Author Profile:  Phyllis McCallum

Phyllis McCallum is the prize-winning playwright of children's plays:  The Pale Pink Dragon, The Uniform Unicorn, The Grateful Griffin, The Tough and Tender Troll, The Vanilla Viking, Christmas With Little Women, The Twelve Dancing Princesses, and many other fairy tales.  A graduate of Stanford University in English, she was a protégé of Martin Flavin.

Her plays have won prizes in playwriting contests sponsored by the Seattle National Junior Programs, the Kansas City Community Children's Theatre, Pioneer Drama Service, the National League of American Pen Women, and the Children's Theatre of Richmond, Virginia.

She wrote the San Jose's Bicentennial play for children, The Dignified Donkey of New Almaden, and was commissioned by the Marin Children's Theatre to write Better Than A Boy.

Phyllis has contributed plays, stories, and articles to numerous publications.  She has conducted playwriting workshops for Cabrillo College, West Valley College, and the National League of American Pen Women.

Phyllis McCallum has served as president of the San Jose Junior Theatre Advisory Board, member of the San Jose Entertainment Commission, vice-president of the Greater San Jose Area Council of Arts, and president of the National League of American Pen Women — Santa Clara County branch.

Phyllis and her husband Bill McCallum, former head of the Biology Department at San Jose State, have two children, two grandsons, and one great granddaughter.

As Phyllis McCallum Koch (Carl Koch rescued her from widowhood in 1989) she is now producer of the Waterford Readers Theatre at Rossmoor and is writing one acts for adults, all prize winners:  The Mystery Guest, Ho Ho Tyranny, Again, and Computer Listen To Me.