ROBERT JOHN FORD
PLAYWRIGHT COMPOSER LYRICIST PRODUCER
ABOUT
Robert John Ford is an award-winning playwright, composer, lyricist, and theatre producer. His stage plays and musicals - including "Caucus!," "Six-On-Six," "Utopia," "Adore Us! Line," and "Sleeping Dogs" - have been seen by more than 75,000 people throughout the world and featured in stories by The New York Times, The New Yorker, National Public Radio, and The CBS Morning Show, among others. His songs have been performed at Carnegie Hall and at cabaret clubs and events by notable Broadway performers including Jeremy Jordan and Laura Benanti. He is the recipient of numerous national recognitions, including the Ashland New Play Festival Award, the Cloris Leachman Award, the Vittum Award, and an Iowa Arts Council Fellowship.
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As a theatre administrator, RJF has held management positions at numerous theatre companies including the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego (15 years), the Theatre In Old Town in San Diego, the Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival, the Hangar Theatre, the Berkshire Theatre Festival, and Goodspeed Musicals. He currently administers RJFcreative, an umbrella limited liability company that represents all of his creative works, businesses, and contract work nationally.
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A native of Iowa, RJF splits his free time between Des Moines, where he is a theatre producer and activist, and New York, where he is a member of the BMI Lehman Engel Advanced Musical Theatre Workshop and The Dramatists Guild of America. Other notable conversation starters about RJF: he was a former successful contestant on "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire," had daily conversations with a serial killer for nearly a year, and had a nationally-televised moment with Vice President Kamala Harris.
UPCOMING
SHORT ANIMATED FILM
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A visit to a MAGA household on the eve of the 2024 Iowa GOP Caucus. YouTube - December 2023
NEWS
New animated short "'Twas The Night Before Caucus" to be released January 2, 2024 - Continuing a caucus-year tradition he began in 2004, Robert John Ford has created a new musical feature just in time for the 2024 Iowa Republican Caucuses. Rather than a stage musical as has been the tradition in the past, this year's ode to the caucuses is a short animated film, in which a MAGA family prepares for the upcoming political season. Produced with illustrator Bill Nelson and orchestrator & sound/video editor Lucas Tahiruzzaman Syed, the seven-minute film will be viewable on YouTube (click HERE) beginning December 28, 2023. - Posted 12/12/23.
RJF projects receive more than $50,000 from IAC - Since 2007, the Iowa Arts Council has awarded more than $50,000 in grants for RJF projects including productions of "Caucus! The Musical," "Six-On-Six," "Utopia - The Iowa Musical Revue," "Adore Us! Line," and "Rolf(e)." In addition, RJF was included in the first class of five Iowa Arts Council fellows in 2014. RJF is grateful to the Iowa Arts Council for its generous support. - Posted 3/15/23
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"Adore Us! Line" earns four BroadwayWorld Awards - Iowa Stage Theatre Company's production of RJF's "Adore Us! Line" has won four regional BroadwayWorld "Best Of The Decade" Awards including Best Original Script, Best Production Of A Musical, Best Ensemble, and Best Direction Of A Musical (Maxwell Schaeffer). To watch a full performance of "Adore Us! Line," click HERE. - Posted 1/31/22
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