Tara Turk-Haynes

t.tara turk-haynes is a writer whose work has been featured in various stages and screens including Lower Depth Ensemble, Rogue Machine, Company of Angeles, the Hip Hop Theater Festival, the Actor's Studio, Ensemble Studio Theater, the Schomburg, and the Kennedy Center. She is a graduate of Lang College and Sarah LAwrence, receiving the Lipkin Playwrighting Award. She has been a Cycle of Violence Fellow at Lower Depth Ensemble, Van Lier Fellow at New York Theatre Workshop, a member of Cosby Screenwriting Program, the Producers Guild Diversity Workshop, the Underwood Theatre Writers Group with Julia Cho, Rinne Groff, and Theresa Rebeck, and Company of Angels Writers Group. Her screenplays range from shorts to full length. She won Best Screenplay at African American Women in Cinema and...

t.tara turk-haynes is a writer whose work has been featured in various stages and screens including Lower Depth Ensemble, Rogue Machine, Company of Angeles, the Hip Hop Theater Festival, the Actor's Studio, Ensemble Studio Theater, the Schomburg, and the Kennedy Center. She is a graduate of Lang College and Sarah LAwrence, receiving the Lipkin Playwrighting Award. She has been a Cycle of Violence Fellow at Lower Depth Ensemble, Van Lier Fellow at New York Theatre Workshop, a member of Cosby Screenwriting Program, the Producers Guild Diversity Workshop, the Underwood Theatre Writers Group with Julia Cho, Rinne Groff, and Theresa Rebeck, and Company of Angels Writers Group. Her screenplays range from shorts to full length. She won Best Screenplay at African American Women in Cinema and was an Urbanworld Screenplay Finalist. Also a producer, she has co-produced the webseries “Dinner at Lola” featuring Tracie Thoms, Yvette Nicole Brown, Bryan Fuller and Nelsan Ellis among others. As a fiction writer, her shorts and novellas have been published in various publications. She was published in Signifyin Harlem, Obsidian Call & Response: Experiments in Joy, Reverie: Midwest American Literature, the international anthology “X:24”, African Voices and Stress magazine. She has also been featured in Tamara Winfrey’s Harris’s “Dear Black Girl” and on several podcasts on diversity, equity, and inclusion. She has just finished a novel and a TV pilot on the Harlem Renaissance. She is a founding member of the producing playwrights’ collective The Temblors and was a member of the 2021 Geffen Writer’s Room. She is a Not A Moment But A Movement Fellow.

Scripts

Chromatic Black Square

by Tara Turk-Haynes

Synopsis

In the throws of COVID in early 2021, Baldwin fights to keep his apartment, drop his relationship, and shake the love of a MAGA-almost mother in law — just as his estranged sister Tennie’s pre-pandemic big art success is dwindling down to job desperation, codependency on her best friend, and major life questions. Flashback to 1867: Fannie needs Erzulie, the half- Black sister she sold during the Civil War, to do...

In the throws of COVID in early 2021, Baldwin fights to keep his apartment, drop his relationship, and shake the love of a MAGA-almost mother in law — just as his estranged sister Tennie’s pre-pandemic big art success is dwindling down to job desperation, codependency on her best friend, and major life questions. Flashback to 1867: Fannie needs Erzulie, the half- Black sister she sold during the Civil War, to do something that will set up her remaining family for some modicum of stability. And everyone is connected to the ugliest painting that might flip the art world around.

These Two Things

by Tara Turk-Haynes

Synopsis

A moment in Zora Neale Hurston's life in St. Simon's island with two white anthropologists down there to capture the stories of the last remaining slaves turns into a moment that will change the course of all of their lives.

A moment in Zora Neale Hurston's life in St. Simon's island with two white anthropologists down there to capture the stories of the last remaining slaves turns into a moment that will change the course of all of their lives.

Blues Paris Blues

by Tara Turk-Haynes

Synopsis

Diahann Carroll, Sidney Poitier, Joann Woodward, Paul Newman, Duke Ellington, and Marlon Brando came together to make a movie about jazz expats in Paris in 1961. With the potential to shift the world on its cool and cultural axis, what was happening behind the scenes would be life pivots that would change them all forever.

Diahann Carroll, Sidney Poitier, Joann Woodward, Paul Newman, Duke Ellington, and Marlon Brando came together to make a movie about jazz expats in Paris in 1961. With the potential to shift the world on its cool and cultural axis, what was happening behind the scenes would be life pivots that would change them all forever.

The Mic Catches Everything

by Tara Turk-Haynes

Synopsis

With anonymous podcaster Nikki looking to take her down, assistant district attorney Farrah Benson struggles with prosecuting Tynika Sanders — a black woman accused of attempted manslaughter against racist cop Ben Pierce. t.tara turk-haynes’ sharp, smart new play tackles race, the media, and police violence with grace and humanity against the backdrop of 2019 Los Angeles. In an unjust world, is justice even...

With anonymous podcaster Nikki looking to take her down, assistant district attorney Farrah Benson struggles with prosecuting Tynika Sanders — a black woman accused of attempted manslaughter against racist cop Ben Pierce. t.tara turk-haynes’ sharp, smart new play tackles race, the media, and police violence with grace and humanity against the backdrop of 2019 Los Angeles. In an unjust world, is justice even possible? And WHO IS NIKKI?

Indigos

by Tara Turk-Haynes

Synopsis

Lady is the wife of famed jazz musician, Lord Major, in 1960s America. She wakes up in a sanitorium, trying to decide if she can rid herself of the ghost that got her there against the backdrop of jazz, addiction, the limited opportunities of black women in segregation and the horrofic realities of racism - past and present. Developed under the Van Liew Fellowship at New York Theater Workshop.

Lady is the wife of famed jazz musician, Lord Major, in 1960s America. She wakes up in a sanitorium, trying to decide if she can rid herself of the ghost that got her there against the backdrop of jazz, addiction, the limited opportunities of black women in segregation and the horrofic realities of racism - past and present. Developed under the Van Liew Fellowship at New York Theater Workshop.

fam

by Tara Turk-Haynes

Synopsis

When a high school friend is released from prison, two estranged friends are filled with a terror they buried deep the night he was arrested.

When a high school friend is released from prison, two estranged friends are filled with a terror they buried deep the night he was arrested.

MC Hesperides

by Tara Turk-Haynes

Synopsis

Three women just trying to get by in the city in life, love and careers are connected by the spirit of their high school friend - a promising rapper killed too son - watching over them.

Three women just trying to get by in the city in life, love and careers are connected by the spirit of their high school friend - a promising rapper killed too son - watching over them.

If Eve Left

by Tara Turk-Haynes

Synopsis

Three intersecting stories about the question of loyalty. One couple makes a bad decision that will affect them forever. One former lover finds out something that will change his life forever. One coupe is unable to overcome a loyalty gone.

Three intersecting stories about the question of loyalty. One couple makes a bad decision that will affect them forever. One former lover finds out something that will change his life forever. One coupe is unable to overcome a loyalty gone.

Grim Foster's Love Song

by Tara Turk-Haynes

Synopsis

A groupie isn't exactly what she seems the night singer Grim Foster attempts to overcome a tragedy so great that he's been unable to sing - much to the chagrin of his manager and former entitled back up singer.

A groupie isn't exactly what she seems the night singer Grim Foster attempts to overcome a tragedy so great that he's been unable to sing - much to the chagrin of his manager and former entitled back up singer.