Torpor (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780996758314)

Jerry L. Crawford, a native Iowan, went from a one-room elementary, country schoolhouse without electricity and plumbing to a small high school of fifty students, thence to Drake University for a B.F.A. in Acting, an M.A. in Directing from Stanford University, and a Ph.D. in Playwriting from The University of Iowa. He is a two-year veteran of the United States Army. He then taught for thirty-two years at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, heading the acting and directing program prior to founding the MFA program in Playwriting. Crawford served fifteen summers as Director of Literary Seminars and advisor to the Plays in Progress program at the Utah Shakespeare Festival. He also served at UNLV for three years as Dean of Faculty. Commensurate with his service there, he spent four different years on Sabbatical in New York City as a professional playwright represented by Robert A. Freedman Dramatic Agency, Inc. He was a resident playwright at The Actors Studio, Circle Repertory Company, and the Hartman Theatre, with his plays done in theaters in Edinburgh, Baltimore, Akron, Las Vegas, Fresno, Stockton, Cedar City, Indianapolis, Missosula, Helena, Lawrence, and Baton Rouge, among others. Author of thirty-six plays, a novel in play form, and Past Light, a memoir, Torpor is his first novella. Winner of many awards as actor, director and writer, he is author of the text, Acting in Person and In Style, 5th edition, Waveland Press. Crawford spent over twenty years as theater critic around the country for the American College Theater Festival and The American Community Theater Association. He served in national roles of leadership for ACTF. Crawford is Dean Emeritus of The College of Fellows of the American Theater at the Kennedy Center. In his retirement, he is also known as a film critic under the banner, "YOOPER CRITIC SEES..." He is currently Adjunct Professor of Theater and English at Northern Michigan University. A lifelong fan of the Cleveland Indians, he traveled twice with the team through spring training as a sports journalist assisting famed sports writers, Terry Pluto and Sheldon Ocker. His wife of fifty-five years, Patricia, passed in 2011. He has a son, two daughters, and five grandchildren. Crawford is currently working on a new comedy for the theater, The Deal. He is aided in this by his faithful and talented dog, Foo Foo.