JAMES A. LEVIN

Biography

Award-winning director, playwright and producer, James Levin founded the Cleveland Public Theatre in 1982, bringing innovative off-off-Broadway-style theatre to Cleveland after three years with Dario D'Ambrosi's Pathological Theatre Company in residence at LaMaMa ETC in New York City. He is currently director of the Gordon Square Cultural Arts District, the Artistic Director of Cleveland's acclaimed Ingenuity: A Festival of Arts & Culture, and the Executive Producer for Detroit Avenue Arts. He has launched many regionally recognized projects such as the New Plays Festival, Danceworks, the Performance Art Festival, the American Indian Festival, and Vaudeville at CPT.

Directing credits include Atomic Vaudeville, Marat/Sade, The Sam Shepard Festival, and Killer Joe. Except in the courtroom, he has not acted for several years, the last major part being the title role in The Triumphant Return of Blackbird Flynt by Peter Ullian.

He was written lyrics for various rock bands and for Let the Knowing Speak, a jazz cantata featuring Jon Hendricks, Jackie Byard and Phil Wilson, and scripts for CPT's late-night satire Titanic: The True Story and Up the Mountain, a project for the Y-Haven drug rehabilitation play.

With collaborator Linda Eisenstein, he has co-written lyrics and book to the musicals Lysistrata 2085, Star Wares: Life Without Television, The Chapel of Perpetual Desire presents a Liturgical Circus of Religious Fervour and Live Sex on Stage!, Star Wares: The Next Generation, and Discordia. The latter two won fellowships from the Ohio Arts Council.

Born in Cleveland, James is a graduate of Shaker Heights High School, the University of Michigan, and Case Western Reserve University law school.