SYNOPSIS

The Black & White Minstrel Show is a dark-comedy about racial stereotypes. The play examines the danger of perpetuating these stereotypes, currently and historically, through entertainment and popular media.

PLAYWRIGHT’S BIO

Wind Dell Woods (He/him) is a playwright, scholar, and educator. His work centers on the concepts of death, rebirth, race, identity, and slang. His other plays include Harold and I, Skylark Dream, A Bronzian Tale, and Aaliyah in Underland.

A BIT ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHT

1. When did you start writing plays? If you had a moment where you realized you wanted to write, what was it?

Sometime early in my childhood. I don’t recall at what age. But I do recall I would write little plays and cast my brothers and sister to perform them in our living room theatre for my mother and her friends. I do know when I first realized I was going to be a playwright. I was 13 and had the opportunity to meet August Wilson. That was it!

2. How did you come to write your OOB play? Was there a particular inspiration behind its creation? How has it developed?

I was in an MFA program for playwriting. There was a lot on my mind, and I was reading a lot of different styles and approaches to playwriting.

3. What are 5 words that describe who you are as a playwright?

Inquisitive, abstract, concrete, profane, and rhythmic

4. What/who are some of the major influences on your writing?

August Wilson, Suzan-Lori Parks, Bertolt Brecht, Tony Kushner, Lynn Nottage, Constance Congdon, Willie Shakespeare, etc.

5. What’s one fact someone would never guess about you?

I can’t drink red wine and I have a fondness for PBR.

6. What are some of your favorite plays?

Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, Tales of the Lost Formicans, Intimate Apparel, El Paso Blue, Doubt, Fences, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, almost everything by Suzan-Lori Parks….

7. Any new projects you’re working on or shameless plugs?

YES! I will be having a reading of my full-length play Aaliyah in Underland as part of the New Vision series at NY Classical Theatre, August 23, 2022 (nyclassical.org/new-visions). The play is a hip-hop remix of Alice in Wonderland. I am also writing a hip-hop-inspired play for young audiences for Bocón Theatre in San Diego.