The Playwrights Database
JACQUELINE E LAWTON
Nationality: African American
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Literary Agent: William Morris Endeavor Entertainment, LLC represented by Michael Finkle
Jacqueline E. Lawton was named one of the top 30 national leading black playwrights by Arena Stage's American Voices New Play Institute. She received her MFA in Playwriting from the University of Texas at Austin, where she was a James A. Michener Fellow. Her plays include: Anna K; Blood-bound and Tongue-tied; Deep Belly Beautiful; The Devil's Sweet Water; The Hampton Years; Ira Aldridge: the African Roscius; Lions of Industry, Mothers of Invention; Love Brothers Serenade; Mad Breed; Noms de Guerre; and Our Man Beverly Snow. Ms. Lawton's work has been developed and presented at the following venues: Active Cultures Theatre, Arena Stage, Classical Theater of Harlem, Folger Shakespeare Library, theHegira, Gables Stage, Howard University, Kennedy Center's Page to Stage Festival, Pasadena Playhouse, Rep Stage, Rorschach Theater Company, Round House Theatre - Silver Spring, Savannah Black Heritage Festival (Armstrong Atlantic State University), Shakespeare Theatre Company, Source Festival, Theater J, and Woolly Mammoth Theater Company. She has received commissions from Active Cultures Theatre, Adventure Theatre - Musical Theatre Center, Discovery Theater, the Hurston/Wright Foundation, National New Play Network, National Portrait Gallery, National Museum of American History, Round House Theatre and Theater J. She is published in Experiments in a Jazz Aesthetic: Art, Activism, Academia, and the Austin Project (University of Texas Press). She is a 2012 Theatre Communications Group (TCG) Young Leaders of Color award recipient and a National New Play Network (NNPN) Playwright alumna. She is the recipient of numerous awards and fellowships including the 2015-2016 Kenan Institute's Creative Collaboratory Project Grant, two Young Artist Program Grants from the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities for Playwriting; the Jean McKenzie Schenkkan Endowed Scholarship in Playwriting; and others. She has been recognized as a semi-finalist for the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center's National Playwrights Conference and the Playwright's Center PlayLabs. She serves as the Diversity and Inclusion Online Conference Curator for TCG. She is a proud member of Arena Stage's Playwright's Arena, Center Stage's Playwrights Collective, and the Dramatist Guild of America.
Research: Member of the Dramatists Guild of America (as at 2015)
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below is a list of Jacqueline E Lawton's plays - click on a Play Title for more information
Anna K Blood-Bound And Tongue-Tied Deep Belly Beautiful Devil's Sweet Water, The Hampton Years, The Love Brothers Serenade Mad Breed Noms de Guerre Out of Silence: Abortion Stories from the 1 in 3 CampaignAnna K
Synopsis:
Considered by some to be the greatest novel ever written, anna Karenina is Tolstoy's classic take about love and adultery set against the backdrop of high society Moscow and Saint Petersburg. Keeping with the rich, complex, and masterful cultural setting, anna K is set in Paris during the 1920's, at a time when African-American artists fled America to the city of lights, love and opportunity and the DaDa movement swept through europe in response to WWI. This provocative and challenging adaptation follows anna as she struggles to leave a loveless marriage and her young adoring son so that she might achieve a successful career and embrace the love of her life, only to face her painfully, tragic demise. It also follows Levin, an awkward, self-deprecating though highly skilled and talented African American DaDa artist, who journeys to Paris in search of love, acceptance, and artistic recognition.
Notes:
anna K received A workshop production At in February 2009 under the direction of Shirley Serotsky At Round House theatre As part of their Silver Spring Series.
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Genre:
Drama
Parts:
Male: 4 Female: 4 Other: -
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Top of PageBlood-Bound And Tongue-Tied
Synopsis:
Blood-bound and Tongue-tied is an intriguing new look at the Oedipus Rex myth. a depression-era adaptation, Blood-bound and Tongue-tied follows the astonishing journey of Jocasta, a black woman who passes for white and shuns her entire past when she falls in love with, Laius, a successful white politician. With the birth of their son, Oedipus, Jocasta's lies instigate a wave of bloodshed and carnage on the African American community. theatrically, Blood-bound and Tongue-tied demonstrates the detrimental effects that racism and self-hatred can have on the social mobility, psychological conditioning, and personal identification of African Americans in the United States.
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1st Produced:
Strand Theater Company 23 Mar 2012
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Genre:
Drama
Parts:
Male: 3 Female: 2 Other: -
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Top of PageDeep Belly Beautiful
Synopsis:
Deep Belly Beautiful is alluring and sinister; a kind of fairy tale, more Brothers' Grimm than Disney. It is the story of grace achieved through sex, revenge, betrayal, addiction, and cannibalism. the play follows anna Lee, a wood sculptress, who celebrates her sixth wedding anniversary with Luke, her unwilling, estranged alcoholic husband. Luke's fate is dependent upon the questionable skills of Fanny, a detective with a shilling past of her own; elyse, his devoted and long-time lover; and Jack, his best friend, whose lack of morals and loyalty to no one may be the death of them all.
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1st Produced:
Thehegira Apr 2009
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theHegira
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Genre:
Drama
Parts:
Male: 4 Female: 4 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Top of PageDevil's Sweet Water, The
Synopsis:
a deal with the Devil! Bullfighting! Belly dancing! early '90s love ballads! Sex during an air Raid! the Devil's Sweet Water is an innovative take on the story of Dr. Faustus. It is a provocative and poetic story about love, friendship, and patriotism in the U.S. and Lebanon post-9/11. the play follows Kamara in her search for love during the summer of 2006. This play highlights the controversial use of torture in interrogation and examines the terrifying and detrimental, though human, tendency to lump people with a shared ethnicity, language and religion into one category, despite their many different beliefs.
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Genre:
Drama
Parts:
Male: 2 Female: 3 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Top of PageHampton Years, The
Synopsis:
the Hampton Years explores the relationship between art professor Viktor Lowenfeld and his students, John Biggers and Samella Lewis. Lowenfeld joined the Hampton Institute in Virginia in 1939 as assistant professor of Industrial Arts and studio art teacher. He was later appointed as Chairman of the art Department and in 1945, he was named curator of the distinguished collection of Black African art at the Hampton Institute. Burgeoning artist John Biggers, who went on to become an internationally acclaimed painter, sculptor, teacher and philosopher, was his student. as was Samella Lewis, artist, printmaker and educator, with whom Lowenfeld had a contentious, but respectful relationship. the Hampton Years examines the impact of World War II on Jewish immigrants living in the United States and their role in shaping the lives and careers of African American students in the segregated south.
Notes:
The Hampton Years was commissioned And developed by Theater J As part of the Locally Grown Festival.
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Genre:
Historical Drama
Parts:
Male: 3 Female: 3 Other: -
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Top of PageLove Brothers Serenade
Synopsis:
Love Brothers Serenade, a hiphop infused Drama, follows Reynaldo and Ricardo as they struggle for survival and fight to forge their own identities in DC's inner city ghettos. as these young men come of age, they find comfort, security, and family in the street gangs, drug deals, and violence that surrounds them. adapted from Giuseppe Verdi's Un Ballo in Maschera, this play investigates the honor code, loyalty, and rites of passage at the heart of this volatile community. Love Brothers Serenade reveals that the bond of brotherhood has just as much strength to destroy as it does to unite.
Notes:
Love Brothers Serenade received A reading At the Kennedy Center's Page-to-Stage Festival And At Howard University's theater Arts Department.
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Genre:
Drama
Parts:
Male: 4 Female: 2 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Top of PageMad Breed
Synopsis:
Mad Breed is a historical comedy about a teenaged John Wilkes Booth, an African American actress on the run, and a whole barnyard full of Shakespeare. On the eve of their parents' wedding, the offbeat teenaged siblings of John Wilkes Booth decide to put on a play. all is going well until adah Francois, an African American freewoman with Shakespearean dreams, arrives and the complications begin. experience the eccentricity, brilliance and over-the-top sibling rivalry of one of Maryland's most notorious families one glorious summer evening on a family farm in Belair, Maryland.
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1st Produced:
Active Cultures, Joe's Movement Emporium, 3309 Bunker Hill Road, Mount Rainier, Md 04 May 2008
Organisations:
active Cultures Theatre
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Genre:
Comedy
Parts:
Male: 3 Female: 3 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Top of PageNoms de Guerre
Synopsis:
Noms de Guerre is a haunting, lyrical and passionate story of friendship, love, war, and politics. Mira is a rising star in the Republican Party, but her campaign against women's reproductive rights puts her at odds with her best friend, Jude, an award-winning journalist. At home, Mira struggles to run a campaign for Governor and help her war hero husband, Douglas, adjust to civilian life. When Jude discovers that Douglas is linked to a massacre of Afghan civilians, Mira is thrown into a whirlwind of political intrigue and must decide whether to hold on to her career or save her husband. Noms de Guerre is a socio-political drama that addresses the damaging impact of PTSD on veterans and their family.
Notes:
This play was developed as part of Arena Stage's Playwright's Arena and also through Pasadena Playhouse's Hothouse New Play Development Series
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Genre:
Political drama
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: -
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Top of PageOut of Silence: Abortion Stories from the 1 in 3 Campaign
Synopsis:
From the halls of Congress to pulpits and court houses around the country, there is so much noise around abortion - but it's women's personal stories that have been silenced. Until now. Now our stories come Out of Silence.
Notes:
written by Allyson Currin, D.W. Gregory, Caleen Sinnette Jennings, Nicole Jost, Jacqueline E. Lawton, Kristen LePine, Jennifer L. Nelson, Anu Yadav and Karen Zacarias
1st Produced:
Capital Fringe Festival, Washington DC 10 Jul 2015
Organisations:
1 in 3 Campaign
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Genre:
piecet 75 min
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: -
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