playwright
A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes plays.
Etymology
The word "play" is from Middle English pleye, from Old English plæġ, pleġa, plæġa ("play, exercise; sport, game; drama, applause"). The word "wright" is an archaic English ...
. Her plays have won multiple awards including the 2010
GLAAD Award
The GLAAD Media Award is an accolade bestowed by GLAAD to recognize and honor various branches of the media for their outstanding representations of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community and the issues that affect their l ...
, a Lilly Award in 2010, as well as a Lanford Wilson Award in 2015. She was a
Lark
Larks are passerine birds of the family Alaudidae. Larks have a cosmopolitan distribution with the largest number of species occurring in Africa. Only a single species, the horned lark, occurs in North America, and only Horsfield's bush lark occu ...
Fellow as well as a Dramatist Guild Fellow in 2010–11. She was also a cast member of the
Neo-Futurists
The Neo-Futurists are an experimental theater troupe founded by Greg Allen in 1988, based on an aesthetics of honesty, speed and brevity. Neo-Futurists in theatre were inspired by the Italian Futurist movement from the early 20th century. Origin ...
in New York. Hutchinson was a staff writer for the
Blue Man Group
Blue Man Group is an American performance art company formed in 1987. It was purchased in July 2017 by the Canadian company Cirque du Soleil. Blue Man Group is known for its stage productions, which incorporate many kinds of music and art, bot ...
. She has been a member of New Dramatists for four years. Currently she is a Humanitas Fellow and the Tow Foundation Fellow at
Second Stage
A multistage rocket or step rocket is a launch vehicle that uses two or more rocket ''stages'', each of which contains its own engines and propellant. A ''tandem'' or ''serial'' stage is mounted on top of another stage; a ''parallel'' stage i ...
. Hutchinson teaches creative writing at the
University of Delaware
The University of Delaware (colloquially UD or Delaware) is a public land-grant research university located in Newark, Delaware. UD is the largest university in Delaware. It offers three associate's programs, 148 bachelor's programs, 121 mas ...
."Chisa Hutchinson" ''http://www.english.udel.edu/people/Pages/bio.aspx?i=301'' , accessed November 5th, 2017 Most recently her play ''Somebody's Daughter'' was included on the 2017 Kilroys List which includes un-produced plays by female and trans playwrights."The List" ''https://thekilroys.org/list-2017/'', accessed November 5th, 2017
Early life
Chisa Hutchinson was born in
Queens
Queens is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located on Long Island, it is the largest New York City borough by area. It is bordered by the borough of Brooklyn at the western tip of Long ...
,
New York
New York most commonly refers to:
* New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
* New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States
New York may also refer to:
Film and television
* '' ...
in 1980. At the age of four she was unofficially adopted by a family in
Newark, New Jersey
Newark ( , ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of New Jersey and the seat of Essex County and the second largest city within the New York metropolitan area.Short Hills section of
Millburn, New Jersey
Millburn is a suburban Township (New Jersey), township in Essex County, New Jersey, Essex County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States census, the township's population was 20,149, reflecting an increase of 384 (+1.9%) from t ...
to attend
Kent Place School
The Kent Place School is a girls independent college-preparatory day school (with a coeducational nursery and pre-kindergarten) serving students in preschool through twelfth grade in Summit, Union County, New Jersey, United States.
Kent Pl ...
."SistersTalk: Interview with Playwright Chisa Hutchinson" ''http://sisterstalk.net/chisahutchinson.html'' , accessed November 5th, 2017 It is here that she was exposed to theatre for the first time. While attending high school, her drama teacher took her to attend a debate between
August Wilson
August Wilson ( Frederick August Kittel Jr.; April 27, 1945 – October 2, 2005) was an American playwright. He has been referred to as the "theater's poet of Black America". He is best known for a series of ten plays, collectively called ' (or ...
and
Robert Brustein
Robert Sanford Brustein (born April 21, 1927) is an American theatrical critic, producer, playwright, writer, and educator. He founded both the Yale Repertory Theatre in New Haven, Connecticut, and the American Repertory Theatre in Cambridge, Ma ...
which inspired her to write African American centric theatre.Myers, Victoria "The Interval: An interview with Chisa Hutchinson" ''http://theintervalny.com/interviews/2015/02/an-interview-with-chisa-hutchinson/'', accessed November 5th, 2017
Education
Hutchinson attended
Vassar College
Vassar College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Poughkeepsie, New York, United States. Founded in 1861 by Matthew Vassar, it was the second degree-granting institution of higher education for women in the United States, closely follo ...
where she received a B.A. in Dramatic Arts. She would later go to earn her M.F.A. in Dramatic Writing from
Tisch School of the Arts
The New York University Tisch School of the Arts (commonly referred to as Tisch) is the performing, cinematic and media arts school of New York University.
Founded on August 17, 1965, Tisch is a training ground for artists, scholars of the a ...
.
At Vassar College, Hutchinson was the only Black drama major. Because her education was not exploring theatre by Black writers, Hutchinson felt compelled to create her own work.
Themes
Hutchinson's work centers around responding to social issues, although she states that, "the best way to write a play about a social issue is to not make it about a social issue." Her plays tell stories of people that are rarely seen on stage, such as transgender stories or stories of people of color.
In interview she statedProject Muse "Shoestrings: A conversation with Chisa Hutchinson and Rodney Gilbert" ''https://muse.jhu.edu/article/664869'', accessed November 5th, 2017
Plays
*''She Likes Girls'' (
Lark Play Development Center
The Lark, formerly Lark Play Development Center, was a non-profit organization, headquartered in Manhattan, New York that sought to help discover and develop playwrights. It announced its closing in October, 2021.
History
The Lark was founded in ...
, Working Man's Clothes)
*''Mama's Gonna Buy You'' (Inge Center for the Arts)
*''This is not the Play'' (Mad Dog Theatre Company,
Cleveland Public Theater
Cleveland Public Theatre is a theater
Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a spe ...
)
*''Sex on Sunday'' (Lark Play Development Center, the BE Company)
*''Tunde's Trumpet'' (Summer Stage, BOOM Arts)
*''The Subject'' (
Atlantic Theatre Company
Atlantic Theater Company is an Off-Broadway non-profit theater, whose mission is to produce great plays "simply and truthfully utilizing an artistic ensemble." The company was founded in 1985 by David Mamet, William H. Macy, and 30 of their acti ...
, Playwrights' Foundation,
Victory Gardens Theater
Victory Gardens Theater is a theater company in Chicago, Illinois dedicated to the development and production of new plays and playwrights. The theater company was founded in 1974 when eight Chicago artists, Cecil O'Neal, Warren Casey, Stuart Go ...
, Partial Comfort, and
Rattlestick Playwrights Theater
Rattlestick Theater is a non-profit off-Broadway theater based in the West Village
The West Village is a neighborhood in the western section of the larger Greenwich Village neighborhood of Lower Manhattan, New York City.
The traditional b ...
)
*''Somebody's Daughter'' (
Cherry Lane Theatre
The Cherry Lane Theatre is the oldest continuously running off-Broadway theater in New York City. The theater is located at 38 Commerce Street between Barrow and Bedford Streets in the West Village neighborhood of Greenwich Village, Manhattan, N ...
,
Second Stage
A multistage rocket or step rocket is a launch vehicle that uses two or more rocket ''stages'', each of which contains its own engines and propellant. A ''tandem'' or ''serial'' stage is mounted on top of another stage; a ''parallel'' stage i ...
)
*''Alondra Was Here'' (the Wild Project)
*''The Wedding Gift'' (
Contemporary American Theatre Festival
The Contemporary American Theater Festival (CATF) is an American annual professional theatre festival held at Shepherd University, located in Shepherdstown, West Virginia. According to the New York Times (in 2015), it is one of "50 ''essential'' s ...
*GLAAD Award (2010)
*Lilly Award (2010)
*New York Innovative Theatre Award (2012)
*Paul Green Award (2013)
*Helen Merrill Award (2013)
*Lanford Wilson Award (2015)
Personal life
After the opening of her play ''She Likes Girls'' in 2008 Hutchinson's sexuality was put into the spotlight because the play centers around a young lesbian woman. Hutchinson however self identifies as bisexual.
Critical reception
Hutchinson's play ''She Likes Girls'' centers around a young lesbian couple at an inter-city high school. This play and the topics it deals with would lead her to receive a GLAAD (Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) Award. Not only did the play win this award but it received positive reviews throughout its run in New York City."She Likes Girls" ''https://www.timeout.com/newyork/theater/she-like-girls'', accessed November 5th, 2017
In 2022, Chisa Hutchinson was included in the book ''50 Key Figures in Queer US Theatre'', profiled in a chapter written by theatre scholar La Donna L. Forsgren.