Jill Bess, an Alaskan for over 30 years, was born and raised in Southern California where she received her B.A. in Drama from the University of California, Irvine. Originally trained as an actress and director, Jill fell in love with playwriting when she began raising her family, and was inspired to write her first play, the Nationally Award Winning one-woman musical, THE MOMMY DANCE (State, Regional and National awards for writing, acting and tech at AACTFEST). Jill's work has been read regularly at the Valdez, Last Frontier Theatre Conference for several years and includes 10-minute plays, one-acts, musicals and full length plays. Her play, Simple Melody, was a finalist for the Tennessee Williams One-Act Festival of plays. She has written regularly for the Alaska Overnighters and the...
Jill Bess, an Alaskan for over 30 years, was born and raised in Southern California where she received her B.A. in Drama from the University of California, Irvine. Originally trained as an actress and director, Jill fell in love with playwriting when she began raising her family, and was inspired to write her first play, the Nationally Award Winning one-woman musical, THE MOMMY DANCE (State, Regional and National awards for writing, acting and tech at AACTFEST). Jill's work has been read regularly at the Valdez, Last Frontier Theatre Conference for several years and includes 10-minute plays, one-acts, musicals and full length plays. Her play, Simple Melody, was a finalist for the Tennessee Williams One-Act Festival of plays. She has written regularly for the Alaska Overnighters and the Alaska One-Minute Play Festival. Her work has been produced and/or read at Cyrano's Theatre, Anchorage Community Theatre and Out North Theatre. Jill teaches high school theatre at East Anchorage High School, the most ethnically diverse high school in the country, and loves teaching acting and playwriting to her students. Jill is trained and certified to teach the Meisner method of acting and recently opened her own private acting studio, Alaska True Acting.