Falling into a Black Play List

from Colman Domingo's Dot

Falling into a Black Play List

curated by Lisa B. Thompson | @DrLisaBThompson | special to NewBlackMan (in Exile)

As the weather turns cooler it’s a great time to snuggle up with a good book. What am I saying? You’re probably looking for something edifying and entertaining to distract you from the election results! Black theatre is what I turn to when I’m trying to make sense of the world or want to imagine a whole new universe. While theaters remain dark all over the country due to the pandemic, there is still an opportunity to experience some of its magic. I’ve curated a fall reading list of a dozen thought-provoking plays by Black theatre artists. This list includes work by recent Pulitzer and Tony winners, as well as some classics by our most revered playwrights. Grab two or three plays and read them to yourself or perform them social distance style with friends and family. Black theatre reminds us that we are a brilliant, imaginative, and resilient people. 

Alice Childress, Trouble in Mind

Colman Domingo, Dot

Jackie Sibblies Drury, Fairview

Marcus Gardley, The House that Will Not Stand 

Katori Hall, Hurt Village 

Jeremy O. Harris, Slave Play

Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, An Octoroon

Adrienne Kennedy, Funnyhouse of a Negro

Dominique Morisseau, Pipeline

Lynn Nottage, Sweat

August Wilson, Radio Golf

Tarrell McCraney, Choir Boy

Lisa B. Thompson is a playwright and professor of African and African Diaspora Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. Her new book is Underground, Monroe, and The Mamalogues: Three Plays.