# Jane Chambers > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Jane_Chambers > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Jane_Chambers.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Chambers > Source revision: 1290737288 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) **Jane Chambers** (March 27, 1937 – February 15, 1983) was an [American](/source/American_people) playwright. She was a "pioneer in writing theatrical works with openly [lesbian](/source/Lesbian) characters".[1] Chambers was born in [Columbia, South Carolina](/source/Columbia,_South_Carolina), but grew up in [Orlando, Florida](/source/Orlando,_Florida), where she started writing with scripts for local public radio stations. She studied at [Rollins College](/source/Rollins_College), intending to become a playwright, but dropped out of Rollins after she encountered discrimination as a woman there. After studying acting for a season at the [Pasadena Playhouse](/source/Pasadena_Playhouse) in 1956, she moved to [New York City](/source/New_York_City) and then on to [Poland Spring](/source/Poland_Spring), Maine, where she worked for [WMTW](/source/WMTW_(TV)). Returning to New York in 1968, she enrolled at [Goddard College, Vermont](/source/Goddard_College,_Vermont) to try again for an undergraduate degree. There she met Beth Allen, who would remain her lover, companion and manager.[2] Completing her degree in 1971, Chambers began to achieve recognition as a writer: she won the [Rosenthal](/source/Macha_Rosenthal) Award for Poetry, and her play *Christ in a Treehouse*, won a Connecticut Educational Television Award. In 1972, she received a Eugene O'Neill Fellowship for *Tales of the Revolution and Other American Fables*, staged at the [Eugene O'Neill Memorial Theater](/source/Eugene_O'Neill_Memorial_Theater). She helped establish theater at the [Women's Interart Center](/source/Women's_Interart_Center) in New York, putting on her play *Random Violence* there in 1972. Her writing for the soap opera *[Search for Tomorrow](/source/Search_for_Tomorrow)* won her a [Writers Guild of America](/source/Writers_Guild_of_America) Award in 1973. *A Late Snow*, produced at [Playwrights Horizons](/source/Playwrights_Horizons) in 1974 was one of the earliest plays to portray lesbian characters in a positive light. In 1980, Chambers started to work with [The Glines](/source/The_Glines), writing *[Last Summer at Bluefish Cove](/source/Last_Summer_at_Bluefish_Cove)* for their First Gay American Arts Festival, about the impact upon a woman and her lesbian friends after she is diagnosed with cancer. Chambers was herself diagnosed with cancer in 1981. She continued to write, producing *My Blue Heaven* for the Second Gay American Arts Festival at the Glines, and *The Quintessential Image* for the Women's Theatre Conference in [Minneapolis](/source/Minneapolis).[2] She died at her home in [Greenport](/source/Greenport,_Suffolk_County,_New_York), [Long Island](/source/Long_Island) on February 15, 1983.[2] Starting in 1984, there has been an annual award in her name, the Jane Chambers Playwriting Award.[3] In 2022, Chambers was featured in the book *50 Key Figures in Queer US Theatre*, with a profile written by theatre scholar Sara Warner.[4] ## Works - *Burning: a novel*, 1978 - *A late snow: a play in two acts*, 1979 - *[Last summer at Bluefish Cove](/source/Last_summer_at_Bluefish_Cove): a play in two acts*, 1980 - *My blue heaven: a comedy in two acts*, 1981 - *Warrior at rest: a collection of poetry*, 1984 - *Chasin' Jason: a novel*, 1987 ## References 1. Zimmerman, Bonnie (ed.) (2000). [*Encyclopedia of Lesbian and Gay Histories and Cultures*](https://books.google.com/books?id=nvt8el4QtPwC&pg=PA155). Vol. 1. Taylor & Francis. pp. 155–6. ISBN 978-0-8153-3354-8. Retrieved 14 September 2012. 1. Beth A. Kattelman. ["Chambers, Jane (1937-1983)"](https://web.archive.org/web/20101113080300/http://www.glbtq.com/literature/chambers_j.html). glbtq, Inc. Archived from [the original](http://www.glbtq.com/literature/chambers_j.html) on November 13, 2010. Retrieved October 6, 2010. 1. ["Association for Theater in Higher Education"](https://web.archive.org/web/20120112122247/http://www.athe.org/displaycommon.cfm?an=1&subarticlenbr=138). Athe.org. Archived from [the original](http://www.athe.org/displaycommon.cfm?an=1&subarticlenbr=138) on 2012-01-12. Retrieved 2013-12-05. 1. Warner, Sara (2022). "Jane Chambers". *50 Key Figures in Queer US Theatre*. Noriega and Schildcrout (ed.). Routledge. pp. 40–43. ISBN 978-1032067964. --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Jane Chambers](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Chambers) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Chambers?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.