Allan Havis is an American playwright whose work has pronounced political themes and probes colliding cultures. His works range from minimal-language texts to ambiguous, ironic narratives that delineate the genesis, paradoxes, and seduction of evil. Several of his dramas involve Jewish identity, cultural alienation, and universal problems of racism. He has been influenced by August Strindberg and Harold Pinter. In addition, Havis has written librettos for three operas produced in the early 21st century. He has also written young adult books. Since 2001, he has edited and published three anthologies of plays, selected to express the changing political landscape in the United States in the era of terrorism. He is a professor of playwriting at the University of California, San Diego.
He has published nineteen plays in editions by Broadway Play Publishing Inc., Theatre Communications Group, Penguin/Mentor, Smith & Kraus, Applause Books, University of Illinois, and Southern Illinois University. His book Cult Films: Taboo and Transgression covers ninety years of cinema. In addition to his plays, Havis wrote two novels for young adults, Albert the Astronomer ; and a sequel, Albert Down a Wormhole. He has edited three anthologies of plays: American Political Plays, published by University of Illinois Press; American Political Plays after 9/11, published by Southern Illinois University Press; and American Political Plays in the Age of Terrorism, published by Bloomsbury/Methuen. In addition, Havis has written librettos for operas. He adapted his play, Lilith. The chamber opera highlights the mythical first woman to accompany Adam in the Garden of Eden, who was thought to have had demonic, supernatural power; she is reimagined in a modern era. The world premiere concert recital was at the Conrad Prebys Music Center, UC San Diego on December 4, 2009. Several excerpts of Lilith were given a showcase presentation and new production at the Qualcomm Institute, UC San Diego, in November 2015. This work can be see on UCSD TV online. His second opera, also developed with composer Anthony Davis, explored a modern King Lear archetype, with a woman neuroscientist with Alzheimer's disease as the protagonist. Lear on the 2nd Floor had a showcase presentation at Princeton University's Lewis Center for the Arts in March 2012 and was produced in March 2013 at Conrad Prebys Music Center, UC San Diego. His third opera libretto, St. Francis de los Barrios, was given a showcase presentation at the Qualcomm Institute, UC San Diego in December 2017.
