Edwin Sherin

Edwin Sherin (born January 15, 1930) is an American theatre and television director and producer. Sherin's wife is actress Jane Alexander and his stepson is the similarly dubbed Jace Alexander, with whom he has collaborated on the television legal drama/police procedural Law & Order on thirty-two (32) separate occasions. He has directed many episodes of the television drama Law & Order, as well as directing for the stage, mainly on Broadway, including The Great White Hope, which starred Alexander in both the theater and film versions. Additional members of his family include the actress Maddie Corman, his stepson Jace's current wife.

Born in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, He began his theatrical career as an actor, playing small roles on Broadway in A Desert Incident, Face of a Hero, and Romulus.

He met Alexander while serving as the resident director at Washington, DC's Arena Stage, where he cast her and James Earl Jones in The Great White Hope. In 1968, he directed the play and its two stars on Broadway, and the production marked the start not only of his Broadway directorial career, but a long professional and personal relationship with Alexander as well.

He directed Alexander in The First Monday in October on Broadway in 1978, Hedda Gabler at the Hartman Theatre (Connecticut) in 1981 in the American Playhouse television movie A Marriage: Georgia O'Keeffe and Alfred Stieglitz, in 1991. and in the Broadway revival of The Visit.

While working at the Arena Stage, Sherin directed many plays, including The Wall (1963-1964), Galileo (1964-1965), St. Joan (1965 - 1966), Macbeth (1966-1967), The Iceman Cometh (1967-1968), and King Lear (1968-1969).

Sherin won the 1969 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Director for The Great White Hope and was nominated for a 1974 Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play (Find Your Way Home).

The Time of Your Life was revived in March 17, 1972 at the Huntington Hartford Theater in Los Angeles where Henry Fonda, Richard Dreyfuss, Ron Thompson, Strother Martin. Jane Alexander, Richard X. Slattery, Lewis J. Stadlen and Pepper Martin were among the cast with Sherin directing.

In 1974, Sherin directed a revival of A Streetcar Named Desire at London's Piccadilly Theatre with Claire Bloom, Martin Shaw, Joss Ackland, and Morag Hood. In 2009 directed Thom Thomas's A MOON TO DANCE BY at The Pittsburgh Playhouse and at The George Street Playhouse in New Brunswick, N.J. starring Jane Alexander.

Television

Sherin executive-produced 163 episodes of the popular NBC drama Law & Order, between 1993 and 2000. His television directing credits include all three editions of the current L&O franchise, Hill Street Blues, L.A. Law, Doogie Howser, M.D., Homicide: Life on the Street, and Medium. Movie- He directed Valdez Is Coming...with Burt Lancaste, Susan Clark.

Personal

The couple were married in March 1975 in Massachusetts. "The two met at Washington's Arena Stage 10 years ago when he was a producer-director and she was in the troupe." They have four children - Alexander's son Jace, a television director who frequently worked for him during his time with L&O, and his three sons, Tony, Geoffrey, and Jon, from a previous marriage.

Sources: Internet Broadway Database; Internet Off-Broadway Database

Broadway

• Prymate (2004)
• The Visit (1992 revival)
• Goodbye Fidel (1980)
• First Monday in October (1978)
• Do You Turn Somersaults? (1978) (Also The Kennedy Center)
• The Eccentricities of a Nightingale (1976)
• Rex (1976)
• Sweet Bird of Youth (1975 revival)
• Of Mice and Men (1974 revival)
• 6 Rms Riv Vu (1972)
• An Evening With Richard Nixon and... by Gore Vidal (1972)

Off-Broadway

• The White Rose and the Red (1964)

• "Internet Off-Broadway Database listing" Internet Off-Broadway Database, accessed April 11, 2011
• Jones, Kenneth."'Prymate' Quietly Closes on Broadway" playbill.com, May 10, 2004
• Gussow, Mel."Play: 'Goodbye Fidel' About Cuban Exiles; Between Parties" The New York Times (abstract), April 24, 1980
• Arbuzov, Alekseĭ Nikolaevich.Script Do you turn somersaults?: A play in two parts (books.google.com), Samuel French, Inc., 1978, ISBN 0-573-60832-6, p.4
• Barnes, Clive."Stage:Williams' Eccentricities" The New York Times (abstract), November 24, 1976, p. 23
• Barnes, Clive. "'Rex' by Rodgers Stars Williamson", The New York Times, April 26, 1976, p. 32
• Barnes, Clive."The Stage:'Sweet Bird' of Brooklyn" The New York Times (abstract), December 4, 1975, p. 53
• Kanfer, Stefan."The Theater: Brute Strength" Time Magazine, December 30, 1974
• Randall, Bob.Script 6 rms riv vu: a Comedy in Two Acts (books.google.com), Samuel French, Inc., 1973, ISBN 0-573-61545-4, p. 3
• "'An Evening With Richard Nixon and..' cast and crew listing" broadwayworld.com, accessed April 12, 2011
• "'The White Rose and the Red' cast and crew" broadwayworld.com, accessed April 12, 2011