For nearly thirty years Shawn has worked throughout the country as a playwright, theatre designer, and director and has staged over one hundred productions with professional companies and universities. These include WOKEN GLACIER THEATRE COMPANY (Off-Broadway), THE GENE FRANKEL THEATRE (Off-Broadway), FREEMONT CENTRE THEATRE (Los Angeles), LOS ANGELES THEATRE CENTER, CAPE MAY STAGE (NJ), SPANISH REPERTORY THEATRE (Off-Broadway), URBAN STAGES (Off-Broadway), EGYPTIAN THEATRE COMPANY, UTAH FESTIVAL OPERA COMPANY, NEW ENGLAND CONSERVATORY OF MUSIC (Boston) and the LYRIC REPERTORY COMPANY, among others. 

 

Based in New Jersey and the Rocky Mountains, Shawn heads the MFA Program in Theatre and serves as Producer, Associate Department Head, and Professor at Utah State University with emphases in production, design, new play development, and playwriting. He often travels home to the East Coast for projects in New York and New Jersey and to run the National Playwrights Symposium at Cape May Stage where he also serves as the company's Literary Manager. At USU he founded and directs the FUSION THEATRE PROJECT, an ensemble of performers, writers, designers and directors who conceive and produce original plays about contemporary social themes.  In recent years he was selected as the Creative Artist of the Year as well as the Graduate Mentor of the Year by USU's Caine College of the Arts.

 

As a playwright his original scripts include THE SHUCK, STREETLIGHT WOODPECKER, HOW TO MAKE A ROPE SWING, DO NOT HIT GOLF BALLS INTO MEXICO, FEAR NOT BEASTS OF SAND, SCOPE, THE (obsolete) UNKINDNESS OF RAVENS, CHUMMING, and THE CROW SONG, among others. Shawn is a winner of the Edgerton Foundation New American Play Award and has been a national finalist for a David M. Cohen Playwritng Award, MetLife Nuestras Voces New Play Award, Stavis / National Theatre Conference Playwriting Award, Steinberg / American Theatre Critics Association Award, Osborn New Play Award, and Urban Stages Emerging Playwright Award. He is also a member of the DRAMATISTS GUILD OF AMERICA.

 

Shawn is originally from New Jersey and has lived at various times in New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Houston, Connecticut, Vermont, Utah, Texas and throughout the Caribbean. He holds an MFA from Brandeis University and In addition to his theatre work, he spent 18 years working as a professional sailor and outdoor leadership educator.