Candrice Jones

Candrice Jones

Playwright, poet, and educator Candrice Jones is from Dermott, Arkansas. Candrice's writes love letters for and to women of the American South. Candrice is a VONA Playwriting alum and CalArts Critical Studies MFA recipient. She is the author of the full-length play, Crackbaby (2010 Wasserstein Prize Nomination) and FLEX (developed at the 2020 Humana Festival of New American Plays). She has been a resident...
Playwright, poet, and educator Candrice Jones is from Dermott, Arkansas. Candrice's writes love letters for and to women of the American South. Candrice is a VONA Playwriting alum and CalArts Critical Studies MFA recipient. She is the author of the full-length play, Crackbaby (2010 Wasserstein Prize Nomination) and FLEX (developed at the 2020 Humana Festival of New American Plays). She has been a resident fellow at Ground Floor housed by the Berkeley Rep, the Bay Area Playwrights’ Festival, and MacDowell’s Colony of the Arts. She is scheduled to be a resident playwright at Djerassi’s Colony of the Arts in the fall of 2020. Candrice, lives and works in Minneapolis where she has received a 2019-20 Many Voices Fellowship and a 2020-21 Jerome Fellowship from The Playwrights' Center. 

Plays

  • Give her God
    Nisha and Teen, two Black women bound by their friendship to Amber who is dying of cancer, must reckon with racism that rears its ugly head on their friend's death bed.
  • A Medusa Thread
    In the Mall of Purgatory, Medusa, a gorgon and beautician, customers one last hair do before they transition to their after-life.
  • Counter-Curse
    Online dating has become a way to find love. Or, has it become a way to track down your father's ex-lover's son? In this play of catfish, Elise, a 20-something seeks revenge. But, will an old wive's tale come back to hunt her in the best way possible?
  • FLEX
    It’s 1997 and Cynthia Cooper rules the WNBA. Every player on Plainnole’s Lady Train basketball team wants to “go pro,” but none more than Starra Jones. She and her teammates, Cherise, Sidney, April, and Donna, make a pact to stick together come hell or high water. However, the realities of living life in rural Arkansas may tear them apart. Written in the structure of a four-quarter basketball game, Flex...
    It’s 1997 and Cynthia Cooper rules the WNBA. Every player on Plainnole’s Lady Train basketball team wants to “go pro,” but none more than Starra Jones. She and her teammates, Cherise, Sidney, April, and Donna, make a pact to stick together come hell or high water. However, the realities of living life in rural Arkansas may tear them apart. Written in the structure of a four-quarter basketball game, Flex presents a world in which a mistake on the court becomes a foul off the court. Hitting a shot on the court is a score in real life.
  • Crackbaby
    It's 1998 in rural Arkansas. Today is the day that Emarytus Brown, a fourteen year old who has been labeled a Crackbaby, does her annual check-in. Prepped by her mother, Bebe, she tells neurologist whatever he needs to hear so that her mother can continue to get SSI checks. Then something happens that throws the plan and Emarytus' functional/yet dysfunctional life off balance. The play zooms to...
    It's 1998 in rural Arkansas. Today is the day that Emarytus Brown, a fourteen year old who has been labeled a Crackbaby, does her annual check-in. Prepped by her mother, Bebe, she tells neurologist whatever he needs to hear so that her mother can continue to get SSI checks. Then something happens that throws the plan and Emarytus' functional/yet dysfunctional life off balance. The play zooms to fourteen years after that day. Emarytus, who is a now pediatric neurologist treating children born to opioid addicted parents, is still facing the emotional challenges of her past and how those challenges affect her financially. Crackbaby is a coming of age satire that focuses on the children affected by the United States' War on Drugs.