Joel Drake Johnson is a new member of the Victory Gardens Playwrights Ensemble. The theater has produced three of his plays: Before My Eyes (Jeff nomination), The End of the Tour (Jeff nomination) and now Four Places (a finalist in the National Art’s Club’s Best New Play of 2006). All three plays were directed by Sandy Shinner. He got his start as a writer at Chicago’s critically acclaimed Econo-Art Theatre under the artistic direction of Lynn Baber, Barb Reeder and Marc Silvia. Econo-Art produced his plays Beautiful Dreamer and Blind Hearts. As the Beaver, a critical and popular hit for Chicago’s Zebra Crossing Theatre was also produced at the Burbage Theatre in LA and the Vortex Theatre in Austin, TX. Other plays have been produced at the New Playwrights’ Theatre in Ashland, Oregon; the Haunted Space in LA; the West Bank Theatre and The Ensemble Studio Theatre in NYC; Manbites Dog in Durham, and the Milwaukee Repertory Theatre. Johnson won Illinois Arts Council grants for Blind Hearts, The Fall to Earth and A Blue Moon. A Blue Moon was first produced at the Chicago Dramatists Theatre and, in the fall of 2002, it was nominated for Best New Work by the Joseph Jefferson Committee. The Jeff Award winning production of The Fall to Earth was first produced (in an extended run) by Steppenwolf (2004). It was published by Broadway Play Publishing in the fall of 2006. Steppenwolf Theatre subsequently commissioned Johnson to write A Blameless Life and Tranquillity Woods which they produced in the summer of 2005 and 2007. The End of the Tour was chosen for inclusion in the anthology New Plays From Chicago and was published once again by Broadway Play Publishing Company. The Road Theatre is presenting the West Coast Premiere of The End of the Tour as part of their 2007-08 season. Johnson is a member of The Dramatists Guild, Pen America Center and the Chicago Dramatists advisory board. He has taught playwriting at Northwestern University, DePaul University and Stevenson High School in Lincolnshire. He lives in Chicago and New Buffalo, Michigan where he is working on a third commission from Steppenwolf Theatre.
Recently, his new play Four Places which had its premiere at VG this past spring was nominated for Best New Work by the Jeff Awards. In the spring of 2008, it will be produced at The Barter Theatre and published by Northwestern Press. Nicolas Gessner, French stage and movie director, recently translated the play into French. The End of the Tour produced at VG in 2003 will be produced by The Evolution Theatre at the Columbus Performing Arts Center in Columbus, Ohio.
Plays:
Blind Hearts, 1990
As the Beaver, 1994
Before My Eyes, 1998
A Blue Moon, 2002
The End of the Tour, 2003
The Fall to Earth, 2004
A Blameless Life, 2005
Tranquillity Woods, 2007
The First Grade, 2007
Four Places, 2008
A Guide for the Perplexed, 2008
