actor in the role of the Stage Manager.

In his directing career he has staged twelve classical productions at the Utah and Colorado Shakespeare Festivals and over ninety stage productions at his Irvine campus and other theatres; his work includes classics like King Lear, Macbeth, and Twelfth Night; his own translations of Tibi’s Law, The Misanthrope, Carmen, The Magic Flute, and Pedro Gynt; and a variety of American musicals including My Fair Lady, Oklahoma!, Sweeney Todd, and Kiss Me, Kate.

In 2006, Cohen directed the premiere of his play Machiavelli: The Art of Terror at the Hayworth Theatre in Los Angeles (photo, left).