Derry, Charles

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DERRY, Charles

PERSONAL: Born in Cleveland, OH; son of Charles Homer (a tool and die maker) and Rose (a factory worker; maiden name, Iacano) Derry; companion of Thomas Kohn. Ethnicity: "Italian/Irish." Education: Northwestern University, B.S., 1973, Ph.D., 1978; University of Southern California, M.A., 1975.

ADDRESSES: Home—1455 Cory Dr., Dayton, OH 45406. Office—Department of Theater Arts, Wright State University, Dayton, OH 45435. E-mail—charles. derry@wright.edu.

CAREER: Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, lecturer in film, 1975-77; Wright State University, Dayton, OH, assistant professor, 1978-83, associate professor, 1983-89, professor of theater arts, 1989—, coordinator of motion pictures program, 1979—. Frameline (annual festival and film distributor), member; Dayton Playhouse, past member of board of trustees; director of films and stage productions. Work represented in photography and multimedia exhibitions.

MEMBER: Society for Cinema Studies, Canyon Cinema Cooperative, Yellow Springs Writers Group.

AWARDS, HONORS: Multiple grants from Ohio Arts Council, beginning 1984; Bronze Awards, Houston International Film Festival, 1986, for Cerebral Accident, and 1987, for Joan Crawford Died for Your Sins; Culture Works prize, 1997, for a photographic exhibition titled "Snapshots: We Are Here"; award from Ohio Theater Alliance, for God Bless Vivian Vance.

WRITINGS:

Dark Dreams: A Psychological History of the Modern Horror Film, A. S. Barnes (Cranbury, NJ), 1977.

(With Jack Ellis and Sharon Kern) The Film Book Bibliography, 1940-1975, Scarecrow Press (Metuchen, NJ), 1979.

(And director, producer, and designer) Cerebral Accident (experimental film), Canyon Cinema (San Francisco, CA), 1986.

(With Patti Russo; and director, producer, and designer) Joan Crawford Died for Your Sins (short film), 1987.

The Suspense Thriller: Films in the Shadow of Alfred Hitchcock, McFarland and Co. (Jefferson, NC), 1988, new edition, 2001.

Marty's Fifteen Minutes (screenplay), 1988.

A Picture of Andy's Earth: The Last Resort (screenplay), 1991.

God Bless Vivian Vance (one-act play), produced in Columbus, OH, at Reality Theater, 1993.

(And director) "Ten Memories of My Mother, in the Order I Think of Them" (play), in Art from Every Angle, produced in Dayton, OH, at Boll Theater, University of Dayton, 1998.

(And director) The Laramie Project (play), 2002.

Contributor to books, including American Television Genres, edited by Stuart M. Kaminsky, Nelson Hall (Chicago, IL), 1985; American Horrors, edited by Gregory A. Waller, University of Illinois Press (Urbana, IL), 1987; and Reclaiming the Heartland: Lesbian and Gay Voices from the Midwest, edited by Karen Lee Osborne and William J. Spurlin, University of Minnesota Press (Minneapolis, MN), 1996. Contributor of articles, interviews, short stories, and reviews to periodicals, including Writers Forum, Chattahoochee Review, Chiron Review, Portland Literary Review, Cinefantastique, Journal of the University Film and Video Association, and Harvard Gay and Lesbian Review. Member of editorial staff, Film Reader, 1976-77.