From that moment forward I felt I owed it to myself, and the many black female playwrights out there to find as much content as I could. Insert Dominique Morisseau, a Detroit native making a name for herself all across New York City and beyond.

Her playwriting credits include Detroit ’67 (Public Theater; Classical Theatre of Harlem/NBT; Northlight Theatre), Sunset Baby (Labyrinth Theater Co – NYC; Gate Theater- London), and Follow Me To Nellie’s (O’Neill; Premiere Stages). As well as having produced other original works with the Hip Hop Theater Festival, Penn State University, American Theatre of Harlem, and The New Group.  Her work has also been published in New York Times bestseller, Chicken Soup for the African American Soul and the Harlem-based literary journal, Signifyin’ Harlem.

Most of her inspiration for her plays is a result of conversations in communities and the people that she is writing about. Where a common process of playwriting is overhearing dialogue on a train or a bus, Morisseau takes it one step further.

“I have to be able to engage with people and have a conversation with them and be able to go into the community to feel like I can truly bring justice to them.”

Once she does that she begins her writing process, which includes lots of color and music.

“Music really lands me in the time period or region. It helps me recapture the dialect and the words that are popular, the isms, the sayings. That process gets me textured in the world I’m writing about,” she tells the American Theatre Wing.

Well that process seems to be working for her, as her play Detroit ’67 earned her the prestigious Edward M. Kennedy Prize for Drama in 2014. Her play was unanimously voted on by jury members who stated her play “explores an explosive and decisive moment in a great American city. The jury was completely drawn into the world of Detroit ’67, whose compelling characters struggle with racial tension and economic instability. The jury also felt strongly that the play powerfully exemplifies the goals of the Kennedy Prize. Detroit ’67 is a work grounded in historical understanding that also comments meaningfully on the pressing issues of our day.”

Detroit ’67 had its world premiere at The Public Theater in 2013 and was presented in association with the Classical Theater of Harlem and the National Black Theater.

The Public Theater characterized it as the following:

It’s 1967 in Detroit and Motown music gets the party started. Chelle and her brother Lank transform their basement into an after-hours joint to make ends meet. But when a mysterious woman winds her way into their lives, the siblings clash over much more than family business. As their pent-up feelings erupt, so does their city, and the flames of the ’67 Detroit riots engulf them all.

The play is the first of a 3-play cycle on her hometown Detroit, entitled The Detroit Projects, which is still in development.

Morisseau, who is an alumni of the Public Theater Emerging Writer’s Group, the Women’s Project Playwrights Lab, and Lark Playwrights’ Workshop, has an extensive list honors to her name including; a Jane Chambers Playwriting Award honoree, a two-time NAACP Image Award recipient, a runner-up for the Princess Grace Award, a recipient of the Elizabeth George commission from South Coast Rep, a commendation honoree for the Primus Prize by the American Theatre Critics Association, winner of the Barrie and Bernice Stavis Playwriting Award, the Weissberger Award for Playwriting, the U of M – Detroit Center Emerging Leader Award, a Lark/PoNY (Playwrights of New York) Fellow. With awards like that, it would be hard to ignore her. In an interview with the American Theatre Wing she expressed what it meant to be a woman of color working in theatre.

“I’m a woman of color, a black woman playwright. I’m a part of a marginalized class in theatre right now, we are still working to make space for ourselves, to be seen on stage, and produced on stage. That means I have to get in conversation with theaters often and advocate for my work and advocate for a new audience. So that what’s in theaters right now, is not the only audience that has to exist. So that, theatre audiences can start becoming more diverse just like the writers who are writing for theatre – which I’m apart of. So, it’s about making space for everyone’s voice to be heard.”

Well Ms. Morisseau, I hear you loud and clear and I can’t wait for Dominique’s upcoming projects. Which include the world premiere of Paradise Blue, the second installment of her 3-play cycle, The Detroit Projects. The play will be premiered at the Williamstown Theatre Festival, directed by Tony Award-winner Ruben Santiago-Hudson and starring Tony Award-nominee De’Adre Aziza, Golden Globe-nominee Blair Underwood, and Andre Holland. The play runs from July 22 till August 2. Tickets can be purchased on the Williamstown Theatre Festival website, here.

Blue (Underwood), a gifted trumpeter, contemplates selling his once-vibrant jazz club in Detroit’s Blackbottom neighborhood to shake free the demons of his past and better his life. But where does that leave his devoted Pumpkin, who has dreams of her own? And what does it mean for the club’s resident bebop band? When a mysterious woman with a walk that drives men mad (Aziza) comes to town with her own plans, everyone’s world is turned upside down. This dynamic and musically-infused drama shines light on the challenges of building a better future on the foundation of what our predecessors have left us.

Also in the works, as recently published by Broadway Black, Morisseau is guest curator for The New Black Festival, which just commissioned five black playwrights for UN-TAMED: HAIR BODY ATTITUDE, coming this fall.

2015 is surely to be a year for black female playwrights and I’m glad to be able to witness it. So that when I’m teaching in my performing arts classes in Brooklyn in the fall, my students will not have to feel like I did. They will have a range of black playwrights and artists to draw inspiration from and be inspired by.

It’s clear that she is an artist who believes wholeheartedly in the power and strength of community and diverse storytelling.

Dominique Morisseau, thank you for being Broadway Black.

The post Making Space for Brown Girls: Dominique Morisseau appeared first on Broadway Black.

Cori Thomas, Nikkole Salter, Chisa Hutchinson, Lenelle Moise and Jocelyn Bioh.

The aim of UN-TAMED is to participate and dig deeper into the national conversation around Black womanhood and social perceptions of Black femininity while providing black women with a creative platform to personalize these issues.

Nikkole Salter: An Obie Award-winning actress and writer for the Pulitzer Prize nominated play, In The Continuum. She was most recently seen performing the role of ‘Cookie’ in the West Coast Premiere of Tarell McCraney‘s new play Head of Passes at Berkeley Repertory Theatre. As a dramatist, Salter has written 6 full-length plays, been commissioned for full-length work by six institutions, been produced in five countries on three continents, and been published in twelve international publications. Her plays include Lines in the Dust, Carnaval, Repairing a Nation and the co-authored Freedom Rider. Salter is a 2014 MAP Fund Grant recipient, a Eugene O’Neill Theater Center National Playwrights Conference semi-finalist, and a two time Playwrights of New York (PoNY) Fellowship nominee. She is currently working on commissions from Woolly Mammoth, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and was selected to write the screen adaptation of Claude Brown‘s New York Times Bestselling novel, Manchild in the Promised Land. She also serves as Executive Director of THE CONTINUUM PROJECT, INC., a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that creates innovative artistic programming for community empowerment and enrichment. Salter is an active member of the Actors Equity Association, SAG/AFTRA, the Dramatists Guild, and sits on the board of the Theatre Communications Group.  She received her BFA in theatre from Howard University and her MFA from New York University’s Graduate Acting Program.

Chisa Hutchinson: Earned a B.A. in Dramatic Arts from Vassar College and an M.F.A. in Playwriting from NYU.  She’s been writing and performing with the New York NeoFuturists and is a Staff Writer for Blue Man Group. Hutchinson tends to write plays about underrepresented folks that require a minimum of five actors. Her plays include Dirt Rich, She Like Girls, This is Not The Play, Sex on Sunday, Tunde’s Trumpet, The Subject, Mama’s Gonna Buy You, Somebody’s Daughter, Alondra was Here and Dead & Breathing. Hutchinson has presented at various venues such as Lark Play Development Center, City Parks’ Summerstage, Working Man’s Clothes, the New York NeoFuturists, Partial Comfort, Mad Dog Productions, Atlantic Theater Company, the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, and many more. She has won a GLAAD Award, the John Golden Award for Excellence in Playwriting, a Lilly Award, a New York Innovative Theatre Award, the Paul Green Award, a Helen Merrill Award, the Lanford Wilson Award, and has been a finalist for the highly coveted PoNY Fellowship.

Cori Thomas: Thomas’ plays include: When January Feels Like Summer, Pa’s Hat: Liberian Legacy, My Secret Language of Wishes, and His Daddy. Her plays have been developed and produced at Sundance Theatre Lab, Goodman Theatre, City Theatre Co., Page 73, Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Playwrights Horizon, Lark Play Development Center, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Going To The River, Pillsbury House Theatre, and many more. She has received the Edgerton New Play Award from Sundance Theatre Lab, and the 2011 American Theatre Critics Association Osborn Award for Best New Play (When January Feels Like Summer). Thomas is a co- founder of The Pa’s Hat Foundation, Inc., an organization focused on helping former child soldiers of Liberia heal after long-standing civil war through a focus on arts education and literacy.

Lenelle Moïse: Author of Haiti Glass (City Lights/ Sister Spit), an internationally touring performer, and a Huntington Theater Company Playwriting Fellow. Her two-act comedy Merit won the 2012 Southern Rep Ruby Prize. She also wrote, composed, and co-starred in the critically acclaimed drama Expatriate, which launched Off Broadway at the Culture Project.

Jocelyn Bioh: Proud native New Yorker. As a playwright she’s credited with African Americans (Southern Rep Ruby Prize Finalist 2011), Nollywood Dreams, Four, and the libretto for The Ladykiller’s Love Story currently in development with Hi-Arts NYC. She graduated with a B.A in English/Theatre from Ohio State University and an M.F.A in Theatre – Playwriting from Columbia University. Acting credits include Broadway: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time. Off Broadway: An Octoroon, Seed, and Neighbors. Regional: BootyCandy, Marcus; or the Secret of Sweet. TV: “Louie” (FX,) “One Life to Live” (ABC), CoverGirl Spokesmodel (National Commercial/Print Ads).

The New Black Fest previously commissioned Facing Our Truth: Short Plays on Trayvon, Race and Privilege and HANDS UP: 6 Playwrights, 6 Testaments and prides itself on being a movement that “is a gathering of artists, thinkers, activists and audiences who are dedicated to stretching, interrogating and uplifting the Black aesthetic.”

This is most certainly a great step in that direction. In my mind it’s going to be a mixture of concepts presented by Patricia Hill Collins, bell hooks, and beauty shop chair talk all brought to life by these five talented Black female playwrights. It’s a production I don’t want to miss, and neither do you.

Un-Tamed: Hair, Body Attitude will play at The Martin Segal Theatre at CUNY Graduate Center in October 2015.

The post The New Black Fest: Five Black Women Playwrights For UN-TAMED: HAIR BODY ATTITUDE appeared first on Broadway Black.

Tyson made her Broadway debut in Jolly’s Progress (1959) as Eartha Kitt’s understudy. She went on to appear in other Broadway shows including Tiger Tiger Burning Bright (1962), A Hand Is On The Gate (1966), Carry Me Back To Morningside Heights (1968), The Corn is Green (1983), and in 1974, she hosted the 28th Annual Tony Awards.

In 1961, Ms. Tyson appeared in Jean Genet’s The Blacks, the longest running off-Broadway non-musical of that decade (1,408 performances). The Blacks boasted a cast of soon-to-be legends of the arts like James Earl Jones, Maya Angelou, Louis Gossett, Jr., and Roscoe Lee Browne.

It wasn’t until 2013 that Tyson won a Tony Award (Best Actress in a Play) for her performance as Miss Carrie Watts in Horton Foote’s The Trip to Bountiful.

That year she also won the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actress in a Play and the Outer Critics Award for Outstanding Actress in a Play, for Bountiful.

Tyson boasts a beyond impressive television and film resume, as well. Most recently she was seen in the ABC hit How To Get Away with Murder, playing Ophelia Hartness, Annalise’s mother. Annalise is played by Tony-winner Viola Davis (2001, Best Featured Actress in a Play, King Hedley II and 2010, Best Actress in a Play, Fences). Other TV credits include The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman, Roots, King, A Woman Called Moses, The Women of Brewster Place, and Law and Order: SVU.

On film she has been seen in Sounder, The River Niger, Bustin’ Loose, Fried Green Tomatoes, and The Help, to name a few.

We here are Broadway Black salute you, Miss Tyson! We honor you! We thank you! You are TRULY a Black (girl) who ROCKS.

Black Girls Rock airs Sunday, April 5th, 2015 at 7p/6c on BET,
hosted by Tracee Ellis Ross and Regina King.

We’ll be tuning in! Hope you will be, too.

The post Black Girls Rock Will Honor Cicely Tyson appeared first on Broadway Black.