Biography of William Missouri Downs

William Missouri Downs holds an M.F.A. in acting from the University of Illinois and an M.F.A. in screenwriting from U.C.L.A. He studied playwriting under Lanford Wilson and Milan Stitt at the Circle Rep. in New York and was a member of the Denver Center Playwrights Unit. He has authored a dozen plays, including Jewish Sports Heroes and Texas Intellectuals which took first place at the Mill Mountain Theatre's Festival Of New Plays, Innocent Thoughts winner of the National Playwrights Award from the Unicorn Theatre in Kansas, and Seagulls In A Cherry Tree which won the Larry Corse Prize For Playwriting and is optioned by the Orlando Shakespeare Festival. Bill also wrote Kabuki Medea which won both the Bay Area Critics Award for best production in San Francisco and the Jefferson Award for best production in Chicago. Bill's plays have been produced from New York to Singapore, from the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts to the Berkeley Rep. In addition to writing plays, Bill is the author of the books Naked Playwriting and Screenplay: Writing The Picture both published by Silman/James. The also wrote the book The Art Of Theatre published by Wadsworth. In Hollywood, he wrote for such NBC sitcoms as My Two Dads, Amen and Fresh Prince Of Bel Air. He also won the Jack Nicholson Award for screenwriting. Bill lives in Wyoming.