CJ Hopkins

Who is CJ Hopkins?

CJ Hopkins is a contemporary American playwright.

He is best known for his 1992 play, Horse Country, which won numerous awards during its UK premiere at the 2002 Edinburgh Festival Fringe, including a Scotsman Fringe First for New Writing and the 2002 Scotsman Best of the Fringe Firsts Award, and later went on to win the 2004 Best of The Adelaide Fringe Festival Award. Following its London premiere at Riverside Studios, Horse Country toured internationally, playing theatres and festivals in the UK, Australia, Canada and The Netherlands.

His 2004 play screwmachine/eyecandy premiered at Assembly Rooms at the 2005 Edinburgh Festival Fringe, where it was awarded a Scotsman Fringe First for New Writing. The US premiere was presented at 59E59 Theaters in New York in 2006. Also in 2006, Hopkins was commissioned by the Freie Universität Berlin to write and direct a site-specific work, The Insurgency, the German translation of which was staged in the university's Philological Library. His 2009 play, The Extremists, commissioned by 7 Stages, premiered in Berlin and Atlanta.

Mr. Hopkins' work is typified by existential explorations of American culture, consumerism, capitalism, authority, and the human condition. His work is often darkly comedic, leaving the audience with more questions than answers. He has often collaborated with OBIE-winning director John Clancy, who has directed a number of Hopkins' plays since the 1990s.