African American & Black

Jocelyn Bioh

Representative Plays:

GODDESS (2020)
Nollywood Dreams (2018)
School Girls; Or, the African Mean Girls Play (2017)

Bio:

Jocelyn Bioh is a Ghanaian-American writer/performer from New York City. NYC acting credits include In the Blood (Signature Theatre, Drama Desk Nomination) , Everybody (Signature Theatre, Lortel nomination); Men On Boats (Playwrights Horizons); An Octoroon (Soho Rep); Neighbors (The Public Theater); and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time which won the Tony Award...

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Jeremy O. Harris

Representative Plays:

Daddy (2019)
Slave Play (2018)

Bio:

Full-length plays include: Slave Play(Broadway, New York Theatre Workshop, NYT Critics Pick, Winner of the 2018 Kennedy Center Rosa Parks Playwriting Award, the Lorraine Hansberry Playwriting Award, and The Lotos Foundation Prize in the Arts and Sciences), “DADDY” (Vineyard Theatre/The New Group, Almeida Theatre), Black Exhibition (Bushwick Starr), Xander Xyst, Dragon: 1, and WATER SPORTS; or insignificant white boys...

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Jirèh Breon Holder

Representative Plays:

Too Heavy for Your Pocket (2017)

Bio:

Jirèh Breon Holder is a Memphis, Tennessee native and proud Morehouse Man. He grew up obsessed with Toni Morrison, South Park, and Joseph Campbell. Funny enough, Sarah Ruhl's playwriting program at the Yale School of Drama was the perfect training ground. At Yale, JBH wrote several plays that merged the political with the poetic. His favorites were a one man show reflecting on the prison-industrial complex and an Afro Futurist clown show where six Black astronauts attempt to...

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Tanya Barfield

Representative Plays:

Bright Half Life (2014)

Bio:

Tanya Barfield is from Portland, Oregon. Her play Bright Half Life premiered at the Women’s Project Theater and was a TimeOut Critic’s Pick. Her play The Call premiered at Playwrights Horizons in co-production with Primary Stages and was a Critic’s Pick for the New York Times. Blue Door (South Coast Rep, Playwrights Horizons) was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. Other work includes: Feast (co-writer, Young Vic/Royal Court), Of...

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Tarell Alvin McCraney

Representative Plays:

In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue (2013)
Choir Boy (2012)
The Brothers Size (2010)
In the Red and Brown Water (2010)

Bio:

Tarell Alvin McCraney is the Chair, and Professor in the Practice of Playwriting at the School of Drama; and is the Yale Repertory Theatre Playwright-in-Residence. He is also a member of Teo Castellanos/D-Projects Theater Company in Miami, a member of the Steppenwolf Theatre Ensemble, and co-wrote the 2016 film Moonlight, based on his own work In Moonlight...

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Lydia Diamond

Representative Plays:

Smart People (2016)
Stick Fly (2011)
Harriet Jacobs (2011)
The Bluest Eye (2007)
Voyeurs de Venus (2006)

Bio:

Lydia R. Diamond's award-winning plays include: Smart People, Stick Fly, Voyeurs de Venus, The Bluest Eye, The Gift Horse, Harriet Jacobs, The Inside and Stage Black. Theatres include: Arena Stage,...

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Kirsten Childs

Representative Plays:

Bella: An American Tall Tale (2019)
The Bubbly Black Girl Sheds Her Chameleon Skin (2000)

Bio:

Kirsten Childs is the award-winning writer of the musicals The Bubbly Black Girl Sheds Her Chameleon Skin, Miracle Brothers, Fly (with Rajiv Joseph and Bill Sherman), Funked Up Fairy Tales and Bella: An American Tall Tale (directed by Robert O’Hara). Bella: An American Tall Tale received its world premiere in the 2016-2017 season at Dallas Theater Center, with a co-production at...

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James Ijames

Representative Plays:

Kill Move Paradise (2019)
The Most Spectacularly Lamentable Trial of Miz Martha Washington (2018)
Moon Man Walk (2018)
WHITE (2018)
The Threshing Floor (2009)

Bio:

James Ijames is a performer, playwright and director.

He has appeared regionally in productions at The Arden Theatre Company, The Philadelphia Theatre Company, The Wilma Theatre, Baltimore Center Stage, Mauckingbird Theatre Company, and People’s Light and Theatre.

James’ plays have...