Jennifer Overton

location_on Nova Scotia, CA

Photographer: Helen Tansey

Jennifer Overton is an actor, author, playwright, essayist, and educator living in Halifax. Her professional acting credits span thirty years with major roles in theatre, television, and film. She holds an M.F.A. in Theatre Performance from York University and spent ten years on faculty in the Acting Program in the Theatre Department at Dalhousie University. Her initial writings about the challenges and joys of life with her autistic son aired to great acclaim on CBC Radio, turning into publication in magazines, journals, and her first book, Snapshots of Autism: A Family Album(2003, Jessica Kingsley pub.). God’s Middle Name (2010, Scirocco Drama), about her journey to acceptance of her son’s autism, was invited to Magnetic North and enjoyed a very successful Canadian national tour, earning Jennifer the 2007 Robert G. Merritt Award for Outstanding New Play and the award for Outstanding Production, as well as being twice shortlisted for the prestigious Lieutenant Governor’s Masterworks Award. It then ran at Nightwood Theatre’s 2013 Groundswell Festival. An abridged school version of the play toured with Theatre New Brunswick’s Young Company in 2014, then with Halifax Theatre for Young People for Eastern Front Theatre’s Stages Festival (June 2015). Other credits include Spelling 2-5-5, which toured across southeastern U.S. and southern Ontario; My Titanic, a solo piece reflecting her experience working on the blockbuster film; Minor Bird; and wrote on CBC Radio drama, Backbencher. She has served on the Board of Playwrights Atlantic Resource Centre and Playwrights Guild of Canada. 

Plays Available at the Canadian Play Outlet:

God's Middle Name

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Spelling 2-5-5

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