About the Playwright

Donnetta Lavinia Grays – raised in Columbia, South Carolina – is a Brooklyn based playwright and actor whose writing credits include WHERE WE STAND (Lucille Lortel Nominee, Drama League Nominee, 3X AUDELCO Nominee, World Premiere Co-production – WP Theater and Baltimore Centerstage. O’Neill Center National Playwrights Conference Semifinalist.), WARRIORS DON’T CRY (Theaterworks USA/Bushnell commission), LAST NIGHT AND THE NIGHT BEFORE (World Premiere – Denver Center for the Performing Arts.  Kilroys List. Colorado New Play Summit. National New Play Network Showcase. She is a 2021 Whiting Award recipient for Drama. Todd McNerney National Playwriting Award Winner.  O’Neill Theater Center National Playwrights Conference Semifinalist.), LAID TO REST (O’Neill Theater Center National Playwrights Conference Finalist.) THE REVIEW OR HOW TO EAT YOUR OPPOSITION (WP Pipeline Festival. O’Neill Theater Center National Playwrights Conference Finalist.) THE NEW NORMAL and THE COWBOY IS DYING. Donnetta is a recipient of the Helen Merrill Playwright Award, Lilly Award, National Theater Conference Barrie and Bernice Stavis Playwright Award, and is the inaugural recipient of the Doric Wilson Independent Playwright Award. She is a former Space on Ryder Farm Working Farm Resident, is a Time Warner Foundation WP Playwrights Lab alumna, a Civilians R&D Group alumna, an Actors Studio Playwright/Directors Unit alumna, and a terraNova Collective Groundbreakers Playwright group alumna. Her work has been previously developed with, Hedgebrook (*Covid Class), New Harmony Project, Ground Floor at Berkeley Rep, Denver Center for the Performing Arts, The Labyrinth Theater Company, New York Theater Workshop, Orlando Shakespeare Theater, Portland Stage Company, Pure Theatre Company, [the claque], Naked Angels, Classical Theater of Harlem, Slant Theater Project, terraNova Collective, and TOSOS. Donnetta is currently under commission from Steppenwolf, The Denver Center for the Performing Arts, Alabama Shakespeare Festival, and WP Theater. For television she has been staffed on Spectrum Original/Lionsgate’s “Manhunt”, “Y: The Last Man” for FX Network/Color Force and is currently the Executive Story Editor on “Joe Exotic” starring Kate McKinnon for NBC Universal.

Meet the Director & Cast

KEVIN R. FREE is a multidisciplinary artist whose work as an actor, writer, director, and producer has been showcased and developed in many places, including FringeNYC; National Black Theater; The  New Black Fest; The Moth Radio Hour; Project Y Theater; Flux Theater Ensemble; the Queerly  Festival (of which he is now the curator), and The Fire This Time Festival, where he served as  Producing Artistic Director for 5 years, winning an Obie for his work in 2015. He is also an  accomplished voice actor, having voiced over 350 audiobooks and creating the voice of Kevin from  Desert Bluffs on the popular podcast Welcome To Night Vale. Recent Directing Credits include The  Last Five Years and Lady Day At Emerson’s Bar & Grill (also with Tracey Conyer Lee), both at  Portland Stage; Topdog/Underdog at University of Arkansas; and GLORY! at Dixon Place; Wendy  and the Neckbeards at Colby College; Marcus; or the Secret of Sweet at UNLV; and Pipeline at Mile  Square Theatre. Upcoming: Everybody at Hofstra University. More info at kevinrfree.com and on  Twitter and IG @kevinrfree

TRACEY CONYER LEE was last at Portland Stage portraying the indomitable legacy of Billie  Holliday in Lady Day At Emerson’s Bar & Grill. Where We Stand marks her return to live theatre since  February 2020 when she performed her 5th production of Lady Day… in Key West. Other recent  onstage: Clairee in Steel Magnolias & Ida Green in Into the Breeches (Alabama Shakespeare Festival); Tanya Starr in On the Grounds Of Belonging (World Premiere-Long Wharf Theatre); Cynthia in Sweat  (Pittsburgh Public Theatre). She is grateful to be coming back to New England later this summer to  play Mrs. Webb in Our Town, outdoors, with the Peterborough Players. 75+ other productions include  original off-Broadway roles, Carbonell, NAACP & Barrymore Award winning roles, Yale Rep,  Baltimore Centerstage, Denver Center, Actors Theatre of Louisville, St. Louis Rep, Cincinnati  Playhouse, Westport Playhouse and more. Currently recurring on “FBI”, other tv includes “The Path”,  “SMASH”, “L&O: Criminal Intent”, “Ed”, “All My Children” and “Guiding Light”. Also a  playwright, Ms. Lee’s work includes development or production in New York, Boston, DC, Vermont  and Chicago. Her musical, Triple Threats, which she first penned in PSC’s actor housing, is currently  being workshopped by NYC’s Boomerang Theatre Company. For more www.traceyconyerlee.com Thanks, Kev!!

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