John Maxwell
Southern Actor and Playwright

"Oh, Mr. Faulkner, Do You Write?"

In 1981, John Maxwell began touring with "Oh, Mr. Faulkner, Do You Write?" after premiering it at New Stage Theatre in Jackson, Mississippi. Since that time, he has toured the show all over the world, taking it to twelve countries and almost all of the United States. He has performed at venues that include The Bottom Line (New York), The Smithsonian, Picolo Spoleto Festival, The Alliance Theatre, The Alabama Shakespeare Festival, and many others. He was honored to present the show at the Cultural Olympiad in Atlanta for an audience including nine Nobel Laureates and former President Jimmy Carter and his wife, Rosalyn.

Awards and Accolades

Mr. Maxwell, who holds a Master's Degree in Theatre from the University of Mississippi, has been the recipient of a Tennessee Williams Scholarship to study playwriting at the Sewanee Writer's Conference and is the 1992 recipient of the Susan B. Herron Playwriting Fellowship of the Mississippi Arts Commission. In 1989, his play The Salvation of Sunshine Billy was produced at the Heritage Repertory Theatre of the University of Virginia and received a W. Alton Jones Foundation Grant for New American Plays. His religious play Buck-nekkid was chosen as one of the top ten new plays when it was produced at the Atlanta Art Colony.

The Religious Monologues: Dramatic One Man Shows

John is the founder of Fish Tales Group, a nonprofit organization dedicated to revitalizing interest in the Bible through original drama. With this goal in mind, Mr. Maxwell has created The Religious Monologues, which bring a variety of Biblical characters to life: St. Paul (The Last Epistle), St. Peter (Fish Tale), John the Baptist (Flower Child), Barnabas (Giving, and the Son of Joy!), Judas (Me and My Shadow), and Joseph (Joseph, Father to the Stepson).