Episode 5 | Lisa B. Thompson on Creating Black Theater

Dr. Lisa B. Thompson, prolific author, award-winning playwright, Black scholar, and professor of African and African Diaspora Studies at the University of Texas at Austin, sat down with Left of Black host Dr. Mark Anthony Neal to talk about her body of work and the joy of creating for the stage.

Thompson’s plays, which have been produced off-Broadway, throughout the US and internationally, include “Single Black Female” (LA Weekly Theatre Award for Best Comedy nominee, Irma P. Hall Black Theatre Award Best Play winner), “Underground,” (Austin Critics Circle David Mark Cohen New Play Award winner, Broadway World Regional Awards Best Writing of an Original Work nominee), “Monroe” (Austin Playhouse Festival of New Texas Plays winner), “The Mamalogues” (Broadway World Regional Awards Best Writing of an Original Work winner), and “Dinner” (Crossroads Theatre Genesis New Play Festival). You can find her latest publication, Underground, Monroe, and The Mamalogues: Three Plays, published by Northwestern University Press.