Author: DGF
Statement of Solidarity
The recent murders in Atlanta of eight people, six of them Asian American women, at the hands of a white supremacist is the latest horrific example of the cancer of anti-Asian racism in America.
We know, as writers, that narrative is a powerful tool that can be used for good or ill. It can illuminate lasting truths that ennoble us all, and it can also denigrate, diminish, stereotype, and scapegoat. These most recent attacks cannot be disconnected from the particular and pernicious mix of misogyny, sexual fetishization, and racism twined into cultural narratives that have been used throughout our nation’s history to justify discrimination and violence against Asian people.
These acts affect us. They affect our membership. What sets race and gender based violence apart from other acts of violence is the powerful message of intimidation it sends to everyone in the targeted group. It’s a message felt by many in our community, and one we can push back against through solidarity. We urge all writers to join us in supporting, standing up, and speaking out against anti-Asian American hatred and violence.
The Dramatists Guild Foundation offers several resources for immediate support for AAPI writers. Emergency Grants provide financial relief for medical expenses, rent, grocery bills, and other life necessities. The Steven Schwartzberg Grants for Mental Health and Wellness are available to help pay for mental health and wellness services. Please visit www.dgf.org for more information.
Below are additional resources for those in need of support, as well as information about how to take action.
The Steven Schwartzberg Grants for Mental Health and Wellness
Task Force and Pro Bono Legal Resources
Stop AAPI Hate: A Resource Guide to Support the Asian-American Community
A Literary Guide To Combat Anti-Asian Racism in America
Asian Mental Health Collective
The Dramatists Guild of America
With the Support of
The Dramatists Guild Foundation
The Lillys
The Dramatists Legal Defense Fund
The Dramatists Guild Institute of Dramatic Writing
DG Copyright Management
Black Lives Matter
In May 1963, Robert F. Kennedy met with a small group of Black artists and activists, including Dramatists Guild members James Baldwin and Lorraine Hansberry. When Kennedy seemed unable to comprehend the pain of Jerome Smith, who had been beaten and jailed by the police, Hansberry reportedly said, “if you are insensitive to this, then there is no alternative except our going into the streets…and chaos.”
It has been 57 years since Lorraine Hansberry walked out of that meeting, and systemic racism remains pervasive throughout American society. The brutal murder of George Floyd, by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, is the latest atrocity in a history of oppression spanning four hundred years. Rage has become the only rational response. As Hansberry said to Kennedy, “We would like, from you, a moral commitment.” We call on every American to make a personal commitment to immediate change.
As writers, we express solidarity with our colleagues in the press, who place themselves at risk to keep us informed. In an era of endless spin, the devolution of truth, and the demonization of science, journalistic freedom is among our most essential values.
We passionately affirm our commitment to amplify and protect the voices of Black writers. We honor the legacy of Baldwin and Hansberry, and support the next generation of Guild members. We will continue to work with writers to build theatrical responses to their communities’ needs.
Musical genres such as blues, jazz, rock-n-roll, r&b, and hip-hop, created by African Americans, fuel the musicals which keep Broadway alive and grace the stage of every theatre and school in America. Plays written by African Americans have deepened our understanding of the human experience and expanded the canon of literature’s most celebrated works. Without Black people, and their constant creation of imaginative and exciting art forms, the American theatre as we know it could not exist.
We strongly condemn leadership that refuses to address the overwhelming pain of its citizenry, that meets civic protest with violence, and that fails to ennoble us and inspire us during a very dark time. We need to be reminded of our nation’s common purpose: to provide freedom and equality to all of its people.
The Dramatists Guild of America
With the Support of
The Dramatists Guild Foundation
The Dramatists Legal Defense Fund
The Dramatists Guild Institute of Dramatic Writing
DG Copyright Management
Writers Reflect on Black History Month
Earlier this month, we reached out to a small group of Black writers in our community to respond to one or more question prompts regarding their thoughts on the intersection of Black History Month and Theater as part of an evolving record of writers’ voices and opinions on important topics. These prompts were:
In your opinion, what is the relationship between Black dramatists and the general public’s understanding of American history?
How does the theater help preserve, complicate, and celebrate Black history?
Are there any Black writers, living or deceased, that you would like to bring particular attention to?
These are their responses:
Kirsten Childs (The Bubbly Black Girl Sheds Her Chameleon Skin, Bella: An American Tall Tale)
The relationship between Black dramatists and the general public’s understanding of American history is the relationship between all dramatists and the general public’s understanding of history. It‘s fraught, it’s subjective and it’s always worthy of tackling.
I truly don’t know how theater preserves and complicates Black history, but I can tell you how it celebrates it in America. Not before and not past the twenty-eight days of February for whoever the lucky Black writer is, chuckle.
Since I’m a musical theater writer, I’m just going to focus on writers who’ve written for musical theater. These are folks that you either 1. know about; 2. will know about soon; 3. will never know about until it’s too late or too expensive because you decided to pass on going to their shows, oh foolish ones.
Micki Grant. Michael R. Jackson. Masi Asare. Marcus Gardley. Cheryl Davis. Charlayne Woodard. Angelica Chéri. Scott Davenport Richards. Fred Carl. Regina Taylor. Sukari Marie Jacobs Jones. Morgan J. Smart. Jacinth Greywoode. AriDy Nox. Janice Lowe. Douglas Lyons. Imani Uzuri. Troy Anthony. Marcus Scott. Janelle Marie. Charles Randolph-Wright. Jarrett Murray. Dionne McClain-Freeney. Kahlil Daniel. Darrel Alejandro Holnes. Aurin Squire. Ayesu Lartey. Elizabeth Addison. Bil Wright. Bridgette Wimberly. Charles Vincent Burwell. Dahlak Brathwaite. Darius Smith. Ed DuRanté. Gregory F. Jackson. Joseph-Vernon Banks. Mkhululi Matyalana Ka Mabija. Nambi E. Kelley. Naomie Harris. Shawn Rene Graham. Will Power. Charles Innis. Anastasia Johnson. Annabel Mutale Reed. Katie Madison. Khiyon Hursey.
France-Luce Benson (Tigress of San Domingue, Detained, Deux Femmes on the Edge de la Revolution, Boat People)
[NOTE: revised to reflect edits made by France-Luce Benson in August 2020]Unfortunately, I think our understanding of American history continues to lean towards a narrow and frequently revisionist perception of events. There are many Black dramatists who challenge these ideas in innovative ways. Sadly, we are not hearing their voices enough. I do appreciate that theatres are making more efforts towards inclusivity, and I’m excited by initiatives like #WeseeyouWAT, demanding radical change now. However, I think the problem with representation may have more to do with America’s ethnocentric, capitalist mentality that has infected American theatre. Until we understand how America’s involvement in the Afro-Atlantic slave trade impacted ALL countries of the Afro-Diaspora, and America’s relationship to those countries, as well as the contribution Blacks from all over the diaspora have made to America – I don’t think we can have a clear picture of America’s history. We just aren’t seeing enough work by a variety of black dramatists – particularly voices that acknowledge the expanse of the Afro-Diaspora.
That said, I’d like to bring attention to a few artists and initiatives you should know
1) Acclaimed playwright Carlyle Brown started the Afro-Atlantic Playwrights program in collaboration with the Camargo Foundation and The Jerome Foundation. I was honored to be among the inaugural co-hort at Camargo; and was subsequently selected for the Afro-Atlantic Playwrights Festival that took place in 2019 at The Playwrights Center in Minneapolis, and NYU. The work Carlyle is doing to celebrate playwrights from across the Diaspora is inspiring and important. My co-hort included Genevieve McCall, Zainabu Jallo, Kara Lee Corthron, Bode Asiyanbi, Kimberly (Dr. Goddess) Ellis, Blessing Hungwe and Femi Osifi
2) Oromo Ethiopian born Actor, Playwright, Producer Antu Yacob – in association with Project Y Theatre, curated the “All Hands On Deck” WIT Festival – currently available to view on YouTube. The festival features work by four black, female identifying playwrights, from diverse cultural backgrounds. Yacob, herself, is an incredible writer whose plays offer nuanced texture to the Black American experience.
3) Haitian-American playwright and Actor Magaly Colimon–
Khiyon Hursey (Sean’s Story, Eastbound)
I think there are a number of dramatists working today to celebrate black history. I also think History can include the past, present and future. I think artists such as Jackie Sibblies Drury, Michael R. Jackson, Robert O’Hara, Donja Love, and Branden Jacobs-Jenkins are creating work that looks at our current history as black people while also looking back into the past to further unpack the complex histories of Black Americans. With that said, the theater, at times, does not give our grant our great black artists the “so called honor of” having their work on the great white way while continuing to usher in the mediocre work of white men. Broadway is changing, yes, but until we see a more diverse array of writers, the theater continues to not celebrate, complicate, and preserve our history to the fullest.
Happy Black History Month!
Jonathan Payne (Opal Root, The Revolving Cycles Truly and Steadily Roll’d)
I would love to hands down shout-out Tearrance Arvelle Chisholm! I admit, I am biased as once his classmates at Juilliard, but his work is just stellar. I haven’t heard anything like his work, and have just been riveted every time I hear or see something of his. He’s wonderfully funny and sharp, and mixes the black experience and genre in unusual ways. He’s also a bit of a hip prophet. It’s worth it to just sit with him and trade thoughts. He has a unique insight and way of maneuvering about the world. He is hands down one of my favorite writers and humans out there.
Your help has impact
As we gather with loved ones this holiday season, we share stories to strengthen the bonds between us, reminding us of the power of human connection. Plays and musicals have the power to do this on a massive scale, healing our divisions and uniting our entire human family. But in this season of celebration, many of the writers who shape our world for the better are in jeopardy.
DGF’s Emergency Grants give financial support to writers who find themselves in severe circumstances. These writers face challenges that make creative expression impossible – unexpected medical crises, childcare emergencies, domestic violence, natural disasters, and more. On this day of universal philanthropy, please support DGF with a gift so we can provide Emergency Grants to every writer in need. Gifts of $250 or more entitle you to membership with exclusive benefits in The Write Stuff Society, DGF’s giving community.
Read on to meet some of our recipients and see how your contributions provide much needed relief for writers, composers, and lyricists in distress.
“In January of this year my rent department notified me that they’d miscalculated my rents for September, October, November, and December 2018. They also informed me that unless I paid the back rents IMMEDIATELY I would be evicted. And indeed, I received four such notices. Unfortunately, my income doesn’t allow for a financial crisis of that kind. Also the threat of eviction with a life-partner in the final stages of COPD ended my ability to write for five months. Fortunately for us, Dramatists Guild Foundation Emergency Grants intervened and paid my building most of what they’d suddenly decided I owed. The relief provided was not only financial. I am again writing and have completed a new script. Thank you Dramatists Guild Foundation for your Emergency Grants!”
- Lanie Robertson, Playwright (The Insanity of Mary Girard, Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill)
“I’m writing to say thank you. Not only did your care and generosity rescue me financially, the sense of security it provided served as a wellspring for an artistic, educational, and compassion-based project, QUEER, ILL + OKAY.”
- Joseph Varisco, Program Director, QUEER, ILL + OKAY
“I really appreciate that the Dramatists Guild Foundation considered my proposal and the conferral of the Emergency Grant. Puerto Rico was significantly damaged by Hurricane Maria. Most of my work is voluntary and is meant for marginalized communities. I have access to these communities through creative writing workshops and dramatic art programs that have become an outlet for individual and collective sorrow. We have developed stronger communities able to express their inner voices through the arts and have given them tools to deconstruct their past and construct a brighter future. I really appreciate this opportunity and feel blessed to know that artists in the world are supporting each other.”
- María Teresa Marichal Lugo, Playwright
Writing for the theater as self-care
According to Nisha Sajnani, associate professor at NYU Steinhardt and Director of the school’s Drama Therapy Program, deeply stressful experiences— poverty, assault, environmental disasters, even the dissolution of relationships — can disrupt our sense of identity and role within our personal social networks. “These ruptures can contribute to anxiety, depression, and emotional dysregulation,” Sajnani says, which can precipitate social isolation, aggression, or other harmful coping behaviors.
Self-care, from private psychotherapy sessions to physical exercise, is vital to ameliorating and reconciling with our own trauma. But writing — and specifically, playwriting — offers us a unique opportunity to both merge therapeutic exercise with the creative process and transmute our pain into something positive. Here’s why writing plays helps us make sense of ourselves in the world:
Playwriting allows us to distance ourselves from our emotions by putting them on the page.
Negative thoughts or experiences often occur in repetitive loops, reentering our stream of conscience and hampering our focus and productivity until we finally address them. Forcing ourselves to put those images or words onto a page, whether in exposition or dialogue, not only cuts that loop by giving those thoughts a place to escape, but also proves we have agency over them. What’s more, looking at a visual representation of our feelings (in this case, words) provides the necessary distance from them to gain full insight into why they bother us, and the closure to finally let them go.
Playwriting allows us to place ourselves as the hero of our own narrative.
Playwriting provides us with the opportunity to put into writing that we are not victims of a tragedy, but survivors looking to persevere. The authorial voice in descriptions, dialogue, and stage directions gives us full agency to discuss negative experiences in our own terms, and serve as visual reminders that we own our pain, and not vice-versa.
The group aspect of playwriting divides the burden of trauma.
Hearing others perform the dialogue we’ve written provides important insight into how those involved in our circumstances processed the events; it fosters empathy with the other players in our personal narrative. Externalizing a narrative onto a character allows us to look at the situation with a rational and compassionate eye simultaneously. Additionally, when other play participants — actors, stage managers, etc. — work through our personal narrative, it almost divides the emotional weight among them. Working through pain with a group provides us with a web of social support, reducing feelings of isolation.
Playwriting provides a voice to those generally neglected by society.
Consuming stories that authentically reflect our experiences can help untangle and diminish personal trauma. However, finding stories that reflect those experiences can be difficult: Artistic mirrors may not exist, or worse, provide warped, inaccurate reflections of ourselves. Playwriting allows us to build our own mirrors, ensuring that our stories are told as authentically and effectively as we see fit. What’s more, sharing that mirror with others builds a community through which we can further distill trauma.
The inner critic helps, just not always
The inner critic can emerge at any stage of the writing process, questioning our writing’s worth, its execution, and our own artistic abilities. Unfettered judgment combines with physical discomfort to form a lethal combination that can hamper the creative process, or worse, convince us not to write at all.
Many of us are aware that in order to thrive in our writing, we have to be able to silence our sharpest judgments. We think “Why can’t I be freer, why can’t the words flow from me, I hate my inner critic!” But is that really true? Do we really think we don’t need the inner voice that calls upon our work to be better? Perhaps, one of the many reasons why the critic’s input is so hard to ignore is that we agree with it and value its input. The inner critic plays an important role in tightening and thoroughly examining how to improve our work. It is the inner critic that dichotomizes the trite idea from the original, identifies and erases repetitiveness, lifelessness, and ambiguity. Without it, we’d do ourselves a disservice by producing work that doesn’t reflect our true potential.
No one who hopes to make a life as a writer needs to kill the inner critic, and punishing oneself for this inner voice is not going to make the problem better. One instead needs to develop the skills necessary to be able to temporarily put the voice aside and invite a second internal voice — let’s call it, the inner creator. The inner creator just wants to get words on the page; to create; to play. And once the inner creator tires out, then we can welcome the inner critic to mine the work for the most valuable material. The two voices work beautifully in tandem, one adding clay to the wheel and one shaping it.
This is a difficult task; the critic will think the creator is stupid, silly, unhelpful, and wasteful (and who, in today’s world, wants to create something that doesn’t provide value.) But that is okay; it’s crucial to give yourself permission to write badly. Expecting excellence from the start and letting our inner critic dominate the conversation is a writing practice that only leads to a strained, energy-draining creative process.
Ignoring the critic for just a little while won’t suddenly destroy your capacity to critique and improve your work. Nor do we think you have to diminish your goals about how good your work can be. The critic doesn’t have to lower its standards, but it needs to know when it’s time for input and when it’s not. Plus, your inner critic will actually do a much better job working with existing material than it will editing every word as it reaches the page. How can we expect our critic to shape the totality of our work if we haven’t even allowed the creator to get all of the basic ideas onto the page? Letting our “bad writing” onto the page essentially provides us with the brain space to process the specific aspects of our ideas and opinions that desperately need communicating.
That said, it’s important to remember that the inner critic’s red pen is directed solely at the words on the page, and not our own artistic abilities. The critic can be quick to dismiss our entire artistic personhood when what’s on the page doesn’t add up to our loftiest hopes. Maybe this is because it’s easier to dismiss ourselves as artists outright than it is to imagine that what we have the ability to create to our highest potential. Dare to imagine that you have the ability to create the work you actually want seen in the world. Improvement is difficult, scary, and rarely resembles our preconceptions – but it is real.
We don’t need to try and become mythic free spirits with no opinions on the quality of what we make. Allowing space for our playful inner creator won’t make us bad writers, either. The best answer is to learn how to make the appropriate space for both. We can remember our artistic ambition without forgetting that the vulnerability of sharing our inner truths and stories is what likely attracted us to writing for the theater in the first place.
Your impact
Every show you have seen, read, listened to, shared, and loved all began with a blank piece of paper. The struggle of filling that paper is something we can all relate to. Thankfully, the thousands of writers every year that interact with the Dramatists Guild Foundation have found ways to push through that doubt. They have inspired me and our whole team to take bold steps to better serve our community across the United States.
Personally, I faced the blank page, paper after paper while pursuing my Masters in Nonprofit Management at Columbia. I am proud to share with all of you that I graduated this year, and could not be more excited to be putting my new skills to use for DGF.
The last year and a half has been full of new beginnings. We have welcomed new staff and Board members, ushered in a new program, and expanded our outreach to writers in exciting ways. First, our Traveling Masters, supported by Roe Green and the Roe Green Foundation, has now reached writers and students in nearly all 50 states – we will reach this goal by the end of 2019!
We launched the New Voices program last year and have now expanded into a new school, doubling the number of 4th grade students we have helped find their unique voices. The program is already receiving generous support to help it grow, including a grant from the Maurer Family Foundation that supports formal evaluation of our curriculum to improve our efficacy and ensure that young students are receiving the best playwriting education possible.
In December 2018, we received an incredibly generous gift from the Seller-Lehrer Family Foundation for $2 million in support of our Fellows program and Emergency Grants. The Fellows program continues to be a leading entity in identifying and elevating the most promising voices of the future, with former Fellows like Benj Pasek, Justin Paul, Michael R. Jackson, Antoinette Nwandu, Lauren Yee, Kristen Anderson-Lopez, and others making tremendous waves in the community with their groundbreaking work. We also awarded the inaugural Stephen Schwartz Award to former Fellow Oliver Houser. Thank you, Stephen!
We have worked to grow our community, reaching out to several luminaries of the stage who have become wonderful allies of DGF and our mission. In March, we were joined by legends Judith Light and Tony Kushner, who we awarded the Madge Evans and Sidney Kingsley Awards for Excellence in Theater. We also had the distinct honor of being joined by Hadestown composer, lyricist, and bookwriter Anaïs Mitchell for a Salon in June, just days before she and the production won eight Tony Awards. As these individuals inspired us with their commitment to the preservation and continuation of the craft, so did many of you by joining DGF’s new The Write Stuff Society. Thanks to our newly hired Development Director Mady Schuman and our Development Manager Jamie Balsai, The Write Stuff Society brings together our most dedicated supporters from all backgrounds.
Please click here and take at the Donor Impact Report to learn more about our programs and see first hand how your support is creating exponential benefit to the lives of writers across the country. Educational programs, free space, and awards, grants and stipends that you help fund are having a huge impact on writers at all stages of their careers. Those programs, and all of the wonderful milestones we have hit this year, are all because of you. Just as writers inspire us to challenge ourselves and reach toward a more beautiful future, you too inspire us to thrive in our mission every day.
Thank you!
Meet the 2019/2020 Fellows and New Fellows Chairs
DGF Announces New Fellows and Program Chairs Dramatists Guild Foundation would like to formally announce a new 2019-2020 class of DGF Fellows, as well as new Chairs to the program.
The new Fellows class includes Melis Aker, Nolan Doran and Avi Amon, Kate Douglas, Elliah Heifetz and Jessica Kahkoska, Nikhil Mahapatra, Kyoung H. Park, Andrew Rincón, Andy Roninson, and Paulo Tiról. Each of these writers and writing teams has proven themselves to be of exceptional talent and promise. These writers will spend the year developing full-length shows with the guidance of the Program Chairs. In addition, Fellows receive a stipend, access to guest artists, and an additional opportunity with one of DGF’s partner organizations to further develop their piece. The program will culminate in a presentation of their work at an Off-Broadway theater.
Furthermore, after seven years of service as the Playwriting Chair of the Fellows program, Diana Son (Stop Kiss) will be stepping down from the position, and Migdalia Cruz (El Grito Del Bronx) and Lucy Thurber (The Hill Town Plays) will be the new Playwriting Chairs. Cruz and Thurber will join Musical Theater Chairs Laurence O’Keefe (Heathers) and Michael Korie (Grey Gardens) in stewarding the program. On the announcement of the new chairs, DGF Program Manager Tessa Raden Gregory said, “DGF is grateful to welcome Migdalia and Lucy into the position of Fellows Program Chairs. As artists whose work resonates with audiences across the country, they embody DGF’s commitment to serving the national theater community. We are excited for them to continue Diana’s legacy of education and artistic excellence.”
The Fellows program is a selective, year-long opportunity for playwrights, composers, lyricists, and bookwriters to develop full-length pieces. The Fellows program is highly sought after for its uniquely successful format of partnering playwrights and musical theater writers together in the learning process, with the musical theater writers working particularly closely with the Musical Theater Chairs, and the playwrights working more closely with the Playwriting Chairs. On her enthusiasm with the new crop of Fellows, Cruz added: “I am excited to continue a journey begun by Diana Son with patience and beauty, alongside my fierce colleague Lucy Thurber. We will tell the truth and keep it real. Looking forward to begin working with five brave and talented writers. Mentor, n. Someone who tortures you into becoming who you were always meant to be.”
Former Fellows include Kristen Anderson-Lopez (Frozen), Michael R. Jackson (A Strange Loop), Antoinette Nwandu (Pass Over), Lauren Yee (King of the Yees), Stacey Rose (Legacy Land), Benj Pasek and Justin Paul (Dear Evan Hansen) and many more.
Reflections on Pride
This is one of a two-part series. Click here to hear from seven different writers on why it is crucial to make space for queer voices on stage.
In celebration of PRIDE month, we have been reflecting on the legacy of queer writers and their impact on the theatrical community, society, and in our own personal lives. Our theatrical community has been not only enriched but arguably created by the works of queer artists. Writers for the stage have played a key role in both spreading acceptance and educating on the queer experience. We thank the queer-identifying writers of yesterday, today, and tomorrow for speaking up and speaking out.
The stage has always been ahead of the curve in regard to offering queer representation. While queer characters have existed since the dawn of theater itself, explicitly queer characters have appeared on American popular stages as early as the 1920s. But these shows, more often than not written by straight writers, offered a flawed portrayal of these characters that viewed them through the lens of the moral standards of the day. By the sixties, this was changing, and out writers were creating out characters that challenged previous portrayals. There are famous examples such as Boys in the Band, and later The Normal Heart, but there were also many smaller productions performed at institutions like Caffe Cino, WOW Café Theatre, or by groups like Hot Peaches and Charles Ludlam’s Ridiculous Theatrical Company. These shows emboldened activists, helping to communicate the human core of their work, and also offered a perspective on queer life that could also include joy and irreverence.
While some of these smaller shows have unfortunately been unacknowledged or lost to history, it is through writers that a direct lineage to this radical openness is maintained. As Keelay Gipson says: “As a queer, black boy in the middle of the country, I looked to the storytellers illuminating our history and our stories through the written word. James Baldwin, Tony Kushner, Robert O’Hara, Paula Vogel, Tarell Alvin McCraney—these writers shaped me as a person and as a dramatist. Their brave work could illuminate for folks like me—not yet out of the closet or sure of their voice, not yet living in a time of radical acceptance—how to build, unapologetically, a life in the theater telling queer stories.” Today, many companies such as Diversionary Theatre in San Diego and The Theater Offensive in Boston are carrying on the tradition of centering queer narratives on the stage. Contemporary theatergoers are also revisiting the work of queer writers like María Irene Fornés, who’s work has never achieved the level of recognition that its influence merits.
For queer people, seeing one’s experience reflected onstage – particularly when that representation is housed in authentic characters grappling with real human problems – can be a necessary balm for the hurt of living in a hostile society. In March of this year, President of Jujamcyn Theaters Jordan Roth presented Tony Kushner with the DGF Madge Evans & Sidney Kingsley Award for Excellence in Theater for his body of work and for work yet to come. Roth described what it felt like to be a young queer person encountering Angels in America as a “soon-to-be-out seventeen-year-old:”
“…My friends and I passed around his writing like secret sacred texts. Passages underlined, sentences highlighted, questions/hopes/prayers scribbled in the margins. Devouring everything we could find that he ever wrote, said or even considered. Those lucky enough to have been witness to a production, to have received the word directly, regaled the rest with tales of magic made manifest.”
So many shows had and continue to have tremendous impact on the heartscape of the nation. In honor of this ripple effect, we decided to maintain a chronological list of some of the pieces written by queer writers that have helped shine a light on the community and those that are continuing to challenge the sense of what it means to be queer in America.
Over the last several decades, we’ve seen the emergence of thrilling, heart-breaking, joyful, rich stories by and about women, trans people, and people of color, led by writers who have refused to have their own experiences written out of queer history. This is a tribute to the seminal works that have helped American theater get to where it is today AND an invitation to the next generation to help steer the ship, using theater as a launchpad for larger conversations about the LGBTQIA+ community and intersectionality in America.
Because this list captures only a fraction of the many groundbreaking, illuminating pieces that queer artists have made, we welcome your suggestions in the comments below:
- Mart Crowley – The Boys in the Band (1968)
- María Irene Fornés – Fefu and Her Friends (1977)
- Harvey Fierstein – Torch Song Trilogy (1978)
- Jane Chambers – Last Summer at Bluefish Cove (1980)
- Larry Kramer – The Normal Heart (1985)
- Kate Bornstein – Hidden: A Gender (1989)
- Tony Kushner – Angels in America (1991)
- William Finn and James Lapine – Falsettos (1992)
- Terrence McNally – Love! Valor! Compassion! (1994)
- John Cameron Mitchell – Hedwig and the Angry Inch (1998)
- Harvey Fierstein and Cyndi Lauper – Kinky Boots (2012)
- Tarell Alvin McCraney – Choir Boy (2012)
- Lisa Kron and Jeanine Tesori – Fun Home (2013)
- Paula Vogel – Indecent (2015)
- Taylor Mac – A 24-Decade History of Popular Music (2016)
- Basil Kreimendahl – Orange Julius (2017)
- Donja R. Love – Sugar in our Wounds (2018)
- Michael R. Jackson – Strange Loop (2019)
We are happy for this canon to grow, for “secret, sacred texts” to be made known, and for new generations of queer writers to have their voices heard. That is certainly something to be proud of.
Sincerely,
The DGF Staff
P.S. If you think there is an important work about the queer experience written by a queer writer that should be on this list, please leave it in a comment below!
Speaking Out: Seven Writers on the Importance of Queer Voices in Theater
The art of queer writers helps to translate the joy, rage, history, and humanity of the LGBTQI+ community. Hear why these seven artists believe it is crucial that queer writers are given space on the American stage:
“As a trans and yellow American person making theater, I am aware that stories from my communities have been systematically and institutionally silenced so it’s important to get our work out no matter how it is produced or if it is produced, because our folx need to see ourselves onstage in order to feel that same theater magic that makes a person feel alive, possible, and human.”
- Kit Yan, Playwright, Lyricist, and DGF Fellow
“At a time when trans people, and especially black and migrant trans women, are facing so much violence, the humanizing power of authentic trans stories on stage can be lifesaving.”
- Corinna Schulenburg, Playwright and WAG Recipient
“As a queer, black boy in the middle of the country, I looked to the storytellers illuminating our history and our stories through the written word. James Baldwin, Tony Kushner, Robert O’Hara, Paula Vogel, Tarell Alvin McCraney—these writers shaped me as a person and as a dramatist. Their brave work could illuminate for folks like me—not yet out of the closet or sure of their voice, not yet living in a time of radical acceptance—how to build, unapologetically, a life in the theater telling queer stories.”
- Keelay Gipson, Playwright, New Voices Teaching Artist and DGF Fellows Alum
“It’s important to tell many different kinds of Queer stories about many different kinds of Queer people, because our history has so often been forced into the shadows. We’re proud to be Dramatists Guild Foundation Fellows, DG Members, and Queer artists who make things that celebrate LGBTQ+ stories and complicate traditional narratives.”
- Brandon James Gwinn and EllaRose Chary, Composers, Lyricists, and DGF Fellows Alumni
“Visibility is survival. The centering of queer narratives validates our right to live, create, succeed, fail and thrive. It is essential now more than ever because queer people are fucking dying all around the world and no one seems to care. Queer visibility is survival.”
- Khiyon Hursey, Composer, Lyricist, and DGF Fellows Alum
“Queer people exist in the world, so when our stories aren’t included, it’s a lie about what the world is. Let’s all enjoy learning about the lives of everyone in our beautifully diverse world.”
- Bill Nelson, Playwright, Lyricist, and DGF Fellows Alum
Click here to hear our thoughts on the important legacy of queer writers.