PRODUCTION ARCHIVE: The Early Years
Selected early work from the years before digital archiving was a given.
A note on this archive
These productions are from the era when theatrical work lived in playbills, photographs, and the memories of community who bore witness. Framed production posters on the walls of family, friends, and colleagues hold some of the documentation still today. Boxes I haven't opened in years hold others. I share here what I have with me today.
I started writing plays as a senior in high school, completely by "accident." Drama class was supposed to be my low-engagement-still-get-an-A class — until it wasn't. I'd been writing stories with my Barbies since I was a little girl, but when I found scriptwriting, I found home. In fact, my best friend wrote a bomb-ass novel in middle school, inspiring me to try that form. It didn't fit. The novel was hers. The script was mine! 😉
What follows is a partial record of the work that showed me I was made for this.
Before Content Creation Was A Thing — The Beginnings of Social Impact Art: Slideshow Presentation on Black History (H.S. Jr. Year)
My precursor to playwriting. Recommended by my advanced history teacher, I enter our state's high school history competition with a multimedia presentation on Black history — OG style. 
From pages of books, I photographed images, and then transferred them onto slides using equipment from our school library. At my dad's radio station, I created a vinyl soundtrack, recording my voice over it. I was then on the road, advancing as a state finalist, and then showing it to classes in our school cafeteria - traveling with two slide projectors, two fold-up screens, and whatever else our librarian and I could borrow. 
With this competition, I first understood that storytelling could be researched, designed, scripted, produced, and delivered — and I learned that I could do all of it.
Who Knew??? — First Script (H.S. Sr. Year)
"Bridge Over Troubled Waters" was my very first original script, written for drama class, and produced with classmates from inside + outside the class. We students pulled together tech, costumes, marketing (hand-drawn sailboat on blue pastel copy paper for the playbill cover, representative image) — and performed it, again, in our cafeteria for other students + our families.
Hearing actors speak words I've written is an otherworldly experience for me to this day. I have never recovered from that. I'm sure that I don't want to.
Black History Month Productions, University of Florida (The College Years)
During my years at UF, I wrote, directed, and produced four original scripts for each Black History Month thru our Black Student Union.
I was quite elated + proud as these productions earned their significance within UF's epic Black History Month programming (running from late January to early March). My sophomore year I was chosen to direct the entire BHM experience, in addition to producing my own play.
Building construction brothers from Kappa Alpha Psi (my dad's fraternity) built the set one year. Again, friends + classmates joined as cast + crew. The plays drew audiences across the campus and the broader Gainesville community. And the playbills improved in quality! 😉
Trust + Verify: Professional Playwright Loading ...
After graduating college I attended a community conference where I met the late, legendary Carol Mitchell-Leon, and asked her how a young playwright pursued next steps. She connected me to a playwrights group that evolved into Working Title Playwrights of which I would be a member for ~30 years.
This is the community in which I learned that playwriting is more than a hobby or a school project for me. I have the chops, and began entering competitions after feedback from working actors + fellow playwrights nurtured my confidence. I was growing in a craft that I'd been practicing + developing since high school.
Spirituality, Creativity + Authenticity (Church Production Years)
After answering my call to ministry, I wrote + produced original theatrical work within the Black church context — work that braided scripture, music, dance, and contemporary theological reflection. (I also documented my approach in The Journal of the Interdenominational Theological Center with the article, "Taste and See the G~d of Your Ancestors: Drama in the African-American Church." Another activity prompted + supported by my worship professor, the Late Dr. Melva Costen.)
The most significant of these productions was Maria Theotokos: Mary, Mother of God, a festival music drama that I wrote, directed, and produced for three seasons. Progressive in its time for centering Maryam rather than Yeshua in a Christmas narrative, Maria featured original compositions by our church musicians, choral writing collaborated on by our in-house poet + my young daughter, and original choreography incorporating prophetic dance. (CC Sunchild expanded her composition, and included it on her Air album, "There You Are.")
By the final season, the cast + crew numbered over 100 across four performance nights. A signed production poster from one of the seasons still hangs in the office of my clerical colleague, now Bishop Sharma Lewis (UMC, top left corner of the above image).
Authentic Voice as a Young Woman Minister — Keeping it a bean with you, I struggled with my faith-based writing, even tho every thing I did with the church was incredibly successful. Even within a progressive mainline denomination that ordained women, I tempered my voice for those church productions to remain theologically + gender appropriate. Looking back, those scripts are not as powerful as they could have been. They're bland in places where they could have been bold. And they are not fully candi.
I include them in this archive anyway. That was good work. And writing/producing them is part of how I learned to speak up and be my full, unapologetic self. Asé ~~~~~
Annnnnd Forward ...
The work that came next: Desire's Kiss, Wild & Free, Broadway Brunch, and Far Away From Home to name a few — are documented elsewhere, including on this site. These are projects in which you can experience how I came home to my full voice.
(pictured, l to r: Cameron Wingo + C.M. Henry, Desire's Kiss; Reed C. Sellers + Megan McFarland, Wild & Free; Naima Carter-Russell, Tiff Morgan, and Kate Guyton, "That Day;" Terry Henry)
This archive is the path that led me there.
Asé
Asé
Asé Ohhhhhhh ... 
🙏🏽