Playwright Zakiyyah Alexander 2007

link: The Playwright Portrait Project

 Playwright Zakiyyah Alexander, 2007

excerpt from 10 Things to Do Before I Die

VIDA: Hello, it’s me and I am leaving you a message. You know what I hate? What I hate about you? I hate the fact that you drip sweat all over me, it’s disgusting, not sexy. I hate that you say the word fucking while you’re fucking me. I hate it when you go down on me. I lie there and wait while you think you’re actually doing something, then I pretend to come cause I’m worried that I might hurt your feelings. I hate that you don’t call me enough, that you don’t think about me enough, that you don’t love me. And, I hate the way I feel when you walk out the door. I hate you for making me hate me.

Playwright Karen Hartman, VOLT Festival, 2022, 59 e 59 theater

Playwright Karen Hartman,

Primary Stages

 presents

New Golden Age

Directed by Jade King Carroll

Lee Savage, Set Design

The Playwright Portrait Site

 

Playwright Mara Velez Melendez, Soho Rep, 2022

Playwright Mara Velez Melendez,   Soho Rep

2022

 “Notes on Killing Seven Oversight, Management and Economic Stability Board Members,”

"You don’t have to be courageous to be sublime"

 

My Passenges Enroute to JFK Taxi, 2014

 

Summer Trees in East NY, 2013

Linden Blvd,

North Conduit, 

 

Emily Zemba, New Ohio Theater, 2022

 Playwright Emily Zemba, 

New Ohio Theater, 2022

THE STRANGERS CAME TODAY

Written by Emily Zemba

Conceived by SOCIETY

Directed by Violeta Picayo

MARGARET

[...] And then I thought: wouldn’t it be funny if everyone else here was ALSO an actor? If every single one of you was also an actor, working with some theater company, gathering in-person research, for some project. Wouldn’t that be funny?

And but then I thought: well, I mean, that doesn’t really make sense, does it? Statistically, I mean. Because honestly, how many theater companies are there, really? How many small theater companies could there possibly be, in the world, at one time, at the same time, working on the same thing? Asking the same questions. Also, wasn’t it Maeterlinck the Belgian dramatist who said “the majority of the great poems of humanity are not stageable?”

...

I am really sorry.

....

Moondance was always my favorite Van Morrison song, Matt.

OR

MEDIUM

Did I know that? Hmm. That’s an interesting question. Did I know that?

 

PSYCHOTHERAPIST

Are you asking me??

 

MEDIUM

I suppose the cleanest answer is: no, I didn’t know that.

But, the more truthful is: I don’t know what I know, often.

—. It’s like when you step on a crack in the sidewalk. Did you know the crack was there? Probably not literally, not exactly. But maybe you were aware that it could be there. Maybe you looked down and saw it just before your foot hit the pavement. Maybe you chose to step on it anyway. Maybe you were curious what it would feel like. Maybe the unevenness of the concrete set you a little off balance... but you found your footing again just in time.

You see, I feel things, like cracks in sidewalk, without meaning to.

Maybe the question isn’t ‘what do I know’. But what do you know, JoAnn?

Emily Zemba

Playwright 

Wicked in Times Square, 2017

Wicked in Times Square, 2017