Jane Shepard
Encyclopedia
Jane Shepard is an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
playwright
Playwright
A playwright, also called a dramatist, is a person who writes plays.The term is not a variant spelling of "playwrite", but something quite distinct: the word wright is an archaic English term for a craftsman or builder...
, filmmaker and cartoonist
Cartoonist
A cartoonist is a person who specializes in drawing cartoons. This work is usually humorous, mainly created for entertainment, political commentary or advertising...
She was born in Galesburg, Illinois
Galesburg, Illinois
Galesburg is a city in Knox County, Illinois, in the United States. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 32,195. It is the county seat of Knox County....
.
Early life
Shepard's father, Paul ShepardPaul Shepard
Paul Howe Shepard, Jr. was an American environmentalist and author best known for introducing the "Pleistocene paradigm" to deep ecology. His works have attempted to establish a normative framework in terms of evolutionary theory and developmental psychology...
, was an American environmentalist
Environmentalist
An environmentalist broadly supports the goals of the environmental movement, "a political and ethical movement that seeks to improve and protect the quality of the natural environment through changes to environmentally harmful human activities"...
and author of the 13 books which have become landmark texts in the ecology movement.
Shepard grew up in Boulder, Colorado
Boulder, Colorado
Boulder is the county seat and most populous city of Boulder County and the 11th most populous city in the U.S. state of Colorado. Boulder is located at the base of the foothills of the Rocky Mountains at an elevation of...
, and trained as an actor, graduating from the American Academy of Dramatic Arts
American Academy of Dramatic Arts
The American Academy of Dramatic Arts is a fully accredited two-year conservatory with facilities located in Manhattan, New York City – at 120 Madison Avenue, in a landmark building designed by noted architect Stanford White as the original Colony Club – and in Hollywood, California...
in 1978 before turning to writing.
Works
She is best known for writing the Showtime original movie Freak City, which was nominated for a Writers Guild of America AwardWriters Guild of America Award
The Writers Guild of America Award for outstanding achievements in film, television, and radio has been presented annually by the Writers Guild of America, East and Writers Guild of America, West since 1949...
(2000) for Best Screenplay, Long Form; and for her book of plays Kickass Plays for Women.
Awards
A member of Circle Repertory CompanyCircle Repertory Company
The Circle Repertory Company, originally named the Circle Theater Company, was a theatre company in New York City that ran from 1969 to 1996. It was founded on July 14, 1969, in Manhattan, in a second floor loft at Broadway and 83rd Street by director Marshall W...
before its decline, her play productions in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
have included Eating the Dead; Ducks Crossing; and her one-woman autobiographical comedy The Idiot's Guide to the Brain, for which she received the Sloan Foundation Fellowship for plays on the theme of science and technology.
Other awards include The Frank Pisco Playwrighting Commission (2007); The Robert Chesley
Robert Chesley
Robert Chesley was a playwright, theater critic and musical composer....
Playwrighting Award (2005); the Berrilla Kerr Playwrighting Award (2003); The Jane Chambers Award (2001) for COMMENCING; New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowships in both playwrighting and screenwriting (1996, 2002); and a Writer's Guild Foundation Fellowship (1985).
She has written and directed a number of short films, including the 16mm film Nine, which received an Honorable Mention Award from the Rochester Film Festival. Also a cartoonist, her drawings have appeared in such national publications as The American Review, And Baby, Grand Slam baseball magazine, and on theatrical posters.