c/o New Dramatists
424 West 44th Street
New York, NY 10036
(212) 757-6960
(212) 265-4738 fax
Email:
newdramatists@newdramatists.org
Comedy/ A Play in Three Sections.
4M (3 Black, 1 White), 3W (Black)
Unit Set
Eleanor Butler has just been released from prison after ten years
inside. She tries to reconnect with her teenaged son, as she searches
for gainful employment. Her old friend Jimmy has a job for her that
further complicates this search. This all occurs while her parole
officer hawks her to keep her on the straight and narrow. After someone
has paid her debt to society, must she keep paying?
UPCITY SERVICE(S)
Comedy
2M, 2W (all Black)
Unit Set
Jacqueeda needs four dollars and sixty cents to go to her father’s
funeral. Poppy wants to see her because he has a scheme to make them
millionaires. The scripture that is the Daily News has declared that a
local Deacon has won the lottery and Poppy knows that Jacqueeda can talk
him out of some money. Canute keeps working as Sister Berring keeps
carrying her bricks. This play happens on 147th Street and Broadway
UpCity.
ARRYTHMIA
Comedy
2M (Black), 3W (1 Latin/Asian, 2 Black)
Multi-environment Set
E.J. Robertson is diagnosed with a lung and heart ailment. He is told that
he has 90 days to live. He takes this information, decides to leave his
home, (East Saint Louis, IL.) and travel to NYC, to be with the woman he
has always loved. He meets his guardian angel, a Cuban/Chinese woman, who
informs him that he can find love if he avoids fame.
Staged reading at Playwrights Horizons (2000).
HYPE HERO
Absurdist Comedy
5M, 5W (All Black)
Two-Unit Set
In the near future, a conquering hero (Bill Moore) returns home to a Black
community after vanquishing welfare by privatizing it. The world is turned
on its head, when one of the patched people has a question.
The play was written as part of a Van Lier Fellowship at New York
Theatre Workshop. Readings at New York Theatre Workshop (1988),
Playwrights Horizons (1999).
PERSONAL HISTORY
Drama
4M (2 Black, 2 White), 2W (1 Black,1 White)
Unit Set
A couple discovers, at a crucial moment in African-American history, what
it means to have “succeeded:” educationally, financially, and socially. Is
their piece of the American Pie what they thought it was, or has it
actually driven a wedge between them? As two people find themselves bound
by the history of the past 100 years, they come to painful realizations
about the American Dream.
Personal History was produced by The African …at the Kennedy Center, Washington DC, 2002. The play was written as a commission for Steppenwolf Theatre’s New Play Labs.
WEDDING DANCE
Drama with Comedy
3M, 2W (all Black)
Multi-environment Set
A hip hop marriage of realism and idealistic romance produces this fresh
and humorous look at male/female relationships. On a hustling street
corner, Romeo discovers that crime doesn’t pay when it’s love you’re
looking for. Take this new look at how young people experience romantic
love “around the way.”
Produced by the African … at the Kennedy Center, Washington, D.C.
(2003) and Crossroads Theatre (1997). Commissioned by the Goodman Theatre.
Recipient of the first Scott McPherson Award. Recipient of an AT&T ON
STAGE Grant.
IT’S YOUR BIRTHDAY
Drama with Comedy
2M, 3W (all Black)
Unit Set
Chad and Georgina are an exceedingly affluent African-American couple,
preparing for their daughter’s fifth birthday party, when the child is
abducted on her way to the spa. Follow this couple as they deal with this
dilemma, a surrogate daughter, and the Baker who has a cake to deliver.