Playwrights Unit

Obsidian would like to welcome this year's Tier 2 Playwrights:

Leah Simone Bowen
Roxanne Joseph

Playwrights Unit

Obsidian’s Playwrights Unit is a venue for exploration, vision and freedom from the constraints of community or self-censorship. We believe that Black stories are and should be about anything we put our vision to.

Starting in the 2009/10 season Obsidian will be introducing Playwrights Unit: Tier 2, which will concentrate on the development of full-length main stage plays. Tier 2 will alternate annually with the traditional model of the unit (Tier 1), which is geared towards the development of emerging Black playwrights.

2009-2010 Season: Playwrights Unit - Tier 2 starts in the fall 2009 and will work according to the needs of the playwrights and their scripts. There will be dramaturgical support, private readings and a public event that will showcase the new works.

2010-2011 Season: Playwrights Unit - Tier 1 consists mainly of exploration through a series of writing assignments and discussion. Playwrights produce a final project – a twenty-minute piece inspired by a piece of artwork. The final pieces are read and work-shopped by professional actors and directors, and presented in a public reading called The Mussorgsky Project.