The Obsidian Playwrights Unit is a national intensive play development program that will support 2 to 3 Black playwrights through virtual group sessions and individual mentorship. Facilitated by actor and playwright, Lisa Codrington, the unit will discuss and develop their plays culminating in a performance where each playwright has the chance to workshop an excerpt of their piece with actors and a director, and hear it read aloud at Obsidian’s annual Playwrights Unit Showcase in Toronto, ON.
Obsidian Theatre is interested in showcasing the richness and complexity of Blackness in all of its intersections across the nation so that our art can truly reflect the communities we serve. What stories do you want to bring to the stage and why? What does your idea/play bring to a Canadian stage that has not been seen before? These are just some of the questions we are interested in discussing and exploring as we begin the journey of developing new work.
Join us at the Playwright Unit Showcase!
June 26, 2024, 7pm at Factory Theatre
Miss Fortune by Taija Shonée Chung
Miss Fortune follows the contestants of a pageant on the brink, as they grapple with the ever-changing criteria of what it means to be crowned a ‘perfect victim’ and the powers that be behind the scenes that are working to uphold these unattainable standards. A story of identity, justice and competition, Miss Fortune is a satirical investigation into the question of our own complicity in keeping victims silent.
Director: Abigail Whitney
Cast: isi bhakhomen, Robert Feetham, Chiamaka Glory, Trinity Lloyd, Miss Niki Nikita, Merlin Simard
Lose Your Father by Mobólúwajídìde D. Joseph
After the death of Engineer Abimbola Issachar Bakare in Toronto, three cousins are charged with a quest – to return his body back to their homeland, Nigeria where he might rest in peace with his ancestors. All three cousins are gripped by loss, a companion so powerful it may as well be a character. As they wrestle with cumulative losses, they are forced to prepare to reclaim a place that is half remembered, and which has taken on mythical proportions in their memory.
Director: Jamie Robinson
Cast: Kwaku Adu-Poku, Derick Agyemang, isi bhakhomen, Krystle Chance, Chiamaka Glory, Pablo Ogunlesi, Makambe K. Simamba, Paul Smith
Infest by Lili Robinson
Set in an East Vancouver B.C. Housing apartment building, Infest follows the relationships between a group of the building’s residents as they attempt to control a spreading bedbug infestation. Starting here, Infest explores the ways that issues of mental health, diaspora, and intergenerational trauma manifest outwardly in our lives. Centering the relationship between a Black mother and her teenage daughter, Infest digs into the journey to reclaim one’s own reality when the cascading challenges of systemic oppression become an infestation of one’s very mind.
Director: Sedina Fiati
Cast: Big Norm Alconcel, isi bhakhomen, Chiamaka Glory, Pesch Nepoose, Evans Mattheson Niog
Meet the 23/24 Unit!
Taija Shonée Chung
Taija Shonée Chung
TAIJA SHONÉE CHUNG is a Jamaican-Chinese multi-disciplinary artist, based in Toronto. A passionate actor, mover and creator, she’s enthusiastic about work that explores our perception of others and ourselves in this ever-changing world — who we are when we are at our most vulnerable, when we are trying to make a buck or when we think we are alone. Her theatre credits include: The First Stone (dir. Yvette Nolan), The Humans (dir. Chris Stanton) and The Green Bird (dir. Adam Palozza). She looks forward to amplifying her voice as an artist, both on stage and screen.
Moboluwajidide D. Joseph
Moboluwajidide D. Joseph
Mobólúwajídìde D. Joseph is a Nigerian living in the diaspora. He has written and published essays, poetry, fiction and criticism. He is interested in work that dreams abolition and liberation for all.
Lili Robinson
Lili Robinson
Lili Robinson (she/they) is a theatre artist, poet and facilitator born and raised on unceded Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh territories, and a recent transplant to T’karonto. Her work is heavily inspired by Afrofuturism, Black feminism, and queer theory, and often draws from her lived experience as a queer, mixed Black femme. Lili’s debut play, Mx, was the winner of the 2019 Vancouver Fringe New Play Prize and the 2019 Cultchivating the Fringe Award, and they are currently developing their sophomore play, Infest, as part of the Obsidian Playwrights Unit. Other hats they’ve worn in recent years include: Community Engagement Producer for Playwrights Theatre Centre and the frank theatre; Resident Curator at rEvolver Festival; and dramaturg for the Parallel Project, supporting emerging BIPOC playwrights to develop new work. They are the most recent winner of the Playwrights Guild of Canada’s John Palmer Award, recognizing a new generation playwright dedicated to making art that agitates the status quo, and a graduate of Studio 58.
Playwrights Unit Facilitator
Lisa Codrington
Lisa Codrington is an actor and writer based in Toronto. She has been nominated for the Governor General’s Award for Drama and is a recipient of the K.M. Hunter Theater Award and the Carol Bolt Award for Playwrights.
Selected writing credits include The Prescription – 21 Black Futures (Obsidian/CBC) The Adventures of the Black Girl in Her Search for God (Shaw Festival, Karamu House); Up the Garden Path (Obsidian Theatre); The Aftermath (Groundswell Festival, Femfest); The Colony – Opera to Go (Tapestry); Cast Iron (Nightwood Theatre & Obsidian Theatre).
Currently, Lisa is developing two new plays and is playwright in residence at Why Not Theatre.
To see Playwright Unit Alumni, click here!
For any questions you might have about the unit, please contact our artistic producer, daniel jelani ellis, at op@obsidiantheatre.com.