←Recommendations of Dark Skinned Pavement

Dark Skinned Pavement was one of five finalists that received readings during our annual New Year/New Plays Festival in January of 2022. Told in beautifully structured flashbacks and forwards, the play explores the aftermath of a familial and societal tragedy and the profoundly personal ways we each wrestle with loss, grief, hope, and moving on.

A poignant reminder that behind the tragic headlines there are families learning to live with grief in the public eye and then, sometimes even harder, continuing to live with it once the public has stopped paying attention. When is it worth reopening the wounds and how do we live with the scars? Thank you, TJ.

This play won "Best Production"of our season and won the Inkslinger Playwriting Contest. It was IDEAL for our university setting to open up conversation, build community of action, and look at big questions of how to address police violence and its long-reaching impact. This tightly written play runs about one hour, which made it possible for us to have campus community partners and student organizations participate in audience talkback sessions after each show. The conversations were powerful and rich. It was great to teach in Intro classes as well for structure and revelation of story.

A moving story of coping with tragedy and struggle as the pain of grief rises to the surface. Well done.

Having dramaturged a handful of TJ Young's plays, I finally came to Dark Skinned Pavement fully aware of what he brings to the table: a poetic sensibility, a muscular voice, an uncanny ear for family dynamics, and an unerring rage for justice that barely bubbles below the surface. This reading blew me away as a play that we NEED in our society RIGHT NOW. As the shade of Martell flits around the edges, BJ and Harpo hang on by their fingertips, letting hope seep in to replace the dull ache that had been all-consuming. Stunning, vital, beautiful, wonderful. PRODUCE THIS.

Complex, timely, and poignant, DARK SKINNED PAVEMENT is an incredibly thoughtful piece that deftly balances the juxtaposition of personal grief with public tragedy. Young draws the reader into this family's personal crisis inches at a time, revealing morsels of plot that add up to a staggering final moment that is both triumphant and tragic. Highly recommended!

This piece really sneaks up on you. You think it's going to be a bold statement on American violence against Black bodies, but then it's a family story about how to use the memory of a lost loved one, until... SMACK! You're suddenly right in the hurt of these characters, mirroring the way that grief creeps up out of nowhere and doesn't respect time. Please go produce this play. It's humanizing and beautiful.

A powerful and poignant examination of the fallout of police violence, and of the different ways people grieve, process, linger, or move on from such violence. Each of the characters in this piece is vividly rendered, and I appreciated the sense of love and familiarity that pervaded the piece. Young does such an excellent job of painting the portrait of a constellation of closely-knit people whose lives and relationships have been disrupted by grief. The interjecting scenes with Martell and the final performance of his poem added a beautiful layer of theatrical magic and potency. Excellent!

TJ Young is quickly becoming one of my favorite playwrights. He has such a distinct voice and is a real pro at writing tragedy. This play is no exception. If you've ever struggled with writing family dramas or wanted a great example of a modern one, "Dark Skinned Pavement" is a masterclass. Read it and produce it because I can't wait to see it on stage.

Incredibly moving portrait of a family dealing with a past tragedy and present struggles. The voice of the writer shines through while still immersing you in the world. With humor sprinkled about to leaven the heavy moments, this play is a real achievement. I gave it a go when I saw it had won the Inkslingers contest, and I can see why.