Celebrate These 30 Queer Playwrights of Color Through Their Work
In my 15+ years of being an actor, I have barely read or seen any productions written by African-American playwrights… let alone LGBTQ playwrights of color.
This is a problem.
It wasn’t until my time at Texas State University that I was exposed to POC playwrights. I give complete credit to the Black and Latino Playwrights Conference, helmed by Eugene Lee, for highlighting these works.
But that is not enough.
I am a student of my craft. In support of Black Lives Matter and Pride Month, I pledge to continue educating myself and others.
Learn about LGBTQ experiences through theatre and support queer playwrights of color. Buy their scripts. Read from cover to cover. Tell your friends. Start a dialogue. Amplify their voices.
Tarell Alvin McCraney
Choir Boy, The Brother/Sister Plays trilogy, Head of Passes
Photo by Justin Bettman
AZIZA BARNES
BLKS
Photo by David Lin
JEREMY O. HARRIS
Slave Play, Daddy
Photo by Christopher Smith/Invision/AP
c.A. JOHNSON
All The Natalie Portmans, Thirst, The Climb
Photo by Da Ping Luo
DONJA R. LOVE
Sugar In Our Wounds, Fireflies
Photo by Boneau/Bryan-Brown
HARRISON DAVID RIVERS
This Bitter Earth,PARKS, the bandaged place, The Sea & The Stars
Photo by Zack Dezon
TANYA BARFIELD
Bright Half Life
Lorraine Hansberry
A Raisin In The Sun
Azure D. Osborne-Lee
Mirrors, Crooked Parts, Glass, The Beasts of Warren
Photo by Ashley Garrett
Luis Alfaro
Oedipus El Rey
Photo by Erik Tanner for The New York Times
J. Julian Christopher
Bruise & Thorn
Mercedes de Acosta
Women in Turmoil
Matthew Lopez
The Inheritance, The Whipping Man
Michael R. Jackson
A Strange Loop
Kit Yan
Interstate
OWEN DODSON
Bayou Legend
James Baldwin
The Amen Corner
Robert O’Hara
Insurrection: Holding History
SAM HAMASHIMA
American Spies and Other Homegrown Fables
Donnetta Lavinia Grays
Where We Stand
Erika Dickerson-Despenza
Cullud Wattah
Griffin Matthews
Witness Uganda
Jordan E. Cooper
Ain't No Mo
Rodney Hicks
Flame Broiled, or the ugly play, Soul Narrative: Ms. Pearl's Cabaret
Branden Jacobs-Jenkins
An Octoroon, Gloria, Everybody
Staceyann Chin
MotherStruck!
Patricia Ione Lloyd
The Light, Black Tale, Eve’s Song
Korde Arrington Tuttle
graveyard shift
Carmen LoBue
Will You…Hold My Hair Back
Nia Witherspoon
The Messiah Complex
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Follow their journeys as they continue to make history on Broadway.