William Missouri Downs

Infobox Writer
name = William Missouri Downs


birthname = William Missouri Downs
birthdate =
birthplace =
occupation = Dramatist, Screenplay Writer, Play write, Professor
nationality = American
period =
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awards =
notableworks =
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influenced =

Professor William Missouri Downs, also known as Bill Downs, is an American playwright, director and author. Professor Downs writes many types of plays including Kabuki, political theater and dark comedies. His plays have been produced all over the world and have won numerous awards, including the National Playwrights Award, The Norfolk & Southern Festival of New Works and the Larry Corse prize for playwriting. Bill is a member of the WGA and a full voting member of the DGA.

Education

He studied playwriting under Lanford Wilson and Milan Stitt at the Circle Rep in New York and was mentored by Lew Hunter at UCLA.

Involvement in Television

In 1987 Bill Downs began working for Picturemaker Productions as a Script Secretary and Production Assistant on the NBC television series Moonlighting. He worked this job for one season (1987-1988). From 1988-1989 Bill Downs worked for Interscope Pictures, once again as a Script Secretary and Production Assistant.

In 1989 Bill began work for Columbia Television. Here he was a staff writer for 23 edpisodes on the NBC sitcom, My Two Dads. In 1990 he finished writing for My Two Dads and in 1991 Bill began work for Paramount Studios as a Freelance Writer for the NBC television show Amen. A particular boast from Mr. Downs is that he was a freelance writer for the show for its 100th episode, starring Kareem Abdul Jabbar. In 1992 Bill Downs began work for Columbia Television on the NBC sitcom, The Fresh Prince of Bel Air (starring Will Smith). Bill Downs worked here for a year as a freelance writer.

Finally, Bill Downs was involved as Director, Producer, and Writer in 1992 for Social Grace. Social Grace was a theater-video project done by the University of Colorado as an inter-departmental production to give acting and directing experience to students.

As an Instructor

In 1991 Bill Downs left the Hollywood life-style behind in exchange for a teaching career. He began his teaching career in fall of 1991 as an Adjunct Professor at the University of Colorado Denver. He would work here for a full year Directing and teaching Introduction to Theater.

The following academic year (1992-1993), Mr. Downs left Colorado to go teach at the University of North Carolina. Here he would stay another year, teaching beginning and advanced classes in Directing and Playwriting, Dramatic Literature, Introduction to Theater, and do work as a Student Play Festival Producer.

Following on from the 1992-1993 academic year, Bill Downs returned to the mountain region of America, but this time to the University of Wyoming. From 1993-1997 he worked at the University of Wyoming as an Assistant Professor as the Head of the Playwriting program. In 1997 Bill Downs was promoted to an Associate Professor at the University of Wyoming and finally was promoted to Full Professor in 2004.

Bill Downs is still a professor for the University of Wyoming to this date, and teaches a range of classes, from Honors classes to Introduction to Theater, all focused around the performing arts. His Introduction to Theater class seems to be a popular one among students with these classes often full or nearly full, with 200 students being a normal class size. As a teacher Professor Downs is very confrontational and will often take the opposite point of view to a student just to force the student to think about why they feel their opinion is right. Professor Downs' confrontational nature can be seen by some as extreme, although on networking sites such as Myspace where people can "Grade your Professor", there are relatively few negative comments about Professor Downs, with a majority of comments being favorable.

Books

*2006 – THE ART OF THEATRE: THEN & NOW - Published by Wadsworth (the 2nd Edition will be published in 2009)

*2006 – EXPERIENCING THE ART OF THEATRE - Published by Wadsworth (the 2nd Edition will be published in 2009)

*2005 - "JAK NAPISAĆ SCENARIUSZ FILMOWY" - “Screenplay Writing The Picture” Translated into Polish by Wojciech Marzec. Published in Warsaw

*2005 - NAKED PLAYWRITING: THE ART, CRAFT & LIFE LAID BARE - Published by Silman/James

*2003 - SCREENPLAY: WRITING THE PICTURE - Published by Silman/James, Originally published by Harcourt Brace in 2000

*1998 - PLAYWRITING, FROM FORMULA TO FORM - Published by Harcourt Brace

Plays

*The 'M' Word

*Seagulls in a Cherry Tree

*Dead White Males

*Innocent Thoughts

*Chasing Pirandello

*Jewish Sports Heroes and Texas Intellectuals

*Kosher Lutherans

*Bare-handed Catch

*Headset: A View from the Light Booth

*Nights at the Round Table

*Little Family Secrets

References

* cite web
url=http://uwyo.edu/thd2/Downs/Resume.htm
publisher=University of Wyoming
title=William Missouri Downs Resume
accessdate=2008-06-30 Professor Downs' resume as posted on the University of Wyoming website.

* cite web
url=http://schools.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=schools.viewRatings&sid=5232&tid=355810&lname=D&hiddenschool=0&schoolName=University%20Of%20Wyoming&Mytoken=EAB07B12-1998-40DA-9BE2BE92B055A7DE26766080
publisher=Myspace
title=William Missouri Downs 'Grade'
accessdate=2008-06-30 A grade given to William Missouri Downs by members of the University of Wyoming who took a class by Professor Downs. [The grade reflects an overall opinion of each student, and the comments offer more specific feedback. It should be noted that these comments are generally unmoderated college student opinions, and as such profanity does occur at points. If this is likely to upset or offend you, please do not follow the link. Wikipedia and the authors of this article accept no responsibility for the material contained within the linked website.]

*cite web
url=http://www.afjt.com/mem/downs.htm
publisher=Association for Jewish Theatre
title=William Missouri Downs
accessdate=2008-07-01 A partial list of some of Bill Downs' plays.

Notes