janece shaffer

playwright/screenwriter/storyteller

Bio

Janece ShafferAward-winning and internationally produced playwright, Janece Shaffer draws her inspiration from her deep roots in the red clay of Atlanta, Georgia.   A third generation Atlantan, her sense of place and lifelong relationships give her narratives a knowing depth and an honest empathy. 

She has written more than a dozen works that take on topics as varied as how a forbidden bicycle ride could hold the promise of freedom to the proper young women of 1895; how one uber-successful female business exec was forced to sell the entire contents of her McMansion on EBay thanks to her new unemployment in the 2007 recession; how one woman finds the courage to have hot sex at 70 – when things that were “once up here are now down there”; how a Jewish tailor sets out to sell his American Dream of bedazzling a Bible-loving Nashville circa1951; and how “nice” white women try to make race relations better by smiling widely at the black man on the street corner as they surreptitiously lock the car door with their elbows.  What unites all of Shaffer’s work are big-hearted characters and inevitable laughter in the darkest of moments.

Shaffer has had seven world premiere productions at the Tony Award-winning Alliance Theatre, most under the direction of Susan V. Booth, and her work has gone on to be produced around the country.  Shaffer’s new musical, Troubadour, features music by Grammy Award-winning artist and Sugarland star, Kristian Bush, and premiered at the Alliance in January/February 2017.   Shaffer followed up Troubadour with a second world premiere production at the Alliance Theatre - a musical for young audiences titles, Cinderella and Fella.

Shaffer has also spent the last 20 years as a writer/editor/marketer crafting stories in a variety of settings -- as part of a global public health non-profit, a major arts institution, an internationally respected academic institution and as part of an entrepreneurial for-profit company.  In January 2016, she leveraged all of this experience to launch her company ARC, where as Chief Story Crafter, Shaffer collaborates with companies and individuals to create impactful stories for professional success.

Production:The Geller Girls with Playwright Janece Shaffer & Director Susan Booth
Production:The Geller Girls with Playwright Janece Shaffer & Director Susan Booth
Production:The Geller Girls with Playwright Janece Shaffer & Director Susan Booth
Production:The Geller Girls with Playwright Janece Shaffer & Director Susan Booth
Production:The Geller Girls with Playwright Janece Shaffer & Director Susan Booth
Production:The Geller Girls with Playwright Janece Shaffer & Director Susan Booth
Production:The Geller Girls with Playwright Janece Shaffer & Director Susan Booth
Production:The Geller Girls with Playwright Janece Shaffer & Director Susan Booth
Production:The Geller Girls with Playwright Janece Shaffer & Director Susan Booth