Wild Black-Eyed Susans
by Kara Lee Corthron
Set Design: Kylph Stanford
Costume Design: Celestine Ranney-Howes
Light Design: Frank Miller
Sound Design: Terry Cobb
Song Composer: Bobby Smith

The Department of Theatre is proud to showcase Wild Black-Eyed Susans, a new play by UMBC Theatre alumna Kara Lee Corthron, directed by Jennifer L. Nelson.

Sisters Brady and Rita imagine new lives beyond the rural existence they know. Brady is sure she’s got the right stuff to be the next big super-model, and Rita’s poetic longing flows into her songwriting. Funny and moving by turns, the play strikingly captures moments of resilience, friendship, and claims for creative space where dreams are put into action.

 

Kara Lee Corthron received the 2007 Helen Merrill Award for Emerging Playwrights for Wild Black-Eyed Susans. Her play Like a Cow or an Elephant was awarded the 2007 Theodore Ward Prize for African-American Playwrights and was produced at the DePaul Theatre School in Chicago. She was also the winner of the 2006 New Professional Theatre Writer’s Award, is a three-time recipient of Lincoln Center’s Lecomte du Nouy Foundation Award, and was a semi-finalist for the 2007 Sundance Theatre Lab and Princess Grace Award. Kara’s plays have been developed with the Ensemble Studio Theatre, Center Stage (Baltimore), African Continuum Theatre (D.C.), and Juilliard.

The production will be directed by Jennifer L. Nelson, Producing Artistic Director of the acclaimed African Continuum Theatre. Ms. Nelson is a winner of the Larry Neal Writers Award (for poetry and playwriting) and a recipient of the Washington, D.C. Mayor’s Arts Awards for Excellence in an Artistic Discipline.