WELCOME

Welcome to the website of my published plays. To read more about any script, or to learn how to read or produce one, click on the title. You will immediately be linked to its site in the publisher's online catalog. As you can see at the top of this page, Page 3 highlights one play from each of my wonderful publishers. The other pages separate my plays by their intended audiences. Take your pick and enjoy!

I was born in Helena, Arkansas. In my early years, we moved many times to keep up with fast-moving pipelines where my father worked. When I was to enter middle school, we settled in Memphis, and I was there until I graduated from the University of Memphis. I received my M.A. in Theatre from Kent State University a year later, then taught high school in Antwerp, Ohio. I went back to graduate school at Ohio State University, married a great woman, taught at Wisconsin State University at Eau Claire under a one year contract, and served two years at San Francisco State University . Afterward, we moved to Carbondale, Illinois, where my son was born and where I completed my Ph.D. in Theatre at Southern Illinois University under the brilliant playwriting professor Dr. Christian Moe. Finally we moved to Mobile, Alabama, where I spent the rest of my teaching career at the University of South Alabama .

I started writing and acting early and developed skits and short plays in elementary and middle schools. I won a few playwriting awards, but my first published play was Ferdinand and the Dirty Knight , which was chosen by the late Shubert Fendrich of Pioneer Drama Service. Since then I have been fortunate to have a large number of plays selected for publication.

Writing is a very lonely profession, done in the quiet solitude of my home “office.” But it is also very rewarding to see others take a script and create characters and actions for “my” people and to watch audiences (hopefully) enjoy and be thrilled by these characters. It serves for me the twin purposes of a great leisure activity and an outlet for whatever emotions, creativity, and thoughts may be crammed into this churning brain of mine and demanding release. I also enjoy reading, ballroom dancing, playing the violin, and acting in movies. See my acting experiences at www.RichardEJacksonActor.com .