Jim leonard jr playwright biography

Jim Leonard has published eight plays, including The Diviners, And They Dance Real Slow in Jackson,andBattle Hymn, with his theatrical honors including the Outer Critics Circle Award, an Ovation Award, the Dramatists Guild Award, and an LA Weekly Award for best play.

The L.A. premiere of his powerful and poignantplay Anatomy of Gray is being presented by Open Fist Theatre Company, directed by Ben Martinfor a November 19, 2022 opening at Atwater Village Theatre.

Anatomy of Gray was originally staged at Circle Repertory Theatre in New York, and has subsequently been staged at American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco, and at A Contemporary Theatre in Seattle.

Leonard is currently adapting it into a musical with composers and lyricists Beth Thornley and Robert Cairns, with whom he collaborated on the musical Bad Apples.

I decided to speak with him about his