Jill Elaine Hughes, Playwright

JILL ELAINE HUGHES’ plays have received productions and staged readings in New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Seattle, Atlanta, Boston, Phoenix, Ohio, Toronto, the United Kingdom, and elsewhere. Her short plays are particularly popular, receiving productions at professional theatres nationwide as well as numerous colleges and universities. Ms. Hughes also founded the nationally renowned Stockyards Theatre Project, Chicago’s only theatre company dedicated exclusively to women’s theatre and performance art in 1999, and served as its artistic director/producer for five years. She served three years as President of Chicago Women’s Theatre Alliance (2000-2003) and formerly served as Treasurer on the executive board of the International Centre for Women Playwrights (ICWP).  Her plays and monologues have been excerpted and anthologized by Smith & Kraus, Applause Books, and Meriwether Publishing, and she has written plays for the high school drama market which are published and licensed by Brooklyn Play Publishers.  

She is currently the only American playwright to have her work included in three consecutive editions of Applause Books' prestigious BEST AMERICAN SHORT PLAYS anthologies, where she is privileged to share pages with such dramatic powerhouses as Neil LaBute, John Guare, David Lindsay-Abaire and David Ives, among others.  She is also a member of Chicago Writers' Bloc, a playwrights' collective.

Ms. Hughes' work has recently been staged at Mind The Gap Theatre and Love Creek Productions (both in New York City), Regroup Theatre (Los Angeles) and the Theatre of Western Springs (near Chicago, IL)

Below are some production stills from a few of her recent play productions:

   "Circle Line" at Mind The Gap Theatre, NYC

   "This Is Your Lifetime" at Bailiwick Arts Center, Chicago

        "Third Trimester, Second Thoughts" at Insurrection Theatre, Phoenix, AZ