Neil Simon, one of America’s most celebrated comic writers, has more than a dozen smash hits on on both screen and stage. He’s a phenom long studied by University of North Dakota English professor Susan Koprince, who’s developed a nationally noted reputation as a scholar of Simon’s work.

Born in 1927, Simon had a string of successes over the last four decades—The Odd Couple, The Goodbye Girl, Sunshine Boys, and more recently Rose’s Dilemma, to name a handful.

But one of his best works, revived on Broadway late last month, closed after only a week, shocking the playwright and critics alike.

That unexpected shuttering focused attention on Koprince’s expertise about all things Simon.  The New York Times, in its Nov. 2 story about the unexpected early closing of Simon’s “Brighton Beach Memoirs”—a huge hit when it premiered in 1983—quoted Koprince, whose scholarship on Simon is well known, as follows:

"American sensibilities about comedy change so rapidly, especially in the cultural centers on the  East Coast and West Coast where people are always looking for the next new style of humor,  whereas Neil Simon’s brand of humor is pretty unchanging,” said Susan Koprince, author of  'Understanding Neil Simon' and a professor of English at the University of North Dakota."

To read the full story, see http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/02/theater/02simon.html?_r=1&ref=theater

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Contacts:
Susan Koprince, professor
Department of English
College of Arts and Sciences
(701) 777-3321 (English office)
(701) 777-2765
susan.koprince@und.edu

Juan Miguel Pedraza
Office of University Relations
(701) 777-6571 (office)
(701) 740-1321 (cell)
juanpedraza@mail.und.edu