Barbara J Sloan

Barbara Sloan became a published writer at fifteen, thanks to the Beatles.

After she wrote a letter to The Birmingham News defending the Fab Four against adults who considered them a terrible influence on young people, an editor called with an unexpected proposition: Would she like to cover the Beatles’ concert in Atlanta? Her story landed on the front page, and a lifelong love of writing suddenly had a byline.

But theatre has been the other great thread running through Barbara’s life. For twenty-five years, she taught theatre at Samford University, where she also directed and designed productions. Over a career spanning five decades, she has designed costumes for more than 300 productions, written and produced plays, presented lectures and papers at theatre conferences, and worked as a director, designer, playwright, artist, journalist, and teacher. She later served as Creative Director for The American Village, Executive Director of The Seasoned Performers, and Development Director for Camp Winnataska.

Sloan's book Theatre Is My Life! Thoughts on Play Quotes grew from her belief that theatre does more than entertain us: it can illuminate the ordinary, mysterious, funny, painful, and sacred corners of being human. The book offers a meditation for every day of the year, each inspired by a quotation from a play. Many come from works Barbara has directed, designed, taught, studied, or simply loved.

Her newest book, Play!: Professor Dante Marlowe Browne’s Wonderfully Marvelous Amazing Historical Book of Playgoing Manners with Adventures and Anecdotes by his Friends Collins and Violet, invites younger readers into the theatre. In this illustrated adventure, two cousins and their eccentric neighbor set off for a performance of Peter Pan and find themselves traveling through theatre history along the way. Part story, part theatre history, and part guide to being a splendid audience member, Play! grew from Barbara’s years of teaching Theatre Appreciation and her desire to help children discover the magic of live performance.

Barbara has written thirteen plays and more than 300 stories and articles for local, regional, and national publications. She also penned 100 “Curtain Call” radio spots about theatre for Birmingham NPR station WBHM. Her first book, Barefoot Among the Thorns: The Story of Dance in Birmingham, explored another corner of the arts world she has inhabited for most of her life.

Today, Barbara continues to write, paint, teach, and make theatre. She serves on the faculty of the Institute for Conscious Being, where she teaches the Enneagram and creates curriculum for their certification program.

She has two grown children and, in her blended family, eight grandchildren. And after more than fifty years of writing and theatre, she still believes what she discovered as a fifteen-year-old Beatles fan with an opinion: words have a remarkable way of opening doors.