James DeVita

James DeVita, a native of Long Island, NY, is an author and an actor. He is a core company member and literary manager at American Players Theater, a classical repertory theater. Jim has worked as an actor in Japan, Germany, Australia and around the United States. Along with his three novels, A Winsome Murder, The Silenced, and Blue, Jim has also worked extensively as a playwright for young audiences. His work in the field has been acknowledged with The Distinguished Play Award from The American Alliance of Theater and Education; The Intellectual Freedom Award by the Kentucky Council of Teachers of English/Language Arts; the Shubert Fendrich Memorial Playwrighting Contest, and The American Alliance of Theater and Education honored his body of work with the Charlotte B. Chorpenning Award. His adult plays for the stage include: In Acting Shakespeare; The Desert Queen (the life of Gertrude Bell); Dickens In America; and Waiting for Vern, The Gift of the Magi (musical adaptation). Some of his plays for youth include: The Thief Lord; A Midnight Cry (The story of the Underground Railroad); Rose of Treason (The true story of Sophie Scholl and The White Rose); Trials: the story of Joan of Arc, and Beth; A Little House Christmas; The Prince and the Pauper; Zero Tolerance (Youth violence); Wonderland! (Musical based on Lewis Carroll 's work); The Christmas Angel; Treasure Island; Dinosaur!; The Three Musketeers; Looking Glass Land; Bambi, A Life in the Woods; Arthur: The Boy Who Would Be King; Swiss Family Robinson; Pollyanna, Tom Sawyer; Huckleberry Finn. He is also a recipient of the National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellowship for Fiction. His education began as a first mate on the charter boat JIB VII out of Captree Boat Basin, Suffolk County, NY, where he worked for five seasons. He then studied theater at Suffolk County Community College. Long Island, where he received an AS degree, then the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Professional Theater Training Program where he received a BFA. He also attended Madison Area Technical College where he was licensed as an Emergency Medical Technician.