John Weidman, Esq.
President of the Dramatists Guild of America

John Weidman is currently President of The Dramatists Guild of America, Inc. Council. He has written for the musical theater for almost thirty years. His career began in the Yale Law School library, where he wrote his first play, Pacific Overtures. The year after he graduated, he adapted the play as the book for the musical of the same name, Stephen Sondheim contributed the score, and it was produced and directed on Broadway by Harold Prince. Since then, he has written the book for a wide variety of musicals, among them Contact, which he co-created with director/choreographer Susan Stroman; Assassins, score by Stephen Sondheim, directed Off-Broadway by Jerry Zaks, on Broadway by Joe Mantello, and in London's West End by Sam Mendes; and Anything Goes, the Cole Porter musical for which he and Timothy Crouse contributed the new book for the Jerry Zaks production at Lincoln Center Theater and Sir Trevor Nunn's production at the Royal National Theatre in London.

Mr. Weidman has been nominated for three Tony Awards for Best Book of a Musical, and three of the shows for which he has written the book have won the Tony Award for either Best Musical or Best Musical Revival. When his kids were little, he began contributing to Sesame Street, receiving eleven Emmy Awards for Outstanding Writing for a Children's Program. He has served for the past eight years at President of the Dramatists Guild of America, the national association of playwright, composers, and lyricists writing for the living stage. He lives in New York City with his wife, Lila, and their two children, Jonathan and Laura. Mr. Weidman received a B.A. from Harvard College and a J.D. from Yale Law School.