Jouska New Logo.jpg

Jouska PlayWorks

Jouska PlayWorks is an assembly of Black playwrights, all of whom are committed to creating theatre to enrich, entertain, empower, and awaken the moral conscience.

Jouska Meet the Playwrights.jpg
Nikki Brake-Sillá

Nikki Brake-Sillá

Joshua A. Campbell

Joshua A. Campbell

Quinn D. Eli

Quinn D. Eli

Keenya Jackson

Keenya Jackson

Teresa Miller

Teresa Miller

Megan Schumacher

Megan Schumacher

Together with Simpatico, the organization will present the Jouska PlayWorks Virtual New Play Showcase, featuring six new plays created by the Jouska playwrights. These pieces will be presented as Pay What You Decide (PWYD) digital readings with donations going to organizations designated by the playwrights.  The project will employ 16 actors and 5 directors all while providing the opportunity for Black artists to lead the development of their own work.

Inspired by Nona Faustines artwork and artistry, The Translated Body Politic of Miss Mother Sista is about the story of four black women and how they came to be who they are in their black bodies, form and thought. This is the story of what would happen if they didn't have to fight to tell the story of themselves, why they look the way they do and told by them in the nude.

Sky’s Aunt Jo has recently died. While cleaning out her favorite Aunt’s house, Sky finds an entire journal that Aunt Jo dedicated to…Harry Belefonte. Inspired by Aunt Joe, Sky and her sis, Leva, create the ‘Celebrity Dream Date’ app.

In the summer of 1933 just outside of Birmingham, AL, schoolteacher Elizabeth Lawrence was lynched for scolding a group of white children who had been throwing stones at her. Through a contemporary lens using Angelina Weld Grimké's "Tenebris" and a split stage, this play imagines her son's pursuit of justice for his mother and considers the courageous pursuit of equity by all Black bodies in the face of racism.

An autobiographical choreopoem exploring the dreams, vulnerability, memories, and physical recovery of a black artist during the summer of 2020 through prose, poetry, song, music, and movement..

ReWombed takes place over the course of multiple office visits, between Pastor Rachel Johnson and Dr. Eve Jardín, OBGYN. Eve has a crisis of conscience, after renouncing her faith years before, and wonders if the recent death of a patient is a sign from God. As their bond strengthens, Eve challenges Rachel’s participation in a trial whose selection process, coupled with the biological harm of immunosuppression drugs, cervical biopsies, and numerous abdominal surgeries, have made it impossible for her to uphold her vow to do no harm.

In a strange, unknown future, Pearl is exactly as her name might suggest—a Black woman well-aware that she’s a gem. By contrast, her husband Griffin is less assured, suffering in silence as his old girlfriend, a white chanteuse named Autumn, attempts to take credit for a popular song that Griffin wrote long ago. It's the ugly, familiar tale of a white musician taking credit for a Black artist's work, and Pearl refuses to let it stand. Enter Cambridge—a talking A.I. devicewho entices Pearl to confront Autumn, no matter the cost. But Cambridge’s motives are anyone’s guess in a world where technology, not music, is the food of love, leaving Pearl all alone to balance the scales and seize a little justice not only for Griffin, but for every Black artist that's ever been wronged.

Check back soon to reserve PAY WHAT YOU DECIDE tickets to each of our showcase readings.