Pretty Privilege
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Gloria
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SYNOPSIS
Coffee and Caramel meet after a controversial film casting. Their conversation unpacks the complexities of beauty standards and how they shape their experiences.
PLAYWRIGHT’S BIO
Gloria Majule is a storyteller born and raised in Dodoma, Tanzania. She seeks to tell stories that bring multiple black voices together from across the world and are accessible to black audiences no matter where they are. She writes for and about Africans and the African diaspora. Gloria has been awarded a MacDowell Fellowship and commissions by Audible and Atlantic Theater Company. She was a finalist for the Sundance Cultural Impact Residency. Her work includes My Father Was Shot in the Back of the Head (Relentless Award Finalist), Culture Shock (Leah Ryan Prize Winner) and Uhuru (Blue Ink Award Featured Finalist). She has been awarded residencies by Yaddo, Art Omi, The New Harmony Project and New York Stage and Film. Gloria’s work has been developed by the American Playwriting Foundation, the Alley Theatre, Vassar’s Powerhouse Theater, and The New Group, among others. BA: Cornell University; MFA: Yale School of Drama.
A BIT ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHT
When did you start writing plays? If you had a moment where you realized you wanted to write, what was it?
Growing up, I always loved reading and creative writing. I wrote short stories, poems, and short plays. I wrote my first full-length play, Life Sentence, in undergrad. I wrote it out of frustration with the lack of authentic stories about the African experience and the absence of roles for Black students in my program that weren’t problematic or stereotypical. Life Sentence was the first full-length play with an exclusively Black cast produced by Cornell University’s Performing and Media Arts department. During the show’s run, I saw more Black audience members in the theater than I had ever seen during my time at the university, and I received positive feedback from Black people all across the diaspora. I knew then that this was my calling, and I had to find a way to continue telling these kinds of stories for my community.
How did you come to write your OOB play? Was there a particular inspiration behind its creation? How has it developed?
I wrote Pretty Privilege as part of the Ripped Festival for American Blues Theater. The prompt was to find a news article and write a ten-minute play inspired by it. The article I chose focused on the colorism debate surrounding Disney’s casting of Lilo & Stitch. I believe the conversation around colorism is important, urgent, and necessary.
What are five words that describe who you are as a playwright?
Unapologetic, comedic, vulnerable, multifaceted, adventurous.
What/who are some of the major influences on your writing?
African Storytelling Theatre, Bongo Movies, Telenovelas, Bollywood, Nollywood, Theatre of the Oppressed, Africanfuturism.
What’s one fact someone would never guess about you?
I will forget all allegiances and friendships when it comes down to it during a board game.
What are some of your favorite plays?
Trouble in Mind by Alice Childress
Intimate Apparel by Lynn Nottage
A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry
Is God Is by Aleshea Harris
The Homecoming Queen by Ngozi Anyanwu
Any new projects you’re working on or shameless plugs?
This year I am excited to be spending time at multiple residencies: Art Omi, The New Harmony Project, MacDowell and Yaddo.
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