Jeff Bergquist

Published and produced playwright, prize-winning poet, lyricist, librettist, and short story author; novelist; multi-optioned screenwriter; producer of theater, video, micro-budget features and short films, Jeff Bergquist has served as Artistic Director of New Playwrights Foundation since 1985. He received his Associate in Arts degree in English/Creative Writing at Colorado Mountain College, where he was Editor-in-Chief of CMC's arts/literary magazine and received awards for excellence in Creative Writing and Drama. As Feature Writer/Editor of the Estes Park Trail newspaper, he won Colorado Press awards for Best Feature Article and Best Editor. After earning a BA in Theater Arts at Colorado State University, Jeff obtained his MFA in Screenwriting at the American Film Institute's Center for Advanced Film Studies. At AFI he was awarded a full tuition waiver for the first year, and was one of only three students chosen to continue for a second year and complete the Master's degree. Since writing two original feature-length films at AFI, he has authored over 100 literary works, including plays, screenplays, novels, and treatments. Among his works for stage are Screaming Angels, presented by New Playwrights Foundation; My Enemies Have Sweet Voices and As the Stars Go Out One by One, both premiered at St. Mark's in New York City; and The Drunkard of Ferny Park, produced by The Gaslight Players in Estes Park, Colorado. During his tenure as Playwright-in-Residence of the Cebu Performing Arts Foundation (the Philippines), The Legend of Lam-Ang was produced and presented as part of the Los Angeles Festival. Later, Cebu Performing Arts staged Manilamen, a full-length play co-authored with Crispin Ramos, at Loyola Marymount University. Jeff also collaborated with Ramos on three commissions (Blind Corners, Blind Alleys, and Blind Spots) which were performed in Los Angeles and in the Philippines, and created a musical version of the O. Henry short story Gift of the Magi with lyrics and music written by Dan Marcus, which is performed every Christmas at Ramos' Garden Theater in Cebu. Commissioned feature film screenplays include The Last Contender, That Summer, Charles and Me, Operation Dragonfly, and When I Go Home for Fountainhead Productions; Miracle Man for Throw-Down Productions; Bambina Mia, Call Ya Later, and Luck Be A Lady for Piccini Productions; Love Game, From Womb to Tomb, and Shades of Day for V.M. Productions; and the narration for the documentary, Christmas Village USA, produced by Argentine Dream Productions. During this same time, Jeff was lucky enough to have landed leading acting roles in LORT repertory theaters across the country, including Denver Center Theatre, the Guthrie Theatre, and Mark Taper Forum. Among his stage credits are Cyrano de Bergerac (over 1,000 performances), Grisolan (The Duchess of Malfi), Felix (The Odd Couple), Tiger Jackie Brown (The Threepenny Opera), El Gallo (The Fantasticks), Jud Frye (Oklahoma), Eddie (View from the Bridge), and Long John Silver (Treasure Island). After a romp as Sir Toby Belch in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night at the Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum, Jeff returned to play Kurt Müller in Lillian Hellman's Watch on the Rhine, then Mr. Snobson in Fashion, or Life in New York by Anna Cora Mowatt; Crabtree in The School for Scandal by Richard Brinsley Sheridan; and Orgon in Molière's Tartuffe. He also performed in such independent films as Daybreak, written and directed by Michael James Kacey; Paul Bojack's Glass Necktie; Jon Stevens' award-winning Irish Whiskey; Ben Vaughn and Dan Marcus's Rambler '65; writer/director John Norvet's feature film debut, The Fortune Teller; and Dan MacCannell's Henry X. Jeff also co-wrote and acted in Phyllis Elliott's half-hour TV pilot, Aria 51 (yes, it's a pun) and was invited to premiere several roles in Keith Bilderbeck's original musicals, including Kosschay in Kosschay the Deathless, the Grey Wolf in The Firebird, the Alligator (and Zombies) in The Fountain of Youth, and Odysseus in The Odyssey, available from BabaYaga Productions. Among Jeff's recent musical stage appearances are Jigger in Carousel and Fredrik in A Little Night Music. Operatic roles performed in Los Angeles with full orchestra include the King of ancient Egypt in Verdi's Aida; the ghost of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, in Don Carlo; Dr. Grenvil in multiple productions of La Traviata; Silvano in Un Ballo in Maschera; Marullo in Rigoletto; Simone in Gianni Schicchi; and the Imperial Commissioner in Madama Butterfly. Jeff is the creator and executive producer of New Playwrights Foundation's award-winning feature-length documentary, "Volunteers for Verdi". In 2006 Jeff retired from his "day job" grinding out feature film scripts as a salaried co-writer, and has been able to work exclusively on his own projects.