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Playwright a.ok. payne (photograph by Nom\u00e8 SiDone); scenes from “Amani,” a coproduction of National Black Theatre and Rattlestick Theater (images by Marcus Middleton).<\/p>\n
American Theatre<\/em> is proud to be the venue for Theatrical Mustang, <\/strong>an independently produced podcast from actor-writer-activist Woodzick<\/a>. Each month they\u2019ll deliver listeners interviews with unbridled expertise and cultural trailblazers from throughout the nation.<\/p>\n This month, they converse with a.ok. payne (she\/they), a playwright, artist-theorist, and theatremaker with roots in Pittsburgh, whose world premiere of Amani <\/em>is at present being produced Off-Broadway by the National Black Theatre<\/a> and Rattlestick Theatre<\/a>, the place the present runs by March 5.<\/p>\n a.ok.\u2019s performs love on and interact Black lives and languages past the confines of linear time to seek out\/keep in mind tales that may create situations for our collective liberation(s). They maintain a B.A. in English and African American Studies from Yale College and can graduate in May 2023 with an MFA in playwriting underneath Tarell Alvin McCraney<\/a> from the David Geffen School of Drama at Yale.<\/p>\n Their work has been finalist for the L. Arnold Weissberger New Play Award and the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, winner of the David Mark Cohen National Playwriting Award, and three-time semifinalist for the O\u2019Neill National Playwriting Conference. She is a present recipient of the Kemp Powers Commission Fund for Black Playwrights and Atlantic Theater Company\u2019s Judith Champion Launch Commission. Their work has been developed with the New Harmony Project, Great Plains Theater Conference, and Manhattan Theater Club\u2019s Groundworks Lab.<\/p>\n They are a graduate of Pittsburgh Public Schools; grandchild of the Great Migration; descendant of a music instructor and a carpenter, who each march yearly with their unions in Pittsburgh\u2019s Labor Day parade; a queer and non-binary abolitionist affected in neighborhood by the \u201cNew Jim Crow\u201d; and a part of an incredible lineage of Black ladies storytellers and living-room archivists\u2014all of which deeply informs, uplifts, and amplifies their work as a playwright, neighborhood organizer, and spacemaker.<\/p>\n You may also take heed to the episode\u00a0right here<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Theatrical Mustang podcast is edited by CJ Higgins (they\/them). Music by The Morgens utilizing Citizen DJ Project, Library of Congress, National Jukebox.<\/p>\n This podcast is devoted to the reminiscence of Barton Cole, who coined the phrase \u201cTheatrical Mustang.\u201d<\/p>\n You can take heed to episodes 1-138 of the Theatrical Mustang Podcast right here<\/a>. You can e-mail us at\u00a0theatricalmustang@gmail.com<\/a>\u00a0or ship a tweet to\u00a0@TheatricalM<\/a>.<\/p>\n