Joan Tewkesbury

Joan Tewkesbury has amassed credits as a writer, director, producer and choreographer in feature film, theatre and television. She began her career at age ten as a dancer in “The Unfinished Dance,” at MGM. She was an Ostrich and Mary Martin’s flying understudy in Jerome Robins’ Peter Pan, choreographed and danced in high and low end night clubs, the Fringe at the Edinburg Festival , has appeared in TV commercials selling coffee and once in a bathing suit. For Robert Altman she was a script supervisor on ”MCCABE and MRS. MILLER,” and wrote the screenplays for “THIEVES LIKE US” and “NASHVILLE”. She wrote and directed her first film, a documentary, ”HAMSTEAD CENTER”, regarding the work of Anna Freud. She directed her first feature film, “OLD BOYFRIENDS” that premiered at Directors Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival. For Network and Cable Television Tewkesbury wrote and directed films, “ACORN PEOPLE”; ‘THE TENTH MONTH” with Carol Burnett; “SUDIE AND SIMPSON” with Lou Gossett Jr. and Sarah Gilbert; “COLD SASSY TREE” with Faye Dunaway and Richard Widmark; “WILD TEXAS WIND” with Dolly Parton, “ON PROMISED LAND” with Joan Plowright and “SCATTERING DAD” with Olympia Dukakis. She wrote and directed “ her pilot “ELYSIAN FIELDS” for CBS and “WINDOWS” for HBO. She has directed numerous hours of episodic television and was the consulting producer and director for “THE GUARDIAN” with Simon Baker on CBS. For theatre she has written and directed her plays Off Broadway, wrote, directed and co-choreographed “DANCE CARD” for the Oregon Ballet Theatre and her play “JAMMED” was presented on the Fringe at the Edinburgh Festival. Recently it was presented as an expanded work at the Santa Fe Playhouse. Also she has written and performed “Car Talk “Terry Allen’s “Road Angel” installation in Austin Texas. Her first novel, “EEBA AND THE GREEN DRESSES OF OLIVIA GOMEZ IN A TIME OF CONFLICT AND WAR” was published by Hand to Hand Press. JULIO ROBALO OPENS THE DOOR TO HIS MOUTH is her second novel. Currently she teaches a class she created, ”DESIGNED OBSTACLES, SPONTANEOUS RESPONSE” throughout the United States and at “Sundance Labs” in Israel, Japan, Italy, Cuba,Poland and a filmmakers lab in New Zealand. She is an advisor for the various “Sundance Labs” and teaches her class for “The Los Luceros Milagro Initiative” in New Mexico. Her work has been honored by the Writers Guild, The Humanitas Award, the British Academy, Cable Ace, L.A. Critics Award, Golden Globes and the Academy Awards.