Charly Evon Simpson

Charly Evon Simpson

Charly Evon Simpson is a playwright and TV writer based in Brooklyn. Her plays include Behind the Sheet, Jump, form of a girl unknown, it’s not a trip it’s a journey, and more. Her work has been seen and/or developed with Ensemble Studio Theatre, The Lark, P73, The Eugene O’Neill Theater Center, Cleveland Play House, PlayMakers Repertory Company, Chautauqua Theater Company, Salt Lake Acting Company, and others...
Charly Evon Simpson is a playwright and TV writer based in Brooklyn. Her plays include Behind the Sheet, Jump, form of a girl unknown, it’s not a trip it’s a journey, and more. Her work has been seen and/or developed with Ensemble Studio Theatre, The Lark, P73, The Eugene O’Neill Theater Center, Cleveland Play House, PlayMakers Repertory Company, Chautauqua Theater Company, Salt Lake Acting Company, and others. She is a recipient of the Vineyard Theatre's Paula Vogel Playwriting Award and the Dramatists Guild's Lanford Wilson Award. She is a resident of New Dramatists and a core writer at The Playwrights' Center and is a former member of WP Theater’s 2018-2020 Lab, SPACE on Ryder Farm’s The Working Farm, Clubbed Thumb’s Early Career Writers’ Group and Ensemble Studio Theatre’s Youngblood. She currently has theatre commissions with MTC/Sloan, Elizabeth George Commission/South Coast Rep, and PlayMakers Repertory Company. In TV, she's worked on Showtime's American Rust and currently has an overall deal at HBO where she has worked on the second season of Industry as well as several limited series. Charly has a BA from Brown University, a master’s in Women’s Studies from University of Oxford, New College, and her MFA in Playwriting from Hunter College.

Plays

  • form of a girl unknown
    Amali is a 12-year-old girl who finds herself on the edge of womanhood and is having trouble navigating her new world. Her mom's always busy and her sister is about to have a baby of her own. Her friend, Marina, has ditched her, but her new best friend ,Finn, is always there to listen--until he can't take it anymore. Her fascination with her changing body is one thing, but her fascination with the...
    Amali is a 12-year-old girl who finds herself on the edge of womanhood and is having trouble navigating her new world. Her mom's always busy and her sister is about to have a baby of her own. Her friend, Marina, has ditched her, but her new best friend ,Finn, is always there to listen--until he can't take it anymore. Her fascination with her changing body is one thing, but her fascination with the story of siblings killed in the woods is another thing entirely.
  • it's not a trip it's a journey
    june needs to go on a journey so she convinces three friends to join her on a road trip west. a play about tumbleweed, friendship, being black, and needing to soothe something you don’t always have the words for.
  • sandblasted
    Angela and Odessa are on a sandy search for something that might not be real but they are determined to make a way out of no way. When they stumble upon ADAH, that’s right THE Celebrity-turned-Wellness-Maven Adah, they decide to follow her lead not knowing that the journey could very well be the cure.
  • Behind the Sheet
    In 1846, Philomena is a pregnant enslaved woman assisting her owner, Dr. George Barry, as he tries to find the cure for fistulas and tending to his patients, other enslaved black women. Everything changes when he receives a new patient. Inspired by the life and experimentation of Dr. J Marion Sims and the lives of Anarcha, Lucy, and Betsey, three of the enslaved black women he worked on, Behind the Sheet...
    In 1846, Philomena is a pregnant enslaved woman assisting her owner, Dr. George Barry, as he tries to find the cure for fistulas and tending to his patients, other enslaved black women. Everything changes when he receives a new patient. Inspired by the life and experimentation of Dr. J Marion Sims and the lives of Anarcha, Lucy, and Betsey, three of the enslaved black women he worked on, Behind the Sheet explores the untold stories behind the rise of modern gynecology.
  • Jump
    Jump is about flickering lights, vapes that fall from the sky, old homes, and a young woman who finds solace on a bridge.
  • Scratching the Surface
    Scratching the Surface is a play about one woman’s nightmare, one couple’s dream, and the nice woman next door to likes to stop by with pies.
  • While We Wait
    Letters and airplane tickets fall from the sky. Memories, like snowflakes, float in on a breeze. Grace waits for an email to come. James waits to send it. And as they wait, they replay memories, imagine futures, and deal with an uncomfortable present.
  • Hottentotted
    Hottentotted is a play created for and by black women. It is about acknowledging the history our bodies hold, the history held in bodies that look like ours, the history we try to avoid. Inspired by interviews and workshops held over the past few years, Hottentotted is about diverse black women sitting in a room together, learning about the Hottentot Venus and sharing painful, funny, infuriating, hopeful...
    Hottentotted is a play created for and by black women. It is about acknowledging the history our bodies hold, the history held in bodies that look like ours, the history we try to avoid. Inspired by interviews and workshops held over the past few years, Hottentotted is about diverse black women sitting in a room together, learning about the Hottentot Venus and sharing painful, funny, infuriating, hopeful stories because we think the others just might understand. It is a glimpse into the lives of some black women in the United States today, an opportunity to discuss what is usually kept quiet.
  • or what she will
    Twins Willa and Faulkner share everything, including their parents’ love of literature. At age 13, they are old souls yet still secretly believe in fantastical worlds…a storm rolls in…waves crash…FLASH…an empty playground…a man walks by…FLASH… Sometimes a moment changes everything.
  • The History of Colors
    The History of Colors is about a year in the life of Jolene, the oldest of four sisters, who takes the lead on fixing up a little shack on a lake that she and her sisters have inherited. The play shows the sisters and the shack in each season and shows how Jolene sees it all a bit differently.