John Schneider is the Shepherd’s dance writer. He is a longtime artist-in-residence and performing arts faculty member at Marquette University, and the founding director of the much-awarded Project Non-Violence in which youngsters from Milwaukee’s toughest neighborhoods create and perform theatre on subjects of concern to them. He is also leader of the John Schneider Orchestra, a 25-year-old cabaret-jazz band, and the creative director of the new Milwaukee Fringe Festival.
He was a founding member of the Milwaukee experimental theatre ensemble, Theatre X, and served as its artistic leader and resident playwright for most of 35 years. Theatre X presented original work internationally while maintaining an alternative art center in Milwaukee that supported artists in many disciplines. In 1995, he became the first person to receive the Milwaukee Arts Board’s annual Artist of the Year Award for contributions to the artistic life of the city. Other awards include a National Endowment for the Arts Playwright Fellowship, a Wisconsin Arts Board New Works Award, a Milwaukee County Artist Fellowship, a Rockefeller Foundation Playwright Grant, an OBIE Award with Theatre X and a Pulitzer Prize nomination.
His works have been presented by many theaters, universities and international festivals across the United States and in Canada, New Zealand, Japan, Great Britain, Germany, Sweden, Belgium and the Netherlands, and have been translated into Swedish, German, and Flemish. He also served as a panelist, screener and reporter for the National Endowment for the Arts for 20 years, providing him a wide-ranging immersive education in the American performing arts.
