James Yates completed his MFA at the Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program at NYU and received his BA in Theatre at UCLA. As a playwright, his works have been produced by the National Endowment of the Arts, The Powerhouse Theatre at Vassar College, NYU, UCLA, Adelphi University and Mercury Summer Stock of Cleveland. He is the recipient of the 2007 Matz-Sosin Award for Musical Theatre Composition, and is a co-founder and head writer of Meridian 13 News, an international musical theatre podcast now featured on iTunes. Prior to CAP21, he worked in administration Off-Broadway at The Barrow Street Theatre in Greenwich Village, and at the Powerhouse Theatre Apprentice Training Program, where he is an annual guest faculty member, teaching lyric writing to the students of the Young Playwrights program, also sponsored by the Bardavon Theatre.
