Jan Buttram, Playwright
Her plays have been performed in New York City and across the U.S. Texas Homos (directed by Tony® award winner Melvin Bernhardt) received a rave review from Neil Genzlinger of The New York Times: “Ms. Buttram, despite the plot and the abundance of sex talk, has not really written a play about gay men at all. She has written about everyone who has a secret life – the closet alcoholic, the compulsive shoplifter, the illegal immigrant, the child-pornography collector – and the nightmare that envelops such people once they are discovered.” Her play The President and Her Mistress was named “A hoot—a feminist future fantasia!” by Backstage. Anita Gates of The New York Times lauded her play about Private Albert Cashier (aka Jennie Hodges) Private Battles—”[A] beautiful script, rich in observations about sex roles then and now.” Her family drama, The Parker Family Circus—was reviewed as, “the nicest kind of theatrical surprise, a compassionate, engaging portrait of the type of family that many contemporary playwrights treat as hopeless.”—CurtainUp
Her play Backwoods won the Roger L. Stevens Award from the Kennedy Center’s Fund for New American Plays. Lost on the Natchez Trace won the AB*IE for best play. Totally Cool, Captive, and Parker Family Circus are published by Samuel French. Her short plays and monologues are published by Smith and Kraus, and Heineman Books.
Founding Artistic Director Emeritus of Abingdon Theatre Company, she selected, wrote, acted and produced 87 new plays by American playwrights. She led the company to the Wuzhen Theatre Festival in Wuzhen, China and directed Brian Richard Mori’s Hellman v. McCarthy starring Dick Cavett and Roberta Maxwell: the production was chosen for WNET/Thirteen’s inaugural season of “Theatre Close Up.”
She is a member of the Dramatists Guild. Check out her most recent accomplishment, a VLOG on You Tube. Subscribe and “Like” please!
