Description:
Playwrights of color in space and a computer-generated President are some of the characters you'll meet in this powerful collection of unexpected, insightful and engaging short plays by award-winning playwright and television writer Steve Harper. This collection of 17 funny, explosive & engaging adventures offer roles for diverse actors of
Brief description: Shawn René Graham (Editor / Foreword) is a freelance writer and dramaturg from San Jose, California who has worked with many writers including Dennis Allen, France-Luce Benson, Nilo Cruz, Steve Harper, Walter Mosley, Lynn Nottage, Paul Rudnick, Susan Sontag, Dominic A. Taylor, Judy Tate, and Cori Thomas. She has been a guest dramaturg at the O'Neill Playwrights Conference, the Crossroads Theatre Company's Genesis Festival, the New Professional Theatre, and African American Women's New Play Festival; and has served on many panels including the National Endowments for the Arts/Theatre Communications Group Theatre Residency Program for Playwrights, the Massachusetts Cultural Council Artist Grants Panel in Playwriting, and the Mark Taper Forum's New Works Festival. She is currently the resident dramaturg of The American Slavery Project's Unheard Voices, the Literary Director for the Classical Theatre of Harlem's Future Classics Series and Playwright's Playground, and founder of All Creative Writes, an artistic assistance service designed to provide individual artists and performing arts organizations with administrative, fundraising and writing support. Ms. Graham holds degrees from the California State University, Los Angeles and the American Repertory Theatre Institute for Advanced Theatre Training at Harvard University. She joined The Field in 2012 and lives in Bronx, NY.
Review Quotes:
"Affecting, inventive and incredibly funny, Steve Harper has the uncanny ability to immediately draw you into his unique and wonderfully absurd worlds, all full of heart and piercing honesty." -T.R. Knight, Actor
"The feast of plays you are about to enjoy are diverse and explore cross-sections of race, class and politics, the wonders of love, the discovery of the forgotten and the complexity of human relations. They are topical with strong, dramatic construction and are a wonderful display of what it is like to live at the intersection of a world in which one is a creative, a friend, a lover, a politician or a worker in the world of the United States in
the 21st century. " - Ms. Shawn Rene Graham from the Foreword.
"Steve Harper's Short Play Anthology is a creation of something special...You need a two hander? No problem. What about Asian or Indian characters? It's there. Strong female leads? Check. Latinx, Black, non-descript, pathos, youth, wisdom, inside baseball, out of this world humor - check, check, check."
- Ty Jones, Producing Artistic Director, The Classical Theatre of Harlem, from the Introduction
"Steve Harper is a thoroughly original, insightful and inquisitive playwright. His plays offer us a highly engaging but twisted look at race relations in America. It's a quality which makes Harper's work unexpected
disruptive and ultimately a fulfilling experience."
- Gregg Daniel, Director/Actor (Insecure) /Educator