Shout Sister, Shout!

Shout Seattle
Carrie-Dizzy

Co-creator and book writer for current musical about Rock-and-Roll trailblazer, Sister Rosetta Tharpe. A revised Broadway-bound,  Shout, Sister Shout! premiered at Seattle Rep. December 2019

 

 

The Watsons Go to Birmingham -1963

Book writer for world premiere play based on the award-winning book by author Christopher Paul Curtis.

Last Stop on Market Street

Book writer for world premiere musical based on the award-winning book by author Matt de la Peña and illustrator Christian Robinson. Composed by Motown music legend Lamont Dozier and his son Paris Ray Dozier.

 

Akeelah and The Bee

Adapted the film for stage. Premiered at Minneapolis Children’s theatre in September 2015. Voted end of year top theater by Minneapolis Star Tribune. Produced by DC’s Arena Stage, Nov 2015. Awarded Distinguished Play Award from the American Alliance for Theatre and Education, 2016

 

Pullman Porter Blues

A historical musical play commissioned and produced by Seattle Rep. Premiere production Fall 2012 in co-production with DC’s Arena Stage. Edgerton awarded. Produced at Chicago’s Goodman Theatre in Fall, 2013. Nominated for the Helen Hayes/Charles MacArthur Award for Outstanding New Play and five other Helen Hayes Awards.  The Seattle Gregory Award Nominee for outstanding new play.

MWINDO

Premiered at Seattle Children’s theatre in January 2015. Gregory Award Nomination for Best New Play.

 

 

Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy

Premiered March 2012 at Minnesota Children’s Theatre. Also produced by Chicago’s DePaul University. Received the 2013 Distinguished Play Award from the American Alliance for Theatre and Education.

Diary of a Single Mom – Web Series

Writer/creator for web series directed by Robert Townsend and produced by Robert Townsend’s V/Studio – One Economy Corp. Three seasons (starring Monica Calhoun, Billy Dee Williams, Richard Roundtree) shown on www.pic.tv (2008-2011). In 2010, received WEBBY nomination for outstanding screenwriting. In 2011, best web series nomination.

In The Hive – Movie

Screenwriter for movie seen in indie film festivals – (LA, Miama, Memphis, Atlanta, Seattle, Chicago) directed by Robert Townsend, 2011. True story based on an alternative school for troubled boys in rural North Carolina. Currently running on BET and is being used as a resource in Chicago’s Cook County Jail and the Juvenile Detention Center.

Addy: American Girl Story

Adapted The Addy American girl books for stage. Commissioned by American Girl/Mattel Corp. and Seattle Children’s Theater. Premiered at Seattle Children’s Theater followed by a twenty-one city tour with Kids Entertainment, Seattle Times Footlight Award for Best Premiere Play

Birdie Blue

S. Epatha Merkerson, Charles Weldon

A play about an elderly couple negotiating hope as they cope with their changing love and the husband’s dementia.

Play On!

A musical loosely based on Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night” with a score by Duke Ellington. Produced by Old Globe Theatre, Fall 1996. Moved to Broadway March 1997. Directed by Sheldon Epps, Musical Arrangements by Luther Henderson and choreography by Mercedes Ellington.

Holiday Heart- Movie

After losing his police officer lover, Christian drag queen Holiday Heart (Ving Rhames) meets 12-year-old Niki (Jessika Quynn Reynolds) and her drug-addicted mother, Wanda (Alfre Woodard). Heart finds relief from heartache and a renewed sense of purpose when he steps in as a father figure to Niki and welcomes the two women into his life. But when Wanda becomes romantically involved with her drug dealer, Silas, it may endanger Niki and threaten to destroy the makeshift family. Holiday Heart the Play, was originally produces at Syracuse Stage, Seattle Rep, The Cleveland Playhouse, Manhattan Theatre Club and Arena Stage before being adapted as a screenplay. 

Jar The Floor

Front Row: Lynne Thigpen, Irma P. Hall, Regina Taylor. Back Row: Welker White, Linda Powell

A dramatic comedy featuring four generations of black women and one white woman friend. Presented under author’s direction in Champaign, Illinois and subsequently given an extended reading at New Federal Theatre in New York as part of its tribute to black women playwrights.

Before It Hits Home

A play exploring the impact of AIDS on a black family.   Play given readings at Circle Rep in New York and its first professional production at Washington DC’s Arena Stage.   For the Arena production, Before It Hits Home was awarded a generous grant from the NBC “New Voices” Program and is the 1991 winner of the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize for playwriting.   In 1989, the play was a winner at the Multicultural Playwrights’ Festival in Seattle, Washington, where it was workshopped by the Seattle Group Theatre. Received New York production at Second Stage in association with the New York Shakespeare Festival and James McDaniel won an Obie for the lead role. Winner of the Helen Hayes Charles McArthur Award for Outstanding New Play and four New York Audelco awards. It has had several university productions throughout the country.