Robert Ford is a playwright, novelist, actor, and director. He heads the Arkansas Playwrights' Workshop  and is Co-Founder and Artistic Director of TheatreSquared in Fayetteville. Bob's first play, Tierra del Fuego, won the prestigious Stanley Drama Award. He's won fellowships from the Heekin Group Foundation and the Arkansas Arts Council, was a James A. Michener Fellow for three years, and has been finalist for a number of other awards, including the Chesterfield Film Company Competition. His plays have appeared at Playwrights' Playground and the Abingdon Theatre in New York, and regionally at American Stage, Pennsylvania Stage Company, Hyde Park Theatre, Live Oak Theatre and many others. Most recently, TheatreSquared premiered his play My Father's War, about his father-in-law's WWII experiences. His new play, The Fall of the House, will be premiered by the Alabama Shakespeare Festival in 2009. Bob's well-received first novel, The Student Conductor (G. P. Putnam's Sons), was the first work to win both the Jesse H. Jones Award for Fiction and the Steven Turner Award for Best First Work of Fiction from the Texas Institute of Letters. It was named among the top ten first novels of 2003 by both Booklist and Library Journal and was a Barnes & Noble "Discover Great New Writers" selection.

Bob received his principle acting training in Meisner Technique from William Esper and acted at Indiana Rep, Princeton Rep, Montana Shakespeare in the Park and several other theatres before returning to graduate school in playwriting. He's also a professional flutist and may occasionally be caught performing with the North Arkansas Symphony, among other local bands.

Member Actors’ Equity and the Dramatists’ Guild.

 

Education:

M.F.A. in Playwriting and Screenwriting, Michener Center for Writers, University of Texas at Austin

M.F.A. in Acting, Rutgers University

M.Mus., Yale University

B.A., Principia College

Major areas of interest:

Playwriting, Directing, Acting

Classes taught regularly:

Theatre Lecture

Honors Theatre Lecture