FINKS by
The struggles of two NY actors who fall in love and are blacklisted during the McCarthy Red Scare of the 1950s. The background is NY TV, radio, nightclubs and the theater. Finks reviews can be found by searching the play title.
Joe Gilford
Joe Gilford
JOE GILFORD has worked in film, TV and theater, as a producer, playwright, screenwriter and director for over 35 years. He has taught screenwriting at NYU’s Tisch Undergraduate Film department since 1999.
His play, Finks, received its New York premiere at Ensemble Studio Theatre, winning high critical praise. Finks was nominated for two Drama Desk Awards, (Outstanding Play and...
JOE GILFORD has worked in film, TV and theater, as a producer, playwright, screenwriter and director for over 35 years. He has taught screenwriting at NYU’s Tisch Undergraduate Film department since 1999.
His play, Finks, received its New York premiere at Ensemble Studio Theatre, winning high critical praise. Finks was nominated for two Drama Desk Awards, (Outstanding Play and Outstanding Leading Actress, Miriam Silverman). It also received the Best New Play nomination from the Off-Broadway Alliance. Finks is based on the experiences of Joe’s parents Jack & Madeline Gilford and their real-life struggles as blacklisted actors in the 1950s. Other productions include the Powerhouse Theater, Vassar(world premier); TheaterWorks Silicon Valley, CA, and The Rogue Machine Theater, Los Angeles among others.
Finks was videotaped as part of the Lincoln Center Library of the Performing Arts “Theater on Film & Tape” archive. It is also an audio podcast from the Radio Drama Network and will debut on public radio stations around the country. It is published by Dramatists Play Service.
His plays have been produced or presented at Ensemble Studio Theatre, The Rogue Machine(LA), TheaterWorks Silicon Valley(CA), Naked Angels Theater Co., Roundabout Theater Company, Circle Rep Lab, New York Stage & Film, The Westbank Downstairs Theater, and Todd Mountain Theater Project. He is a longtime member of Ensemble Studio Theatre and its Playwrights Unit. He worked as a stage director for many years before turning to writing.
Joe is the recipient of two consecutive Alfred P. Sloan Foundation grants for his plays, The Radio Boys, detailing the struggles of Edwin Armstrong and his invention of FM radio and Danny’s Brain about brain injuries afflicting American football players.
Joe earned his BFA at NYU's Institute of Film & TV(now Tisch) where he wrote and directed Max, a short film starring his father, Jack Gilford, playing film festivals and television all over the world.
He is the original screenwriter of Mob Town(2019) starring David Arquette and Jennifer Esposito. It is the story of the famed 1957 Apalachin Meeting of mafia leaders in upstate New York and its repercussions in the history of organized crime.
Joe is the author of Why Does the Screenwriter Cross the Road?…and other secrets of screenwriting (Michael Wiese Books)
His feature screenplay, God’s Thumbprint, the story of an international gold-mining scandal in Indonesia in the 1990s, will be produced by Creative Differences Productions. Saul Rubinek is the director & producer (Jerry & Tom).
He was on the writing team of Gold Fever, the four-part mini-series about the 1849 California gold rush produced by Stephen David Entertainment for the Discovery Channel.
For director/producer, Fareed Al-Mashat, Joe wrote the screenplay Moonbounce, a noir science fiction thriller set in the world of HAM radio operators. It is currently in pre-production.
He is the screenwriter of the feature film adaptation of the French science fiction novel by Ivan Leveque Operation Pertica and its sequel Pertica II: The Awakening. He is also the author of the new English adaptation of the novel, Mission to Ernam, now out in paperback from Dorrance (also available at Amazon.com).
He is the creator and writer of Game, a new digital animation comedy series.
He has had a long career producing television documentaries, winning a New York Emmy Award for his work on WNET-NY’s (PBS) City Arts series. He has also been a writer and producer at Showtime, Bravo, Court TV, F/x, and New York's MSG MetroGuide channel.
For PBS’s Great Performances & Time Warner Home Video he wrote the original script for The Great American Songbook, a history of American popular song hosted by Michael Feinstein. Also for PBS, he wrote the documentary Beyond Wiseguys: Italian Americans and the Movies hosted by John Turturro and featuring Paul Sorvino, Marisa Tomei, and many others.
He is the writer of the A&E Biography, Tom Hanks: Hollywood's Golden Boy. He also served as a writer on the award-winning Lifetime series, “The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd.”
He is the author of the plays Knockdown, Not Tunisia, In Aisle 4, The End of Our Rope, The Love Museum, and No Fault.
He is a contributor to Brooklyn: A State of Mind (Workman Press), an anthology of essays and anecdotes about the NY borough of Brooklyn, where he has lived since 1992.
Since 1999 he has taught screenwriting at NYU’s Undergraduate Film & TV Dept., Tisch School of the Arts. He is also currently a Visiting Professional teaching screenwriting at Montclair State University’s Dept. of Film in New Jersey. He is also a regular visiting adjunct to Hollins University’s MFA screen and television writing program.
He has been a teacher and lecturer of screenwriting at Columbia University’s Graduate MFA Film Program, New York’s Gotham Writers Workshop, Pratt Institute, and the Bushwick Film Festival. He has served on the judging panels of events such as the Fusion Film Festival (NY) and the Philadelphia Screenplay Festival.
Joe was born and raised in Greenwich Village, NY. He lives in Brooklyn