New Harmony Project, Eugene O’Neill Playwrights Conference, the Colorado New Play Summit, the Lark in New York, Launch Pad at UC–Santa Barbara, Perry-Mansfield New Works Festival, Telluride Playwright’s Festival, New Visions/New Voices, Fresh Ink, and Write Now at the IRT. Three of his plays have received the Distinguished Play Award from the American Alliance for Theatre & Education, and his work has been produced throughout the United States, Canada, China, Japan, Europe, South Africa, and Australia. Other theatres that have produced James’s plays include the Kennedy Center, Denver Center, Geva, Cornerstone Theater Company, Ford’s Theatre, People’s Light & Theatre, the Barter, Pasadena Playhouse, Portland Stage, the Station, the Asolo, Company of Fools, the Children’s Theater Company of Minneapolis, Metro Theater Company, B-Street Theatre, Tricklock, Vermont Stage Company, the Round House, American Blues, Illusion Theater, and the Mark Taper Forum.
LEADERSHIP: JAMES STILL PLAYWRIGHT-IN-RESIDENCE During James’s 19 years as playwright-in-residence, IRT audiences have seen his plays April 4, 1968: Before We Forgot How to Dream, The House That Jack Built, I Love to Eat: Cooking with James Beard, The Velveteen Rabbit, The Heavens Are Hung in Black, Interpreting William, Iron Kisses, Looking over the President’s Shoulder (twice), The Gentleman from Indiana, Searching for Eden, He Held Me Grand, And Then They Came for Me: Remembering the World of Anne Frank (thrice), Amber Waves, and The Secret History of the Future. He has also directed many productions at the IRT, including The Mystery of Irma Vep, Red, Other Desert Cities, God of Carnage, Becky’s New Car, Rabbit Hole, Doubt, Bad Dates, Plaza Suite, The Immigrant, and Dinner with Friends, as well as his own I Love to Eat, Looking Over the President’s Shoulder (2001), and Amber Waves. This season the IRT produces his new play Miranda and he directs Dial “M” for Murder.
Recent premieres at other theaters include the Denver Center Theatre production of Appoggiatura which was a nominee for Outstanding New Play for the Henry Awards at the Colorado Theatre Guild. Appoggiatura is the second play in the family trilogy that began with the award-winning The House That Jack Built. The final play in the trilogy is Miranda which premiered earlier this year at Illusion Theater in Minneapolis. Also premiering recently was The Widow Lincoln at Ford's Theatre in Washington, DC. James's short play When Miss Lydia Hinkley Gives a Bird the Bird has appeared in several festivals around the country and was a finalist for the Heideman Award from Actors Theatre of Louisville. New plays in the works include (A) New World , as well as an adaptation of the classic Black Beauty commissioned by Seattle Children’s Theatre. James also works in television and film and has been nominated for five Emmys and a Television Critics Association Award; he has twice been a finalist for the Humanitas Prize. He was a producer and head writer for the series PAZ, the head writer for Maurice Sendak’s Little Bear, and writer for the Bill Cosby series Little Bill. He wrote The Little Bear Movie and The Miffy Movie as well as the feature film The Velocity of Gary. James grew up in Kansas and lives in Los Angeles.
James is an elected member of the National Theatre Conference in New York, and a Kennedy Center inductee of the College of Fellows of the American Theatre. Other honors include the Todd McNerney New Play Prize from the Spoleto Festival, William Inge Festival’s Otis Guernsey New Voices Award, the Orlin Corey Medallion from the Children’s Theatre Foundation of America, and the Charlotte B. Chorpenning Award for Distinguished Body of Work. His plays have been nominated four times for the Pulitzer Prize, and have been developed and workshopped at Robert Redford’s Sundance, the 8 Christina D. Harper, Tracey N. Bonner, Nick Vidal, and Nia Simmons in IRT's 2015 production of April 4, 1968: Before We Forgot How to Dream. Photo by Zach Rosing.