Bruce Ward

BRUCE WARD has been writing about the AIDS epidemic since its inception. His one-act play, Paint By Numbers, first produced in 1983, was highlighted in American Theatre magazine as one of the first plays to acknowledge the developing epidemic. In the 1990s, Bruce performed his solo show, Decade: Life in the ‘80s in theaters, festivals, conferences and universities across the U.S. In 2007, his play Lazarus Syndrome was produced at Theater Alliance in Washington, D.C. and was the recipient of the 2007 2nd place VSA arts/Jean Kennedy Smith award, presented at the Kennedy Center. An excerpt from the play is included in a new anthology of literature from Art & Understanding magazine, published by Black Lawrence Press. Richmond Triangle Players, in Richmond, VA, produced the play again in March, 2016. As an educator, Bruce acted as the Director of the National AIDS Hotline from 1986-1988 and worked for a decade as an AIDS educator in both NYC and Boston. Bruce worked as playwright-in-residence for the SPARC New Voices festival in June 2015, mentoring young Virginia playwrights. Bruce has an B.S. in Theatre from Northwestern University, an M.A. in Creative Writing/Playwriting from Boston University, and an M.F.A. from the New School’s Creative Writing/Creative Nonfiction program in NYC. He is a member of Actors Equity Association, SAG/AFTRA and the Dramatists Guild. He has thrice been a Fellow at the Virginia Center for Creative Arts (VCCA) and was an artist-in-resident at Byrdcliffe Colony in Woodstock, NY. This past summer, he was a Writing Fellow in Auvillar, France, through a VCCA residency. He has recently completed a memoir chronicling his experiences during the first fifteen years of the AIDS epidemic.