Aaron Posner

Aaron is a playwright, director, teacher and consultant. He is the Co-Founder and former Artistic Director of Philadelphia’s Arden Theatre, where he has directed more than 40 productions over the last 18 years. He directs nationally at the Folger Theatre (where he received a Helen Hayes Award for his direction of the Two Gentlemen of Verona), Seattle Rep, Actor’s Theatre of Louisville, Arizona Theatre Company, and many others. He has written and adapted about twenty plays including variations on plays by Anton Chekhov and Kurt Vonnegut.  His adaptation of Chaim Potok’s the CHOSEN has been performed throughout the country, and won a Barrymore Award for Outstanding New Play.

Chaim Potok (February 17, 1929 – July 23, 2002) was an American Jewish author and rabbi. Potok is most famous for his first book The Chosen, a 1967 novel which was listed on The New York Times’ best seller list for 39 weeks and sold more than 3,400,000 copies. Potok wrote many novels including a sequel to The Chosen in 1969 entitled The Promise, which details the issues of the value and identity between Orthodox and Hasidic Jews. In 1972, he published My Name is Asher Lev, the story of a boy struggling with his relationship with his parents, religion and his love of art.