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, From Door to Door, The Old Man’s Friend, Affluenza!, Half and Half, Relatively Close, and Jacob and Jack. In 2006, James wrote and directed the movie of his play, BEAU JEST, starring Lainie Kazan, Seymour Cassel, and Robyn Cohen. James has an M.F.A. in Theatre from Brandeis University and an M.A in Library and Information Science from Dominican University. He was a founding member of the Victory Gardens Playwrights Ensemble and is a member of the Dramatists Guild. Currently teaching playwriting and Improvisation at Columbia College of Chicago and DePaul University, he has taught Playwriting and Acting at 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. He has led workshops in Improvisation at the Esalen Institute, Big Sur, CA. James has been the recipient of fellowships from The MacDowell Colony, The Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, The Ragdale Foundation, The Byrdcliff Art Colony, and Yaddo.
