Cusi Cram

Cusi Cram (born September 22, 1967) is an American playwright, screenwriter, actress, model, director, educator, and advocate for women in the arts.

Early life Cusi Cram was born in Manhattan, New York, on September 22, 1967, to Lady Jeanne Campbell, daughter of Ian Campbell, 11th Duke of Argyll and Janet Gladys Aitken, and granddaughter of Max Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook; Lady Jeanne was married at the time to John Cram III, a descendant of railroad developer Jay Gould. She identifies as Latina and has written extensively about her Latin roots in her plays.

Cram's first foray into the world of theater came at age six when she played the role of Moth in a production of A Midsummer Night's Dream at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival. Campbell had previously been married to Norman Mailer, with whom she remained friends after their divorce. a job that required her to leave the Chapin School for the Professional Children's School which allowed her time to both study and participate in filming.

Cram worked in regional theaters in Massachusetts, California, and Colorado, and had some of her work produced Off-Off-Broadway. Her work on Arthur inspired her 2009 play Dusty and the Big Bad World. The Arthur spinoff Postcards from Buster was subject to a controversy that eventually involved United States Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings after an episode depicted a Vermont family with two lesbian mothers. and contributed two episodes to the Showtime comedy-drama The Big C. As of January 2014, she teaches playwriting as part of the joint Fordham University – Primary Stages Master of Fine Arts program.

Production history Title Date premiered Theater Notes Landlocked Miranda Theatre The End of It All South Coast Repertory Part of the Pacific Playwrights Festival Normal Actors Theatre of Louisville One-act play, anthologized in Trepidation Nation Corduroy Theatreworks USA Musical, with book by Cram and music by Scott Davenport Richards Based on the children's book of the same name by Don Freeman Predator Echo Theater Company One-act play Fuente Barrington Stage Recipient of the 2004 Herrick Theater Foundation New Play Prize Previewed beginning June 30 All the Bad Things The Public Theater Produced by LAByrinth Theater Company Lucy and the Conquest Williamstown Theatre Festival Dusty and the Big Bad World Denver Center Theater Fuente Ovejuna: A Disloyal Adaptation Lewis Center for the Arts Based on Lope de Vega's Fuenteovejuna Radiance Bank Street Theater One-act play Produced by LAByrinth Theater Company

Additionally, Cram's one-act West of Stupid was anthologized in The Best American Short Plays 2000-2001. She has also performed two one-woman shows, Bolivia and Euripidames, at New Georges in New York City.

Personal life Cram lives with her husband, Peter Hirsch, also a writer on Arthur, in Greenwich Village, New York.