
...home for creative emerging black playwrights
Our Artists: What are they up to?

Gethsemane Herron
Playwrights’ Center announced the 2023–24 McKnight Fellows in Playwriting and the 2023–24 McKnight National Residency & Commission recipient. These fellowships, generously supported by the McKnight Foundation, are important components of the array of opportunities that Playwrights’ Center offers to playwrights at all stages of their careers. The McKnight Fellows in Playwriting for next season included our 2020/21 resident Gethsemane Herron.

Marcus Scott
Marcus Scott, from Year Two of the Writing Residency Program, will have his play Sibling Rivalries workshopped and developed through @eggandspoontheatre Collective's 2023 INCUBATION SERIES this summer. Sibling Rivalries was the play he wrote initially while with LTC.
Find out how to follow the progression of this piece here: https://www.eggandspoontheatre.org
Congratulations, Marcus!

Shawn Nabors
Shawn Christopher Lovell Nabors, a playwright in the first year of our Writing Residency Program, is now a filmmaker (in addition to being an actor, singer, songwriter, etc.). He is producing a short film, Daddy, that tells the story of one man's strong desire to become a parent the natural way, by getting pregnant.
Shawn has started a crowdfunding campaign to raise funds for his project and if you'd like to contribute and find out more, click on the link: https://www.supportourstory.com/daddyshortfilm

Tylie Shider
Tylie Shider from Year Two of the Writing Residency Program, is the playwright behind the first workshop production of National Black Theatre's 55th Season, The Gospel Woman!
Inspired by his upbringing in Plainfield, New Jersey, Tylie sought to write a rehearsal drama based on his mother's background as a gospel singer in the 1960s. Set against the backdrop of the 1967 Newark riots, The Gospel Woman is the second installment in his series of "Mom & Pop Plays".

Jessica Charles
My play Antiquated Fuckery will be performed at 59E59 - Theater C - October 2-29th 2023

Joslyn Housley McLaughlin
Yay! I start tomorrow! MFA in Writing for the Screen and Stage at Northwestern University! A very big thank you to Heather Helinsky, Bernard Tarver, and Steve Wallace!

Brysen Boyd
Reverie Theatre Group, of Pawtucket RI, has named Brysen Boyd, a member of this year's Writing Residency Program, as their Resident Playwright. Over the next year, he will collaborate with them to create new stage productions. It should be an exciting opportunity. You can follow that company on their Facebook page. https://www.facebook.com/reverietheatregroup

Calley Anderson
Congratulations Calley Anderson, a member of our current Writing Residency Program, who has been selected for the 2022 I AM SOUL Playwright Residency with the National Black Theatre.
This 18 month residency is one of three programs that comprise the SOUL Series LAB (Liberating Artistic Bravery) Residency Programs run by NBT, the others being the SOUL Producing Residency, and SOUL Directing Residency.
This year's cohort of artists will officially start their residencies on Tuesday, September 6th. Each resident is provided a financial stipend, professional development, dramaturgical and developmental resources, and a full production team.

Nathaniel Johnson
Nathaniel Johnson, a playwright in Year One of the Writing Residency Program, will have excerpts from his play, Quarters, Halves, and the Whole, presented as part of “A Night of Comedy Honoring HBCU’s” at The Black Academy of Arts and Letters (TBAAL) in Dallas, TX. The play, which he was working on while in residency, follows the lives of four freshmen attending HBCU’s and the joy and anxiety that comes in the freedom of that first year of independence.

Johnny Lloyd
Hi friends -
Kind of a big deal is happening. I'm doing my off-broadway premiere as a writer! And that means that it's time for my yearly email about Patience...
Anyway - it's being directed by wunderkind Zhailon Levingston, features some amazing to-be-announced actors, as is something that I have poured my entire being into for the last four years with a lot of guidance from a lot of people who are much smarter than me.
Also, the tickets are actually really cheap. Also, I would love to see you there. So - come! We run August 2nd thru August 28th. Get tickets here

Deneen Reynolds-Knott
Deneen Reynolds-Knott, from Year Two, who will be a playwright in the Ingram New Works Project at Nashville Rep. She will receive support, networking opportunities and a public reading during the season-long program, which in 13 years has developed more than 60 new plays working with early career playwrights.