As an actor, James Crawford has appeared on professional stages across the country, tackling over one hundred roles, as diverse as Benedick in Much Ado about Nothing, George in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, and Mitch in A Streetcar Named Desire.  He has collaborated with such nationally acclaimed directors as Tina Landau, Robert Woodruff, Des McAnuff, Scott Schwartz, and Stan Wojewodski.  Based in Dallas for many years, he performed in fifteen productions at the Dallas Theater Center, as well as many other theaters in the region.  He was awarded a Dallas/Fort Worth Critics Forum Award, a Leon Rabin Award, and was named Best Actor by D Magazine, the Dallas Voice and the Dallas Observer.  He has made occasional appearances on screen, but has kept the focus of his work squarely on his first love, theatre.

As a director, James has enjoyed sinking his teeth into the work of Caryl Churchill, Tom Stoppard, Moliere, Oscar Wilde, Arthur Miller, Timberlake Wertenbaker, Kander, Ebb & Masteroff, Naomi Iizuka, Wallace Shawn, Beth Henley, Jane Martin, Peter Shaffer, Douglas Carter Beane, Simon Stephens, William Shakespeare, Joe Orton, and the Five Lesbian Brothers.

A graduate of Brown University, James received his MFA from the University of California at San Diego.  He has taught acting at Muhlenberg College, the University of North Texas, and Southern Methodist University, where he became an Associate Professor and Head of the MFA and BFA Acting programs.  In 2016, he became an Associate Professor of Theatre at the University of the South, aka Sewanee.  He has taught everything from Shakespeare to Stanislavski to Meisner to Improvisation.  His students affectionately mock him for his habit of asking them to raise the stakes of their scenes, and for pushing them to make choices that are “juicy” and “loaded.”  He smiles, listens patiently, and stands by his preference for acting that is bold, impulsive and theatrical. 

PRESS

My thanks to Ace Anderson for his work on the design of this website, and to the many theatre artists whose work appears here. Some of the professional and student photographers whose work is on display include Mark Oristano, Linda Blase, Robbie Glen, Michael Scott Evans, George Wada, Jeffrey Schmidt, Mark Trew, Buck Butler, Lyn Hutchinson, Alex Ding, David Andrews, and Alena Kochinski.