John Walch

John’s plays have been produced at theaters such as Center Theatre Group, The Public Theatre/Joe’s Pub, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Barter Theatre, TheatreSquared, Theatre @ Boston Court, Kitchen Dog, Florida Studio Theatre, Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and Off-Broadway at Urban Stages, among others. His work has been developed or commissioned through The Public Theater, Manhattan Theatre Club, New Harmony Project, Joe’s Pub/The Public Theatre, The Playwrights' Center, and the Theatre Royal Haymarket in London. His plays include: Circumference of a Squirrel, In the Book Of: Ruth Retranslated, The Dinosaur Within, TransAtlantic, The Nature of Mutation, Jesting with Edged Tools, Craving Gravy or Love in the Time of Cannibalism, A Hamlet: West of Why, Alice Threw the Looking Glass (a parody of Strunk and White’s The Elements of Style), as well as numerous one acts, musicals, collaborations, and shorts.

John’s short films, Carving and Angle of Attack were supported grants in the humanties and have won numerous national awards. He wrote and was story editor for the four-part PBS mini-series BrainWorks: The Theatre of Neuroscience, which was a collaboration with leading neurosurgeons at Washington University in Saint Louis and played in PBS markets across the country and is streaming on PBS.org.

Awards: Kennedy Center Fund for New American Plays; the American Theatre Critics Association’s Osborn Award; the Frederick Loewe Award in Musical Theatre for his musical DoubleTime with Grammy award winning composer Nile Rodgers; the Charlotte Woolard Award from the Kennedy Center recognizing a promising new voice in the American Theatre; The Arkansas Arts Council Playwriting Fellow; the Marc Klein Playwriting Award; and three Austin Critics Table Awards.

John is a two time Sloan Fellow, and was a James Michener Fellow at the Michener Center at University of Texas @ Austin, where he earned his MFA in Playwriting. John served as artistic director of Austin Script Works, and has taught playwriting at UT @ Austin, University of Iowa, and Bennington College, among others. John is a proud alum of New Dramatists in NYC, a current member of the Dramatists Guild, and currently heads the M.F.A. Program in Playwriting at University of Arkansas.

His newest play, The Metrics of Change, was supported through an Artists 360 Grant from the Mid-America Arts Alliance and a residency at Yaddo. Currently he is collaborating with Dr. Valandra, a professor of social work, on a play about golf and structural inequality tentatively titled The Sweet Spot: 18 Holes of Connecting Across Classand Culture in America.

Honors and Awards

Elizabeth Osborn Award –American Theatre Critics Association, NYC, NY

Kennedy Center Fund for New American PlaysAward– The Dinosaur Within. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Washington D.C.
Charlotte Woodard Award – The Dinosaur Within. National award recognizing a new voice in the American theater. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Washington D.C.
Frederick Loewe Award in Music-Theatre – DoubleTime. NYC, NY
Alfred P. Sloan Commission – The Nature of Mutation, Manhattan Theatre Club, NYC, NY
Austin Critics Table Award– “Outstanding Original Script,” The Dinosaur Within. Austin, TX
Austin Critics Table Award – “Outstanding Original Script,” Circumference of a Squirrel. Austin, TX
Austin Critics Table Award– “Outstanding Original Script,” Craving Gravy or Love in the Time of Cannibalism. Austin, TX
International Hemingway Festival Prize in Playwriting – Jesting With Edged Tools. Sanibel, FL
Callaway Award for Exceptional Contributions to the Community, New Dramatists, NYC, NY
Lippmann “New Frontier” Travel Award: Lipmann Family Foundation, NYC, NY
David Mark Cohen Awardfor Playwriting: Craving Gracy, Kennedy Center/American College Theatre Festival, Washington, D.C.
Best Short Film– Carving, Phoenixville Film Festival, PA
Best Regional Short Film– Carving, Fort Smith International Film Festival, AR
Best Short Comedy Film (Honorable Mention)– Angle of Attack, Oxford Film Festival, MS
Finalist, Heideman Award – Hazard, Aisle 17B, Angle of Attack. Actors Theatre of Louisville, Louisville, KY