User:Josephkadams

Joseph K. Adams is an author and artist who worked in the Los Angeles/Hollywood in radio, stage and film in the 1970s and 1980s. His explorations of private process and history took him out of the public arena in 1984 and he currently lives in the Raleigh area of North Carolina.

When he was not allowed to join the Writer's Guild of America with his birth name (they already had six other 'Joe/Jo/Joey/Joseph Adams's) he took his grandmother's maiden name and lived for 14 years a "Joseph Steven Coleman." He went back to court in January of 2005 to regain his birth name.

His radio history includes the ADAMS & ROEBUCK program (on KPFK and syndicated to 12 stations in the 1970s), AMERICAN RADIO THEATER (non-profit radio training and production group), and NEWRADIO (Commercial radio theater project). His radio series CHAPEL PERILOUS was his last production and, while the final tapes were lost, there are pre-release mixes available on the web. He also was field reporter and guest producer for the pioneer science fiction program HOUR 25, an engineer for the popular FOLKSCENE program, and broadcast engineer for MUSIC BLACK AND WHITE. He was host for MORNINGS WITH BACH, Sunday mornings in the early 1970s and the producing engineer for the controversial TOM RITT PROGRAM.

On stage he was playwright-in-residence at THE DEJA VU COFFEEHOUSE THEATER and FIFTH ESTATE THEATER in Hollywood from 1980 to 1983 where he turned out 22 productions of 14 original plays (several were produced more than once). He directed the premier of his best known play FEVER at DEJA VU to rave reviews. He taught a playwriting workshop at THE CAST/CIRCLE THEATER (with Marsha Meyers) in Hollywood, THE FOUNTAIN THEATER in Los Angeles and THE INVISIBLE THEATRER in San Francisco. In the Bay Area he worked with TRANSFORMATION THEATER and the INVISIBLE THEATER as director and producer. His play "LIVING IN THE HOUSE OF ANGELS," an exploration of early AIDS treatment and hospice workers, was produced as a staged reading over sixty cities as a fundraiser for ECUMENTICAL LUTHERAN CHURCH IN AMERICA in 1989-1992. His last stage productions were in the Bay Area with seven different casts for SHATTERED SECRETS, a play by Broadway librettist Libbe HaLevy (and one of the few plays the author wished he had written - it is that good).

As an author his earliest work appeard with the Herald Examiner in Los Angeles, and later wrote for LA WEEKLY, SALUDOS HISPANOS, FOLKSCENE MAGAZINE, RECOERY JOURNAL, CHANGES, and op-ed pieces for various local newspapers. His first novel SONG OF ORPHANS was contracted to DAW Books, but never appeared after a dispute with publisher Don Wollheim. He is currently finishing a literary novel represent his journy of self-discovery over the past twenty years under the title CLIMBING THE SPIRAL MOUNTAIN.

At the age of 41 he was introduced to role playing games and served as cartographer, illustrator and author for SKYREALMS OF JORUNE, GOLD RUSH GAMES, NIGHTSHIFT GAMES and his own SHADE TREE GAMES STUDIO. As a history geek his favorite settings have been a 3000BC calcolithic society in the Indus River Valley, the 1930s pulp era, and the distant planet of Jorune in the 32nd Century. As an old fart, it gets hard to find people who want to play.

In addition to his background as a writer, director, producer, writer and air personality, he has severed as an ordained Universal Ministry clergyperson since 1994 and works closely with addicts and alcoholics in a Ralegih area recovvery center.

In his spare time he deals with 18 years of Diabetes, a double bypass, neuropathy, left bundle branch block and sleep apnea.