John J. Caswell, Jr. is the Founding Artistic Director of Progressive Theatre Workshop and the author of several original works for the stage including: Shots: A Love Story, closet.drama: a homo/hetero collision, Britney Spears For President: a pop culture disaster, Eat Your Peas/Die Die Die, Banksy's Bodies, My Friend the Serial Killer by Ronald Rogers (Sixth Grade), and most recently, God Hates This Show: Shirley Phelps-Roper In Concert, Live from Hell. His play Arrangements was a top ten finalist for The Joanne Woodward/Paul Newman Drama Award.

Caswell and company are recipients of awards from organizations such as Pave and The Arizona Commission on the Arts. John has spent time learning from pioneers of American theatre including: Anne Bogart and The SITI Company, Circle Repertory Founder Marshall W. Mason, and Ontological Hysteric Theater Founder and MacArthur Genius Richard Foreman. Caswell studied performance at Arizona State University and in 2011, his play Shots: A Love Story was published as part of Johnny Saldana's text Ethnotheatre: Research From Page to Stage.