Joan ackermann biography

New York theatregoers probably know Joan Ackermann best from the well received comedy-drama, The Batting Cage, which gave Veanne Cox another of her patented neurotic, talks-a-mile-a-minute ditzy roles. Ackermann’s also a writer on the barbed HBO comedy series, “Arliss,” but if you’re expecting the playwright to be anything like her pointed pen, you’re likely to be disappointed.

In person, Ackermann is friendly and folksy, more in keeping with her eight-month-a-year lifestyle in Upstate New York’s countrified Berkshires, than with her four-month L.A. writer’s life, or with the crazed activity of an urban playwright. That said, Ackermann’s “day job” isn’t exactly a breeze: she and her husband run the Mixed Company Theatre in the Berkshires, where her new musical, Isabella, will soon appear.

Playbill On-Line: You founded the Mixed Company 18 years ago; do you still have to do day-to-day fundraising to keep it going?
Joan Ackermann: We don’t do any fund raising at all. We survi