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, DOOR TO DOOR, and THE OLD MAN'S FRIEND. His newest play, AFFLUENZA! will open at the Victory Gardens Theater in the fall of 2003.

He 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 Playwright-in-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 27-year history. It played for one year in Chicago and then played for two and a half years Off-Broadway 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.

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.

Visit the press page for more info on James Sherman and his plays.

Illustration by Sasha Rubel