The Plays
Riveting stories exploring Black and Queer lives
Riverside Drive
RIVERSIDE DRIVE: 2M 2W. Eugene, a mild-mannered librarian by day and a foul-mouthed comedian by night, uncovers the hidden legacy of his family's Harlem home, which forces him to transform his life.
Photo Credit: Berenice Abbot, New York Public Library
A Handbag is Not a Proper Mutha
A HANDBAG IS NOT A PROPER MUTHA: 10 People (Trans, Male, Drag Artists). When Roger comes home from his shift at The Duane Reade, he finds that the children of his Harlem Ballroom house have created a production of The Importance of Being Earnest for his birthday, and he's to play the imperious lead, Mutha Bracknell. O’Neill Finalist.
Photo Credit: Off-White Productions
We Can’t Breathe
WE CAN’T BREATHE: 5M 2W. In the wake of the 2014 murder of Eric Garner, two gay, black teenagers, living in Bushwick, wish to protest and have their voices heard. The boys are not only coming to terms with their own sexuality, but also their place as black men in America. They deal with fear, hostility, and ambivalence, not only from society, but also from their own families PlayPenn Finalist and O’Neill Semifinalist.
The Chechens
THE CHECHENS: 3W 2 M. In modern Chechnya rumors are going around that homosexuals are being held in camps. Can one family protect their little brother who may or may not be gay — will they turn him in? Or will they honor kill him? The Parlour, August 2018 directed by Tess Howsam, Exquisite Corpse. O’Neill semifinalist. Runner-up Risk Modern Tragedy Award. 2nd production upcoming Season: Alliance for the Arts, Theatre Conspiracy, winner of their playwriting award.
Walking While Black
WALKING WHILE BLACK: 4M 2W. A transplanted middle-aged Black couple from New York moves to an affluent neighborhood in St. Louis. They discover that the Gateway to the West is the South.
Ribbon About a Bomb
A RIBBON ABOUT A BOMB, co-writer and writer of 3 songs: 8 W. Devised theatre piece dealing with the lives of painters Frida Kahlo, Remedios Varo, and Leonora Carrington directed by Tess Howsam. Governor’s Island House. Fall 2017.
Left to right: Sara Ornelas and Robyn Unger
Minding Miss Mae Mae
MINDING MISS MAE MAE: 2W 1M. Barbara mid 50’s is Miss Mae Mae’s (also mid 50’s) home health aide. When Barbara’s son Jordan, the star of a network procedural, comes home ravaged from Crystal Meth, the women form their own unconventional rehab to detox him, so he can be ready for a new season of the show. Barbara believes in tough love; Miss Mae Mae who is paraplegic, and a pot smoker, believes in The Lord. This is an all-black cast. Finalist Trustus. Semifinalist PlayPenn. Quicksilver Writer in Residence Workshop 2021. Florida Rep PlayLab 2024.
JIG*A*BOO
JIG*A*BOO: 7 M 2 W. In a future America where all blacks have been re-enslaved and most other minorities exterminated, Alan Young is the bright shining light of technology in America. As he settles into his new job in Chicago to create what could possibly be the greatest weapon of mass destruction ever invented, a new slave named Babyboy—a full grown man with the intellect and heart of a child— arrives in a Fed-Ex box in foam peanuts and turns the firm and Alan inside out. This play is an experimental drama partly in verse. Jimmy’s 43 2016..
Comedy, Errors, Vanity, and Stupidity
COMEDY, ERRORS, VANITY, AND STUPIDITY: 12 CAST 4-6 W 6-8 M. A sequel to The Comedy of Errors. One year later Egeon’s secret that the Antipholus and Dromios are actually triplets comes into the light featuring a female triplet Dromia, much confusion ensues. This play is in verse and prose, and gender casting can be fluid. Semifinalist for Shakespeare’s New Contemporaries at The American Shakespeare Center.
The Weird Sisters
THE WEIRD SISTERS: 3 W 1 M. 3 actresses newly minted from an unknown MFA program are living, struggling, and striving in New York. It’s a tough road for all three but even harder when depression is at the core of who you are. The Male plays multiple roles. 53rd St. NYPL staged reading directed by the writer 2017. This play has a full-length version with an act break, and a 90-minute version with no act break.
Left to Right: Kathryn Kuhn, Kisha Peart, Alana Osborn-Lief, Ro Milner, and Writer-Director Phillip Christian Smith.
Photo credit : Margaret Duke
The Last Temptation of Matthew Shepard
THE LAST TEMPTATION OF MATTHEW SHEPARD: 5M 1W. In current Russia, a young man yearning for the touch of another man summons the spectre of Matthew Shepard who was famously left to die on a fence outside of Laramie Wyoming in 1998. The problem is an organization that poses as gay men on the Internet and then tortures and films their victims and posts the whole ordeal without fear of government reprisal. Can Matthew Shepard save this young man, or will he fall into a trap similar to his hero. Reading at Forge. This play also has a one act version entitled: THE BOOK OF MATTHEW, A sixty-page version of The Last Temptation of Matthew Shepard that tells a very different story. Written in Lab with Exquisite Corpse and performed in a rehearsed staged reading.