Eduardo Oscar Machado (born June 11, 1953) is a Cuban playwright living in the United States. Notable plays by Machado include Broken Eggs, Havana is Waiting and The Cook. Many of his plays are autobiographical or deal with Cuba in some way. Machado teaches playwriting at New York University. He has served as the artistic director of the INTAR Theatre in New York City since 2004. He is openly gay.

Biography

Eduardo Machado was born in Havana, Cuba, in 1953. He is the son of Othon (an accountant who died in 2007) and Gilda (Hernandez) Machado. With his brother Jesus he emigrated to the United States without his parents at the age of eight in 1961 as part of Operation Pedro Pan, which brought Cuban children to the United States in the early part of Fidel Castro's rule in Cuba. He lived with his aunt, uncle, and cousins in Hialeah, Florida until his parents were able to emigrate to California. While in California his parents had three more children, Jeanette, Gilda and Michelle. He is still a Cuban citizen, and has held a U.S. green card since he emigrated. Machado started acting professionally in California at the age of 17 and became a member of the Screen Actors Guild at 20. He studied acting in Van Nuys, CA with David Alexander. He started writing plays under the tutelage of María Irene Fornés in 1980, and moved to New York City in 1981. Machado first returned to Cuba in 1999 and has returned to Cuba several times since then. He has taught playwriting at Columbia University, where he was the head of the graduate playwriting program, and he now teaches at New York University, where he is head of playwriting.

Works

Plays

Films

Television

Magic City, Executive story editor. Starz Havana Quartet. Executive Producer, E1, Starz Tropicana, pilot, Amazon

Books

Teaching

Courses taught

Grants and awards

Boards and artistic associations

Directing

Theater

Machado has directed numerous plays, including his own works and those of emerging writers. His work as a director has appeared in numerous regional theaters, including INTAR, Theater For a New City, The Daryl Roth 2, The Ensemble Studio, The Mark Taper Forum, The Playwrights Collective, The Company Theater, The Cherry Lane Alternative, The Flea Theater, The Group Theater and the Inner City Cultural Center.

Film

Exiles In New York. Writer and director. The Santa Barbara Film Festival. The AFI film Festival. The Havana Film Festival. South by South West, The Saratoga Film Festival.

Acting

Theater

Machado has appeared across the country in plays by John Steppling, Maria Irene Fornes, Elmer Rice, Bertolt Brecht, Federico García Lorca, Rogelio Martinez and Nina Beeber, among others. Machado has also appeared at INTAR, Theater For A New City, The Company Theater, the Padua Hills Playwrights Festival, The Magic Theater, The Bilingual Foundation For the Arts, the Playwrights Collective and The Workhouse Theater.

Television

He has also appeared in television programs including Maude, The Nancy Walker Show, All In The Family, The Dancing Bear (Visions K.C.E.T.), Mary Hartman and What's Happening.

Film

The Champ, and Pollock directed by Ed Harris.

Memberships

Sources