Azure D Osborne-Lee

Azure D Osborne-Lee

Azure D. Osborne-Lee (he/they) is a multi-award-winning Black queer & trans theatre maker from south of the Mason-Dixon Line. He holds an MA in Advanced Theatre Practice (2011) from Royal Central School of Speech & Drama as well as an MA in Women’s & Gender Studies (2008) and a BA in English & Spanish from The University of Texas at Austin (2005).

Recipient of Waterwell New Works...
Azure D. Osborne-Lee (he/they) is a multi-award-winning Black queer & trans theatre maker from south of the Mason-Dixon Line. He holds an MA in Advanced Theatre Practice (2011) from Royal Central School of Speech & Drama as well as an MA in Women’s & Gender Studies (2008) and a BA in English & Spanish from The University of Texas at Austin (2005).

Recipient of Waterwell New Works Lab’s 2021 Commission, Kilroys List 2020 playwright, recipient of Parity Productions’ 2018 Annual Commission, Winner of Downtown Urban Arts Festival’s 2018 Best Play Award, and the 2015 Mario Fratti-Fred Newman Political Play Contest.

Azure’s full-length play “Crooked Parts” was published in The Methuen Drama Book of Trans Plays. His full-length play “Mirrors” received its world premiere, produced by Parity Productions, at Next Door at New York Theatre Workshop February 29-March 22, 2020. Unfortunately, this production closed early on March 12, 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Azure is the founder of Roots and River Productions, and was a member of the inaugural Trans Theater Lab cohort. Azure’s work has been produced and/or developed by Trans Lab @ The Public and WP, Parity Productions, PRIDE Plays, The Tank, The Flea Theater, BAX|Brooklyn Arts Exchange, BAM, JACK, Rising Circle Theater Collective, The Fire This Time Festival, Horse Trade Theater Group, The Castillo Theatre, The New Ohio Theatre, National Black Theatre, Freedom Train Productions, Downtown Urban Arts Festival, Lambda Literary Foundation, The Helix Queer Performance Network, and regionally.

Finalist for Dramatists Guild Institute's Emerging Writers Fellowship, Theatre Viscera’s Queer Playwright’s Contest (2019 & 2022), VanguardRep’s 2019 Summer Production, BAX|Brooklyn Arts Exchange’s 2018 Artist in Residence, National Black Theatre’s I AM SOUL Playwrights Residency, and Soho Rep’s Writer/Director Lab; Semi-finalist for the 2022 National Playwrights Conference, 2019 Burman New Play Award, Ars Nova’s Play Group and New York Theatre Workshop’s Emerging Artists Fellowship.

Member: Dramatists Guild.

Plays

  • The Beasts of Warren by Azure D Osborne-Lee
    Recommendations: 8
    ·
    Cast: 
    7–12
    ·
    Genre: adventure, drama + 4 more
    ·
    Keyword: black, Fantasy + 7 more
    Genre: adventure, drama, experimental, fantasy, political, science fiction
    Keyword: black, Fantasy, genocide, virus, Quarantine, migration, Transgender, LGBTQ, pandemic
    [full-length]
    The Forest has grown dangerous and everyone near The Burrow has moved, fled or simply disappeared. Committed to keeping what's left of their family together, cousins Holl, Dawn, and Kitt choose to stay put with their ailing grandmother. Will they find a way to hide from the menacing forces closing in on their home? Or will they disappear into the night like so many before them?
  • The Crocus Eaters by Azure D Osborne-Lee
    Cast: 
    8–12
    ·
    Genre: drama, experimental + 4 more
    ·
    Keyword: scarecrow, Afro-horror + 2 more
    Genre: drama, experimental, fantasy, horror, immersive, mystery/thriller
    Keyword: scarecrow, Afro-horror, disability, climate apocalypse
    [full-length]
    Young storyteller Loam lives with her Auntee on a farm South of the US-Canadian border. As the resources of the nearby townspeople grow scarce, Loam and Auntee must decide whether or not tradition is worth dying for.
  • Crooked Parts by Azure D Osborne-Lee
    Recommendations: 11
    ·
    Cast: 
    5–6
    ·
    Genre: comedy, drama
    ·
    Keyword: black, black family + 7 more
    Genre: comedy, drama
    Keyword: black, black family, Transgender, LGBTQ, coming of age, American South, black hair, blackgirlmagic, sinkholes
    [full-length]
    "Crooked Parts" is a family dramedy set in yesteryear and yesterday. Freddy, a Black queer trans man, returns to his family home in the South after his fiancé breaks up with him. Once there, Freddy must navigate the tension created by his transition and his brother’s serial incarceration. Meanwhile, in his past, 13 year-old Winifred struggles to balance her relationship with her...
    [full-length]
    "Crooked Parts" is a family dramedy set in yesteryear and yesterday. Freddy, a Black queer trans man, returns to his family home in the South after his fiancé breaks up with him. Once there, Freddy must navigate the tension created by his transition and his brother’s serial incarceration. Meanwhile, in his past, 13 year-old Winifred struggles to balance her relationship with her mother with her desire to better fit in with her peers. Crooked Parts is poignant, queer, funny, and definitely definitely Black.
  • Glass by Azure D Osborne-Lee
    Recommendations: 4
    ·
    Cast: 
    8–17
    ·
    Genre: adventure, drama + 5 more
    ·
    Keyword: black, Fantasy + 8 more
    Genre: adventure, drama, experimental, fantasy, movement/physical, radio drama, science fiction
    Keyword: black, Fantasy, spiders, multiverse, Anansi, Transgender, queer, genderqueer, American South, BrerRabbit
    [full-length]
    The gods of Life and Death are wrestling for control of their world, trampling anyone who gets in their way. During their reign of terror, a woman refuses to bend to their will, and is forced to kill her own children. She retreats from the world to recover from her trauma, but she can't stay hidden forever. Will she find the courage to stand up to her gods?

    “Glass” is...
    [full-length]
    The gods of Life and Death are wrestling for control of their world, trampling anyone who gets in their way. During their reign of terror, a woman refuses to bend to their will, and is forced to kill her own children. She retreats from the world to recover from her trauma, but she can't stay hidden forever. Will she find the courage to stand up to her gods?

    “Glass” is an evening-length fantasia, a creation myth featuring new imaginings of Anansi the Spider, Brer Rabbit, and other iconic Black characters.
  • Mirrors by Azure D Osborne-Lee
    Recommendations: 6
    ·
    Cast: 
    7
    ·
    Genre: drama, period + 1 more
    ·
    Keyword: family, LGBTQ + 7 more
    Genre: drama, period, political
    Keyword: family, LGBTQ, American South, Lesbian, Mourning, death, black, ensemble, Black women
    [full-length]
    When 17 year-old Alma Jean finds her mother dead, she must pack up her life and move in with her mother's ex-lover, a woman she doesn't know. Her new guardian, Bird Wilson, is the town pariah and unused to sharing her home. Will mourning the death of a shared loved one bring Alma Jean and Bird together or push them further apart?
  • Red Rainbow by Azure D Osborne-Lee
    Recommendations: 4
    ·
    Cast: 
    10–25
    ·
    Genre: adventure, drama + 3 more
    ·
    Keyword: pandemic COVID 19, english/spanish + 7 more
    Genre: adventure, drama, experimental, fantasy, science fiction
    Keyword: pandemic COVID 19, english/spanish, mushrooms, Black America, queer, Indigenous culture, Depression, LGBTQ, 2020
    [full-length]
    Covid-19 has hit New York City and the entire city is under quarantine. Nathaniel has decided to drag his best friend Ixchel out of bed to go on an adventure. When the two investigate a strange phenomenon in Ixchel's basement, they are transported to a world that affords them both the chance to overcome the past and step into the future. Red Rainbow is a predominantemente English-...
    [full-length]
    Covid-19 has hit New York City and the entire city is under quarantine. Nathaniel has decided to drag his best friend Ixchel out of bed to go on an adventure. When the two investigate a strange phenomenon in Ixchel's basement, they are transported to a world that affords them both the chance to overcome the past and step into the future. Red Rainbow is a predominantemente English-language adventure for 2020 and beyond.
  • Offspring by Azure D Osborne-Lee
    Cast: 
    3–5
    ·
    Genre: adaptation, drama + 3 more
    ·
    Keyword: sci-fi, African-American + 2 more
    Genre: adaptation, drama, experimental, horror, science fiction
    Keyword: sci-fi, African-American, afrofuturism, outer space
    [10-minute]
    A boy comes of age in a distant future. "Offspring" is inspired by "Bloodchild" by Octavia E. Butler.
  • The Sandbox by Azure D Osborne-Lee
    Recommendations: 5
    ·
    Cast: 
    4
    ·
    Genre: comedy, young audiences
    ·
    Keyword: Sisters, Childhood + 2 more
    Genre: comedy, young audiences
    Keyword: Sisters, Childhood, LGBTQ, black
    [10-minute]
    June stands alone in the broiling desert sun. Jelly hunts a tiger deep in the wildest of jungles. Two sisters struggle to bridge the gulf between them in the 10-minute play "The Sandbox."
  • Grease by Azure D Osborne-Lee
    Recommendations: 5
    ·
    Cast: 
    2
    ·
    Genre: comedy
    ·
    Keyword: Grease, lube + 6 more
    Genre: comedy
    Keyword: Grease, lube, shopping, gay, date, comedy, queer, couples
    [1-minute]
    A newly-dating couple makes a last-minute run to the pharmacy.
  • Sirens by Azure D Osborne-Lee
    Recommendations: 4
    ·
    Cast: 
    3
    ·
    Genre: comedy
    ·
    Keyword: sirens, matriarchy + 5 more
    Genre: comedy
    Keyword: sirens, matriarchy, motherhood, daughters, partnership, mermaids, Fantasy
    [1-minute]
    Three mothers discuss the progress of their daughters.