Along the way his plays and films have picked up numerous awards and honors. His work has found particularly strong support in the San Francisco Bay Area where his play SLEEPWALKER premiered and where his feature film NIGHTINGALE IN A MUSIC BOX was the hit of 2003 Mill Valley Film Festival, giving it a boost (after it premiered at the Siskel Film Center) to the Slamdance Film Festival where it won the Jury Prize for Screenwriting in 2004. NIGHTINGALE went on to win several more awards, play internationally, including festivals in London and Israel, and find representation in the digital realm from John Sloss's Cinetic.
Hurt's latest project is a book published in hardback and in e-editions by Lybrary.com entitled ARTIFICE, RUSE & ERDNASE: The Search For One Who May Not Want to Be Found. It is a non-ficition investigation into the true identity of S. W. Erdnase, a Chicago writer who published his one known work, The Expert at the Card Table, in 1902. Incredibly the author has managed to escape detection for over a 100 years despite being the author of one of the most important books in the history of magic.
Hurt McDermott's plays have been produced in New York and Los Angeles as well as Chicago, where he received a 1999 Joseph Jefferson Citation for Outstanding New Work for his play WarHawks & Lindberghs. Other plays include the often produced repeat w/Madeline, which Daily Variety called an "hilarious and brilliant ... comedy", and Sleepwalker. His play Divertimento in Flat F was a SemiFinalist in the National New Play 2000 Festival. The Golden Watch Chain was nominated for the 2002 Kaufman & Hart Prize for New American Comedy before premiering in Los Angeles. His Fermat's Elevator was a Finalist for the 2002 Heideman Award at the Humana Festival of the Actors Theatre of Louisville. Most recently his English rendering of Aristophanes’ BIRDS was produced by Chicago’s acclaimed TUTA Theater Company.
Hurt's other feature films include UNTIL DAYBREAK, RECONSTRUCTION, and SERIOUS BUSINESS, which was the closing night film of the Rhode Island Film Festival.
Hurt McDermott has provided the video accompaniment for famed Serbian-American Composer Natasha Bogojevich's BAJALICA, a contemporary music piece for solo wind player, electronic drone and motion picture, which made its World Premiere Tour of Russia, Greece and the Balkans in 2007. So far it has been played in over 25 cities and theaters including at the Maryinsky Theater in St. Petersburg. It has played twice in Chicago and premiered in Boston premiered in March 2009. (It is easily accessible on You Tube). Hurt has also provided the text for Bogojevich's ORATORIO, which has been produced in New York City and Belgrade. Kirsten Broberg has set his poem How Still the Night as part of PAPAGENO'S GIFT, a projected prequel to Mozart's THE MAGIC FLUTE.
