Jess Wright Buha is an internationally produced, award-winning playwright and audio dramatist.

ABOUT

Jess Wright Buha is an internationally-produced, award-winning playwright and audio dramatist. She has written two audio dramas for Marvel’s newest running app, Marvel Move, and her work has received the BBC Best Podcast Award in 2021 (for Unwell: A Midwestern Gothic Mystery). She has written over a dozen adaptations of literary works, including Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina and James Joyce’s Ulysses, and her stage plays have been performed by Lifeline Theatre, Filament Theatre, South Africa’s National Children’s Theatre, among many others. She also co-created and wrote the Soundlab series, four informational videos produced by the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra that have been used by elementary music educators around the world. 

PRESS

  • "And then of course, there’s Jubles and the Bamf. Oh, Jubles and the Bamf — Marvel Move is worth the subscription for this part alone. [….] Written by Jessica Wright Buha, it’s quickly become one of my favorite stories to have come out of the Krakoan age."

    Armaan Babu, ComicsXF
    Radio Mode, X-Men: Age of Orchis

  • The show’s great strength is the world-premiere adaptation by Jessica Wright Buha, remarkable for how well it dramatizes the whole show….Buha has turned every scene in the novel into dialogue. It’s an impressive feat.

    Chris Jones, Chicago Tribune
    Anna Karenina

  • "[Buha's play] is achingly on the mark. It tells a subtle, very accurate story about growing up that plays perfectly with the strangeness, romance, and action of its Western roots."

    Kevin Thomas, Time Out Chicago
    One Came Home

  • "In Circle House, Buha has compiled the words from myriad artists into a truly beautiful show."

    A.A. Cristi , Broadwayworld.com
    Circle House

  • "Director Dorothy Milne and playwright Jessica Wright Buha, in her debut adaption for the company, transform Bernard Warber’s somewhat plodding 1974 book into a singing, dancing, juggling, hula-hooping, jump-roping, gymnastic showcase for five dynamic performers."

    Nora Durkin, New City
    Lyle Finds His Mother

  • "[Buha’s play] presents that trajectory of loss with heart and grit."

    Kerry Reid, Chicago Tribune
    One Came Home

  • "In Lifeline Theatre’s world premiere adaptation by Jessica Wright Buha, the story of Georgie Burkhardt’s search in 1871 Wisconsin for her elder sister often feels tough, tender and remarkably honest about how complicated — and yet paradoxically simple — the truth can be."

    Kerry Reid, Chicago Tribune
    One Came Home

  • "[Buha's play] teaches children and young adults about the importance of inquisitiveness, reading, responsibility, initiative, and many other positive attributes as the story unfolds."

    Tonderai Chiyindiko, The African Theatre Magazine
    Sparky

  • "In the evening’s most complex and masterfully imagined production, director Carolyn Hoerdemann and her gifted ensemble took [Buha's] bewitching script and brilliantly created a beguiling musical account; mixing gospel, bluegrass and blues to hauntingly evoke the sirens, spirits and specters, thereby realizing a heartbreakingly gruesome and musically marvelous lullaby of death."

    Venus Zarris, Chicago Stage Review
    Alabama Mermaid

Upcoming Work

  • Music Quest

    an educational concert full of wizardry and wonder, produced by the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra

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  • The No Show

    an interactive solo performance where we’ll bake cookies, make crafts, and practice saying no

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  • Kitty and the Beanstalk

    a play with music featuring an evil giant, a sunless city, and a scrappy brother-sister kitty duo

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Featured Works

  • Unwell: A Midwestern Gothic Mystery

    “'Cause if you're not going away, then I will make you go away because I'm not running.”

    The winner of the 2021 BBC Best Podcast award, with over 9.5 million lifetime downloads

    Explore more Scripted Audio

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  • Anna Karenina

    “We could be happy, if you wish. But it involves that word you hate: love”

    The critically-acclaimed adaptation of one of the world’s most beloved novels.

    Explore more Stage Plays: Literary Adaptations

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  • Sherlock Holmes and the Mystery of Portage Park

    “Come, neighbors, come! The game is afoot! Onto your bicycles and ride!”

    The sold out, beloved-by-audiences, promenade-style interactive mystery

    Explore more Stage Plays: Kids Shows

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Ulysses production photo by Joe Mazza - Brave Lux