black playwrights
-
Playwright Loy A. Webb Brings The Light to Where #MeToo, #MuteRKelly and #BlackLivesMatter Converge
Three years ago when Loy A. Webb crafted The Light, the burgeoning playwright had no idea where the world would be when her play had its New York premiere last month. The Logan Vaughn-directed drama is set in today’s Chicago and turns the idyllic concept of millennial black love on its head as a couple,…
-
Infinite Possibilities: Black Love Matters in Christina Anderson's How to Catch Creation
It’s impossible to talk about award-winning playwright Christina Anderson’s How to Catch Creation without talking about love; specifically, black love. In its world premiere at Chicago’s Goodman Theatre on Monday, Anderson’s multigenerational drama introduced six black characters whose love stories span almost a half century and explore the myriad and unique ways in which we…
-
Rising Playwright Jeremy O. Harris Addresses Backlash Over Controversial Slave Play
Much to the chagrin of the many detractors who were in an uproar about last month’s world premiere of Slave Play, the controversial drama’s creator is getting the last laugh. It’s bittersweet, though. Jeremy O. Harris found his critically acclaimed pet project at the center of a firestorm on the heels of opening at the…
-
African, American: Danai Gurira Hits Home with Her Latest Play, Familiar
An elegantly appointed middle class living room in Minnesota, punctuated with poinsettias and a wreath to celebrate the holidays—plus the rare (and oft-disappearing) piece of African art. Frankly, it could’ve been my childhood home in the same Midwestern state, but instead, it is the setting of Danai Gurira’s Familiar, an emotional family dramedy that explores…
-
In Memoriam: For Colored Girls Who Grew Up on Ntozake Shange
If you were a colored girl lucky enough (or “enuf,” as she might write) to grow up on the words and work of playwright, performer and author Ntozake Shange, learning of her death at age 70 on Saturday no doubt left you aching. One of the original conjurers of what we now know as “black…
-
Telling Untold Stories: Playwright and Performer Dael Orlandersmith Gets Under Our Skin
A community in the aftermath of unrest. The painful legacy of abuse, as experienced by black boys and men. The intimately insidious effects of colorism. The remembrance of a life lived and love lost, inspired by a chance encounter with a famously tragic jazz singer. Playwright and actor Dael Orlandersmith’s particular skill is to tell…
-
A Hero’s Journey: Father Comes Home From the Wars Is a Reckoning with American History
A war. A hero. A conflict. A journey. These are the components of any timeless tale, dating as far back as the ancient Greeks. In fact, they are the prototypical “hero’s journey,” as epitomized by the second-oldest known Western text in history, well-known to many high school and college literature students as Homer’s The Odyssey.…