Eisa Davis (born May 5, 1971) is an American playwright, actress and singer-songwriter.
She is most commonly known for her work as a playwright, writing shows such as ''Bulrusher'' and ''Angela's Mixtape'' as well as through her acting work, wherein she won an Obie Award for Sustained Excellence in Performance. She resides in Brooklyn.
Early life and education
Davis spent her childhood in
San Francisco, California
San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...
. As a child, she spent her time attending dance classes and learning the piano. She is the niece of political activist
Angela Davis
Angela Yvonne Davis (born January 26, 1944) is an American political activist, philosopher, academic, scholar, and author. She is a professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz. A feminist and a Marxist, Davis was a longtime member of ...
. After graduating from
Berkeley High School, she earned a bachelor's degree from
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...
and a Master of Fine Arts from the
Actors Studio, where she double majored in playwriting and acting. Her dance skills are notable as well, with the dean of her program saying she could have been admitted to
Alvin Ailey
Alvin Ailey Jr. (January 5, 1931 – December 1, 1989) was an American dancer, director, choreographer, and activist who founded the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater (AAADT). He created AAADT and its affiliated Alvin Ailey American Dance Center ...
.
Career
Davis stars as Addie Pickett, nurse and receptionist at Bluebell, Alabama's local medical practice in The CW's series ''
Hart of Dixie
''Hart of Dixie'' is an American comedy-drama television series that aired on The CW from September 26, 2011, to March 27, 2015. The series, created by Leila Gerstein, stars Rachel Bilson as Dr. Zoe Hart, a New Yorker who, after her dreams of ...
'', a fish-out-of-water story about a New York City doctor (Rachel Bilson) adjusting to life in a small Southern town after she inherits a local medical practice. In 2006 Davis was nominated for, and subsequently won, an
Obie Award for her performance in ''
Passing Strange
''Passing Strange'' is a comedy-drama rock musical about a young African American's artistic journey of self-discovery, with strong elements of philosophical existentialism, metafiction (especially self-referential humor), and the artistic jou ...
''. The show premiered at
Berkeley Rep
Berkeley Repertory Theatre is a regional theater company located in Berkeley, California. It runs seven productions each season from its two stages in Downtown Berkeley.
History
The company was founded in 1968, as the East Bay's first resident ...
, but then moved on to
Broadway
Broadway may refer to:
Theatre
* Broadway Theatre (disambiguation)
* Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S.
** Broadway (Manhattan), the street
**Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...
and Davis went with the show, only later to have the whole production filmed by
Spike Lee
Shelton Jackson "Spike" Lee (born March 20, 1957) is an American film director, producer, screenwriter, and actor. His production company, 40 Acres and a Mule Filmworks, has produced more than 35 films since 1983. He made his directorial debut ...
. In 2009 she wrote and starred in ''Angela's Mixtapes''. The show was autobiographical and went on to make it into the New Yorkers list of best plays from that year.
Davis was previously a resident playwright at New Dramatists, during which time she won two playwriting awards, the Whitfield Cook and the Helen Merrill.
Recently she has worked at Williams College as an Arthur Levitt Fellow for the 2013/14 season.
Currently she is the
Symphony Space's artist-in-residence. Davis has two albums of her own music, ''Something Else'' and ''Tinctures''. Some of her songs have been featured on the
Showtime
Showtime or Show Time may refer to:
Film
* ''Showtime'' (film), a 2002 American action/comedy film
* ''Showtime'' (video), a 1995 live concert video by Blur
Television Networks and channels
* Showtime Networks, a division of Paramount Global w ...
series ''Soul Food''.
Davis also narrated the role of Celestial Davenport Hamilton in the audiobook version of ''
An American Marriage'' by
Tayari Jones
Tayari Jones (born November 30, 1970) is an American author and academic known for '' An American Marriage'', which was a 2018 Oprah's Book Club Selection, and won the 2019 Women's Prize for Fiction. Jones is a graduate of Spelman College, the ...
. Her play Bulrusher will also be produced at Berkeley Rep OCT 27–DEC 3, 2023.
[https://www.berkeleyrep.org/shows/bulrusher/]
Artistic philosophy
Davis believes in the
Ghanaian
Ghana (; tw, Gaana, ee, Gana), officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It abuts the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, sharing borders with Ivory Coast in the west, Burkina Faso in the north, and To ...
principle of
Sankofa
(pronounced ''SAHN''-koh-fah) is a word in the Twi language of Ghana meaning “to retrieve" (literally "go back and get"; - to return; - to go; - to fetch, to seek and take) and also refers to the Bono people, Bono Adinkra symbols, Adinkra ...
. The literal translation of the word is "return and collect it" or "go back and get it". This refers to her use of digging through her own lineage and history to find action and themes that can be used in her plays. She also uses her art to answer questions that "haunt" her or ideas that she is grappling with herself. Much of her artistic philosophy can be summed up in her quote, "Theatre is one of the few public spaces we have for active contemplation."
She struggles with ideas such as blackness and family through the poetry of her language.
Filmography
Film
Television
Awards
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Davis, Eisa
1971 births
20th-century African-American people
21st-century African-American people
African-American dramatists and playwrights
African-American opera librettists
Harvard University alumni
Living people
Place of birth missing (living people)
Writers from Berkeley, California
Women opera librettists