Ken Schwarz Biography

Born in Plainfield and raised in Fanwood and Warren, N.J., Ken Schwarz has been working in and around theatre since the age of twelve. He has been an actor for over twenty-six years now, appearing in commercials, film and well over seventy plays at professional and regional theaters. Favorite roles have included: "Stanley" in A Streetcar Named Desire, "Warwick" in The Lark, "Jimmy" in Jimmy Shine, "Paul" in Barefoot in the Park, "Steve" in Say Goodnight, Gracie, "Inspector Levine" in Catch Me If You Can, "Talthybius" in The Trojan Women, "George" in Same Time, Next Year and "Bernie" in Sexual Perversity in Chicago. He is also a member of Actors Mystery Rep and will soon be seen as "Detective Willis" in Camis Major Films' feature production of Atlantic City Serenade.

Ken is a member of The Dramatists Guild, Actors' Equity Association, the Screen Actors Guild, Puppetry Guild of Greater New York and ArtPRIDE New Jersey. He has attended New York University, American Academy of Dramatic Arts, H-B Studios, T. Schreiber Studios and Video Associates, with Joan D'Incecco and Judy Henderson-all in New York City.

For over twenty years, Ken has been employed at New Jersey's Hunterdon Hills Playhouse, assuming multiple positions such as General Manager, Production Manager, Resident Actor/MC, Playwright, Director, Stage Manager, Scenic & Lighting Designer, Marketing & PR, Hospitality, etc.-most of the time, simultaneously. He is listed in the nationwide register of Who's Who in Executives and Businesses. He is also resident Lighting Designer for the Eleanor Connell Dance Studio and has designed lights for such varied performers as Hildegarde, Charlie Prose and The Drifters. In February of 2001, he founded the Jersey Central Theatre Company, a non-profit organization where he serves as Artistic Director, which began producing community entertainment in October, 2001.

Ken is also the author of several short films, children's stories and the children's play, The Tangerine Skunk, as well as the full-length plays: Peanut Butter and Pinball, In A Butterfly's Lifetime, Snow Angels and the book for two full-length musical revues, The Times of Our Lives and The Music of America, which he also directed.

His full-length play, Yuletide Hearts, received its world premiere at the five hundred-seat Hunterdon Hills Playhouse, for six sold-out weeks during the 1996 holiday season. The show was accorded overwhelming audience and critical acclaim and went on to break previous attendance records at the theater. Yuletide Hearts was subsequently named one of the best new plays of the 1996-97 New Jersey professional theatre season by Drama Desk member Peter Filichia, columnist for Playbill magazine and the Star Ledger.

Ken is currently at work on several new projects and readying the remounting of The Music of America, which will be revived at Hunterdon Hills by popular demand in 2004.