I've never looked to American theatre for relevance, political significance, or reality. I write plays b/c I enjoy the craft and exploring my voice. I write about black love, black hate, blacklivesmatter, police brutality, black respectability, insurrection, rebellion, black apocalypse, and other things. For the most part, the plays go directly into my desk drawer after getting a round of polite passes. The only play I've had done of any significance is OBAMA-OLOGY and that's b/c it went from a Juilliard workshop and then directly to London where it received a great production at Finborough Theatre. The British stamp of approval gave it some mileage back home, but it's a play about black life, police brutality, the election, transformation...i.e. I knew that I was writing it for my soul b/c American theatre doesn't care about that. American theatre is interested in black storytelling that is about SLAVERY and maybe a sprinkling of civil rights era stories. Period. That's what gets done. That's what hits the sweet spot for white liberals: slavery and maybe MLK. Maybe a tortured black woman. Maybe. Even better if you can incorporate some combination of the 3.
The reason why A STRANGE LOOP was such a revelation to see is b/c it was DONE. It work written from the black queer heart that a major institution actually produced (and a true thank you to Playwrights Horizons.) It was the unicorn that leaped through a million pitfalls, passes, white liberal allies, and climbed the Mount Olympus of development. And it satiated black and white audiences without compromise.
I've been writing plays for two decades and 99% of my stuff sits in the desk drawer. I've been writing tv for 5 yrs and had episodes about BLM, voting rights, LGBTQ struggles for POC, and black love. Millions of people watched those stories and I got paid hundreds of thousands of dollars...and healthcare and job stability and promotion and a sense of relevance in the culture.
The reason why A STRANGE LOOP was such a revelation to see is b/c it was DONE. It work written from the black queer heart that a major institution actually produced (and a true thank you to Playwrights Horizons.) It was the unicorn that leaped through a million pitfalls, passes, white liberal allies, and climbed the Mount Olympus of development. And it satiated black and white audiences without compromise.
I've been writing plays for two decades and 99% of my stuff sits in the desk drawer. I've been writing tv for 5 yrs and had episodes about BLM, voting rights, LGBTQ struggles for POC, and black love. Millions of people watched those stories and I got paid hundreds of thousands of dollars...and healthcare and job stability and promotion and a sense of relevance in the culture.
I deeply appreciate New Dramatists and the O'Neill. I love Seattle Public Theatre and Miami New Drama b/c they are institutions that have women and POC in charge. But other than that...it's crickets. I loved developing my BLM play "Running on Fire" at Juilliard and O'Neil Center before being told that it wasn't relevant to American theatre in 2016. Okay. I went back to work on THIS IS US and then THE GOOD FIGHT. The joy of the work was internal and not dependent upon the American theatre. I love the theatre community but it holds little value to me. It's a place to sharpen my knife.
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