Today’s guest began his professional career as a writer and actor with Chicago’s The Second City.
His first full-length play, “Magic Time,” premiered at Brandeis University and was subsequently produced Off-Broadway. His next play, “The God of Isaac” premiered in 1985 at the Tony Award winning Victory Gardens Theater.
A founding member of the Victory Gardens Playwrights Ensemble he premiered a dozen plays there between 1985-2010. His plays have been published and are regularly produced by theaters throughout the United States and have also been seen in Canada, Mexico, Australia, South America, England, Germany, Austria, Poland, Turkey, South Africa, Australia, China, and Korea.
In the summer of 2006, he wrote and directed the movie of what is arguably is most popular play, “Beau Jest”, starring Lainie Kazan, Seymour Cassel, and Robyn Cohen.
Finally, he teaches classes in Playwriting and Improvisation at Columbia College of Chicago and DePaul University and is a member of The Dramatists Guild of America.
His newest play, “The First Lady of Television”, makes its world premiere at the Northlight Theatre, opening September 4th and runs through October 5th. For tickets, visit https://northlight.org
I hope you enjoy my conversation with playwright, James Sherman. Let’s go to the top of the show!