WRITING A PLAY for the theatre is a unique type of writing. Unlike prose or poetry, playwriting is not written for one reader but for live actors to perform in front of a live audience. JAMES SHERMAN (award winning playwright and founding member of the Playwrights Ensemble of Victory Gardens Theater) will show you the building blocks of this special art form. Through lecture and demonstration, Sherman will explore the distinct challenges and potential rewards of writing for the theatre.
James Sherman is the author of the plays Magic Time, The God of Isaac, Mr. 80%, The Escape Artist, Beau Jest, This Old Man Came Rolling Home, Jest A Second!, Romance in D, From Door to Door, The Old Man's Friend, Affluenza!, Half and Half, Relatively Close, and Jacob and Jack.
Since 1986, he has been a Playwright-in-Residence at the Tony Award-winning Victory Gardens Theater in Chicago and he is proud to be a member of the Victory Gardens Playwrights Ensemble.
James currently teaches Playwriting and Improvisation at Columbia College of Chicago and The Theatre School at DePaul University. He has been a teacher of playwriting and acting on the faculties of The Second City Training Center, Chicago Dramatists Workshop, and Victory Gardens Theater. He was a visiting professor for the Spring ’01 semester in Seoul, South Korea, at the Korean National University of the Arts. He has led workshops in improvisation at the Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California.
He has been the recipient of fellowships from The MacDowell Colony, the Ragdale Foundation, The Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and Yaddo. He is a member of The Dramatists Guild of America.
