ain't no dead thing staged reading

Directed a staged reading of ain't no dead thing by the incredible a.k. payne at the Shank Theatre at UCSD this weekend as part of the annual Dr. Floyd Gaffney Playwriting Competition. a.k. wrote an immensely rich and moving new play and we were fortunate to get to work on it here at UCSD. The cast was made up of UCSD students, alums, and friends, and a.k. joined us for the reading and hosted a talkback afterwards.

~Some of the cast and playwright a.k. payne (center) after the reading.

The Dr. Floyd Gaffney National Playwriting Competition on the African American Experience is open to enrolled full time undergraduate students throughout the country. The Gaffney Prize, now in its eleventh year, awards $1000 to the winning author along with travel and lodging to participate in the play’s staged reading Saturday, June 3, 2017 as a follow up to the Wagner MFA New Play Festival at UC San Diego. Jurors for this year’s award are La Jolla Playhouse Dramaturg Shirley Fishman, incoming MFA playwright Dave Harris, and Allan Havis, professor of theatre at UC San Diego. The Theatre & Dance Department wishes to thank the work of the jurors, the Dean of Arts and Humanities, and the Gaffney family for lending Dr. Floyd Gaffney’s name to this national event—recognizing Dr. Gaffney’s achievement in African American theatre.

In ain’t no dead thing, on the morning of May 31, 1921, Edwina kills the chicken that led Noa on her amazing 300 mile journey from Chicago to Tulsa after her son was found at the bottom of Lake Michigan in 1905. Later that night, a gun goes off, leading to the massacre that destroyed one of the economic beacons of Black America. Two pairs of forbidden lovers try to imagine a world where they can breathe. Playwright a.k. payne is a student at Yale University.

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