John has been an award-winning Canadian playwright since 1970, a screenwriter since the early ‘80s, and a teacher of playwriting and screenwriting since the early 1990s. He is also known as a critic and essayist.
He was born in Montreal in 1947, and graduated from the Acting program of the National Theatre School in 1969. He spent 30 years in Vancouver, working as a playwright, screenwriter, teacher, theatre critic and actor. In 2000 he moved to Kingston, Ontario, to teach at Queen’s University. He retired from full-time teaching in 2021, and continues to write and teach workshops.
John’s plays have been produced across Canada and the United States, and in England, France, Germany, Italy, Israel, Japan, Singapore and other countries, and have won numerous awards. Some of them have been landmarks in Canada’s theatre history. For many years, his one-act Babel Rap was the most frequently-produced Canadian play. With Dreaming and Duelling, he became the first Canadian playwright to be produced by the Shaw Festival. Village of Idiots has won numerous awards in different incarnations as a stage play, a CBC Radio mini-series and an animated cartoon short. He has written screenplays for CBC Television, the National Film Board, Nelvana, and other producing companies.
As an instructor in the craft, John has taught playwriting and screenwriting to thousands of students, many of whom have gone on to major careers as playwrights, screenwriters, film and television producers, artistic directors of theatre companies, and creators of devised theatre.
As a critic, John wrote for 12 years for various media outlets in Vancouver, primarily CBC radio; and as an essayist and commentator, he has written for the Kingston Whig-Standard, Huffington Post, and other publications.
In his retirement from full-time teaching, John continues to write plays, teach playwriting workshops, and adjudicate drama festivals. His book Two Ways About It: The Inside and Outside of Playwriting was published in October, 2023 by J. Gordon Shillingford Publishers.
John’s other interests include classical music and jazz, drawing, contemporary art, crossword puzzle construction, bicycling, and the study of Latin. He lives in Kingston, Ontario, with his wife Lin. They have children and grandchildren in Toronto and Vancouver.
To contact John directly, please email: lazarusj@queensu.ca