| This is my official Writing Biography John Pekich A freelance writer, he has written and produced a variety of educational and promotional materials. He has also published more than 30 pieces in professional and mass-market publications. He has also written 9 screenplays, 13 novels, and 11 Sherlock Holmes novellas. He is a past recipient of a New Jersey State Council on the Arts Literary Fellowship for assistance in revising a three-act play, the Scrapbook. He has had that play, and nearly 30 more, produced in various locations in New Jersey, with the most recent Sherlock Holmes and the Capitol Gentlemen, last performed at the Sherlock Holmes Mystery Weekend, Cape May, New Jersey. He created and produced, at the Atlantic Community College, Mays Landing, New Jersey, the Playwright's Weekend, an annual event, showcasing one-act plays from Southern New Jersey playwrights; this Weekend ran for 10 years and saw more than 50 plays produced during that period. For 20 years, he performed as an actor in many of the Sherlock Holmes Weekend productions in Cape May, New Jersey. For ten of those years, he wrote and directed the mysteries. For 9 years, he was the writer and director--and occasional performer--of the Victorian Mystery Dinner Theatre productions, also in Cape May, New Jersey. He has conducted workshops in short story writing and playwriting for several writers' organizations, including the Editor's Desk, of Ocala, Florida. He has conducted creative writing seminars for the Teen Arts Festivals of both Atlantic and Cape May Counties, as well as serving as a critiquer of students' works. He has also conducted playwriting workshops for: The New Jersey School of the Arts; Summer Youth Programs; the Cape May County, New Jersey, Public Library; and the Cape May County, New Jersey, Middle Schools. He has taught nearly 40 playwriting workshops in New Jersey public schools, as part of the Artists-in-Education program sponsored by the New Jersey State Council on the Arts and the Young Playwrights Program, and the Cape May County Cultural and Heritage Commission. He has taught more than 70 Elderhostel workshops including topics on Sherlock Holmes, The History of Detective and Mystery Literature, Creating and Producing a Musical, Charles Dickens, Victorian Literature, Victorian Mystery Literature and Victorian Maritime Literature. He is an actor, having appeared in more than 30 productions in Southern New Jersey, including Whatever This Is, We're All In It Together, The Drunkard, My Fair Lady, Dirty Work at the Crossroads, Sherlock Holmes Mysteries, Victorian Mysteries, Dracula, and Witness for the Prosecution. He also directed more 24 plays in Southern New Jersey, with the most recent being Sherlock Holmes and the Capitol Gentlemen, recently performed in Cape May, New Jersey. He is a Summa Cum Laude graduate--and a member of Phi Beta Kappa--with a B.S. in Psychology (minor in English), from the University of Pittsburgh. He has earned an M. Ed. in Instructional Technology (minor in Creative Writing) from the University of Pittsburgh. He is also a member of the Dramatists Guild and the Authors League of America, Inc. John Pekich P.O. Box 119 Dennisville, NJ 08214 (609) 861-1491 jsail842@aol.com |
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BIO
