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Photo Credit: Beowulf Sheehan
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New Play Exchange
Visit Donnetta's page on The New Play Exchange
Kudzu Calling
2025 World Premiere - Alabama Shakespeare Festival.
Synopsis
Commissioned by the Alabama Shakespeare Festival as part of their New Southern Canon initiative, Kudzu Calling is a theatrical interweaving of poetry-rich scenes that seek to expand and complicate the Southern narrative. A celebration of Black Southern Love, Black Southern Queerness, Black Southern Playfulness, Culture, and Spirituality. It examines what it truly means to return home. At its core, it is Donnetta Lavinia Grays’ love letter to the place that made the Whiting Award-winning playwright.
Synopsis
Commissioned by the Alabama Shakespeare Festival as part of their New Southern Canon initiative, Kudzu Calling is a theatrical interweaving of poetry-rich scenes that seek to expand and complicate the Southern narrative. A celebration of Black Southern Love, Black Southern Queerness, Black Southern Playfulness, Culture, and Spirituality. It examines what it truly means to return home. At its core, it is Donnetta Lavinia Grays’ love letter to the place that made the Whiting Award-winning playwright.
Where We Stand
2020 Drama League Nominee - Distinguished Performance
2020 Lucille Lortel Nominee Outstanding Solo Show
2020 World Premiere WP Theater and Baltimore Centerstage
2019 New Harmony Spring Conference
2018 Prelude Festival
2018 Brooklyn College / Public Theater Research Residency
SOLO SHOW
Where We Stand was commissioned by The Public Theater's Mobile Unit. It is a first of its kind commission created to develop an original piece specifically geared toward the diverse audiences the Mobile Unit serves.
SYNOPSIS
Where We Stand is a long form poem with humor, heart, and music that tells the story of a man standing before his town asking them for forgiveness after he has made a deal with a mysterious stranger on their behalf. More than a recounting of events, this piece both engages and implicates the audience in determining the man’s fate.
2020 Lucille Lortel Nominee Outstanding Solo Show
2020 World Premiere WP Theater and Baltimore Centerstage
2019 New Harmony Spring Conference
2018 Prelude Festival
2018 Brooklyn College / Public Theater Research Residency
SOLO SHOW
Where We Stand was commissioned by The Public Theater's Mobile Unit. It is a first of its kind commission created to develop an original piece specifically geared toward the diverse audiences the Mobile Unit serves.
SYNOPSIS
Where We Stand is a long form poem with humor, heart, and music that tells the story of a man standing before his town asking them for forgiveness after he has made a deal with a mysterious stranger on their behalf. More than a recounting of events, this piece both engages and implicates the audience in determining the man’s fate.
Last Night and the Night Before
2023 Production Steppenwolf Theater Company
2019 National Theater Conference Barrie and Bernice Stavis Playwright Award
2019 World Premiere Denver Center for the Performing Arts
2017 Kilroys List
2017 Denver Center for the Performing Arts Colorado New Play Summit
2016 Labyrinth Theater Company Barn Series
2015 National New Play Network's National Showcase of New Plays
2015 Orlando Shakespeare Theater's PlayFest
2015 Todd McNerney National Playwriting Contest Winner
2014 Eugene O'Neill Theater Center National Playwrights Conference Semifinalist
Workshopped as part of Portland Stage Company's 2015 Little Festival of the Unexpected
Presented as part of Classical Theatre of Harlem's 2014 Future Classics Reading Series.
Developed partially under Naked Angels' 3-step development formula (Tues@9 and 1st Mondays)
FULL LENGTH
CAST: 4W 1M
SYNOPSIS
When Monique and her 10-year-old daughter Samantha show up unexpectedly on her sister’s Brooklyn doorstep, it’s the beginning of the end for Rachel and her partner Nadima’s orderly lifestyle. Monique is on the run from deep trouble, her husband Reggie is nowhere to be seen, and Samantha becomes ever haunted by the life in southern Georgia she was forced to leave behind. Poetic, dark and often deeply funny Last Night and the Night Before explores the power, necessity, and beauty of loss.
2019 National Theater Conference Barrie and Bernice Stavis Playwright Award
2019 World Premiere Denver Center for the Performing Arts
2017 Kilroys List
2017 Denver Center for the Performing Arts Colorado New Play Summit
2016 Labyrinth Theater Company Barn Series
2015 National New Play Network's National Showcase of New Plays
2015 Orlando Shakespeare Theater's PlayFest
2015 Todd McNerney National Playwriting Contest Winner
2014 Eugene O'Neill Theater Center National Playwrights Conference Semifinalist
Workshopped as part of Portland Stage Company's 2015 Little Festival of the Unexpected
Presented as part of Classical Theatre of Harlem's 2014 Future Classics Reading Series.
Developed partially under Naked Angels' 3-step development formula (Tues@9 and 1st Mondays)
FULL LENGTH
CAST: 4W 1M
SYNOPSIS
When Monique and her 10-year-old daughter Samantha show up unexpectedly on her sister’s Brooklyn doorstep, it’s the beginning of the end for Rachel and her partner Nadima’s orderly lifestyle. Monique is on the run from deep trouble, her husband Reggie is nowhere to be seen, and Samantha becomes ever haunted by the life in southern Georgia she was forced to leave behind. Poetic, dark and often deeply funny Last Night and the Night Before explores the power, necessity, and beauty of loss.
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