John O'Keefe (born 1940) is an American playwright, director and solo performer. Notable awards include the 2002 Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award for ''Times Like These'', and a Bessie Award for ''Shimmer'', which was also made into a motion picture by American Playhouse. Born in

Waterloo, Iowa Waterloo is a city in and the county seat of Black Hawk County, Iowa, United States. As of the 2020 United States Census the population was 67,314, making it the eighth-largest city in the state. The city is part of the Waterloo – Cedar Fall ...

, in 1940, O'Keefe was raised in a series of Catholic orphanages and juvenile homes. He began singing in church choirs at the age of five and pursued his musical interests, subsequently receiving a vocal scholarship at the

University of Iowa The University of Iowa (UI, U of I, UIowa, or simply Iowa) is a public research university in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1847, it is the oldest and largest university in the state. The University of Iowa is organized into 12 coll ...

, where he earned a BA degree in philosophy and an MFA in theater. O'Keefe moved to

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

in the early 1970s, beginning an affiliation with the

Magic Theatre The Magic Theatre is a theatre company founded in 1967, presently based at the historic Fort Mason Center on San Francisco's northern waterfront. The Magic Theatre is well known and respected for its singular focus on the development and produc ...

that continues to this day. O'Keefe also co-founded the Blake Street Hawkeyes, a performance-lab ensemble based in Berkeley. He wrote the libretto for ''Chrysalis'', a new opera written with Clark Suprynowicz for the Berkeley Opera in 2006.

Major works

* ''The Man in the Moon'' (1983) * ''

Shimmer Shimmer may refer to: * ''Shimmer'' (play), a 1988 play by John O'Keefe * Shimmer (comics), a DC Comics super-villain * ''Shimmer'' (novel), by Eric Barnes * '' Shimmer Magazine'', or ''Shimmerzine'', a speculative fiction magazine * "Shimmer" ...

'' (1988) * ''The Promotion'' (1989) * ''The Bronte Cycle'' (2000) * ''Times Like These'' (2002)

References

External links

Official siteHawk-Eyed Optimist
at Backstage Magazine
John O’Keefe
at KQED Arts 20th-century American dramatists and playwrights University of Iowa alumni 1940 births Living people {{US-playwright-stub