AS PART OF THE FRONT AND CENTER CAMPAIGN, SARAH & JOHN LECHLEITER HAVE GIVEN A GIFT TO THE IRT IN HONOR OF JAMES STILL’S LONG-TIME RELATIONSHIP WITH THE IRT, CREATING THE JAMES STILL PLAYWRIGHT-IN-RESIDENCE FUND, WHICH WILL PROVIDE FUTURE SUPPORT FOR THE PLAYWRIGHT-IN-RESIDENCE AS WELL AS THE CREATION OF NEW WORK FOR THE IRT.
LEADERSHIP: JAMES STILL Playwright-in-Residence
Pulitzer Prize, and have been developed and workshopped at Robert Redford’s Sundance, the New Harmony Project, Eugene O’Neill Playwrights Conference, Seven Devils 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, Weston Playhouse Residency, 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, Australia, and New Zealand.
During his 22 years as playwright-in-residence, IRT audiences have seen three productions each of James’s plays Looking Over the President’s Shoulder and And Then They Came for Me: Remembering the World of Anne Frank; two productions of Amber Waves; and all three plays in his trilogy made up of The House That Jack Built, Appoggiatura, and Miranda. Also April 4, 1968: Before We Forgot How to Dream, I Love to Eat: Cooking with James Beard, The Velveteen Rabbit, The Heavens Are Hung in Black, Interpreting William, Iron Kisses, The Gentleman from Indiana, Searching for Eden, He Held Me Grand, and The Secret History of the Future. James has directed many productions at the IRT, including A Doll’s House Part 2, The Originalist, Dial “M” for Murder, 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 (2000). This season the IRT produces the premiere of The Little Choo-Choo That Thinks She Can, and James directs Twelve Angry Men.
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 Center Stage in Oregon, Portland Stage in Maine, the Station, the Asolo, Company of Fools, the Children’s Theater Company of Minneapolis, Metro Theater Company, B-Street Theatre, Theatrical Outfit, Arkansas Rep, the Round House, American Blues, Shattered Globe, Illusion Theater, and the Mark Taper Forum. His plays are also often produced at community theatres, summer theatres, universities, and high schools.
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
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 TLC 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.
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James’s short play When Miss Lydia Hinkley Gives a Bird the Bird has appeared in several festivals around the country after its premiere with Red Bull Theatre in New York. New work includes an adaptation of the classic Black Beauty commissioned by Seattle Children’s Theatre where it premieres this season, as well as new plays (A) New World and Dinosaur(s) and several secret new projects.