Playwright/Author/Lecturer

1132 W. Roscoe Street
Chicago, IL 60657
(773) 549-0605
james@jamessherman.com
www.jamessherman.com

Biography

James Sherman began his professional career as a writer and performer with The Second City in Chicago and received an M.F.A. degree from Brandeis University. Since 1986, he has been a Playwrightin Residence at the Tony Award winning Victory Gardens Theater in Chicago and he is currently a member of the Victory Gardens Playwrights Ensemble. BEAU JEST was the most successful play in the theater’s 27year history. It played for one year in Chicago and then played for two and a half years OffBroadway in New York. BEAU JEST, MAGIC TIME, THE GOD OF ISAAC, MR. 80%, JEST A SECOND!, and ROMANCE IN D have been published and are regularly produced by theatres throughout the United States and have also been seen in Canada, Mexico, South America, England, Germany, Austria, Turkey, South Africa, Australia, and Korea. HALF AND HALF (on view this season at Arizona Jewish Theatre) is now available in acting edition form from Samuel French, Inc. RELATIVELY CLOSE recently premiered at the Victory Gardens Theater.  Scripts are available from Magic Time, Inc.

James has been a teacher of playwrighting 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.

A Playwrighting Grant from the Illinois Arts Council for 2002 was awarded to James, and THE OLD MAN’S FRIEND has won this year’s Streisand Festival of New Jewish Plays in La Jolla, 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, The Writer’s Guild, The Screen Actors Guild, and Actors Equity Association.

James lives in Chicago with his wife, actress Linnea Todd, and their sons, Isaac and Avery.

Play Roster

THE OLD MAN’S FRIEND
DOOR TO DOOR
ROMANCE IN D
BEAU JEST
JEST A SECOND!
MR. 80%
MAGIC TIME
THE GOD OF ISAAC
THIS OLD MAN CAME ROLLING HOME
HALF AND HALF
RELATIVELY CLOSE