Derek Ahonen

Early life

The son of Anna, a Children's Theatre Director, Ahonen was born in Chicago, Illinois. Having grown up around the theatre, Ahonen began performing in his mother’s plays from a young age. After graduating from Waubonsie Valley High School, Ahonen moved to New York City to continue his education at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts.

Career and The Amoralists

In 2006, Ahonen formed The Amoralists in New York City. The company was founded with the mission to "produce work of no moral judgment," and is "dedicated to an honest expression of the American condition..explor[ing] complex characters of moral ambiguity…" The Amoralists first gained attention in 2009 with Ahonen’s cult hit The Pied Pipers of the Lower East Side, which Time Out New York called “the happiest surprise of the season.” The New Yorker noted "the young company’s deep commitment and contagious exuberance brings to mind the vitality that distinguished the early off-broadway work of artists like Sam Shepard." The Pied Pipers of the Lower East Side has been revived by the company numerous times. In the spring of 2013 it opened at Madrid’s Teatro Espanol under the title Los Iluminados, where it had an extended run along with subsequent tours throughout Spain. Ahonen followed up The Pied Pipers of the Lower East Side with Happy in the Poorhouse, which The New York Times wrote "has a knockabout physicality that grabs your attention. But what holds it is the working-class poetry of Derek Ahonen’s script. Mr. Ahonen, who also directs, brings the populist instincts of a born entertainer. As in a performance by the vintage Brando, the tough-guy swagger of his production masks an achingly sentimental heart. He might be a contender yet."

The majority of Ahonen’s plays feature ensemble casts and characters living on the outskirts of society. Working-class people and blue color sentiment color most of his writings. His plays are often about the journey the characters are willing to take on their way to nowhere. His plays are plot-driven family melodramas about delusions and affairs of the heart, tragedies played at such a fever pitch that they spill into farce. In an interview with T. Nikki Cesare for TDR, Cesare writes "Ahonen himself could be a character in one of his plays. Compared repeatedly in mainstream reviews to a young Sam Shepard, Ahonen is ribald and charismatic, idiosyncratic and easy with the rough edges." In the same interview Ahonen says, "We (The Amoralists) like to say our plays are comedies full of tears and ideas. We set out for instant pudding, then we hope it has some intellectual substance-without being pretentious. We hope people care enough about the characters to go with them on their journeys, emotionally. When they leave the theatre, they’re still thinking about whether they like the character or not." Ahonen goes on to say, "I don't like stuff that thinks it's better than me. I really do consider a work I see for weeks after before I decide whether I like it or not. The biggest turn off for me is theater that isn't welcoming, that's cold and trying to teach me something through its distance. I like work that brings me closer to an artists ideas. And that's what I've dedicated my career to accomplishing. "

Works