Vincent Terrell Durham

Vincent Terrell Durham is an award-winning playwright and the 2025 Theatre Bay Area Rella Lossy Award recipient, recognizing outstanding achievement in new play development. His works have been honored by the Samuel French Off Off Broadway Short Play Festival, the National New Play Network (NNPN), and the Eugene O’Neill National Playwrights Conference. Originally from Binghamton, New York, Vincent first sharpened his storytelling skills as a stand-up comic, performing in clubs across the country before turning his focus to theatre. His plays—including the acclaimed “Polar Bears, Black Boys & Prairie Fringed Orchids”—blend humor, heart, and social insight to explore race, identity, and community. His work has been developed and commissioned by institutions such as PlayGround San Francisco...

Vincent Terrell Durham is an award-winning playwright and the 2025 Theatre Bay Area Rella Lossy Award recipient, recognizing outstanding achievement in new play development. His works have been honored by the Samuel French Off Off Broadway Short Play Festival, the National New Play Network (NNPN), and the Eugene O’Neill National Playwrights Conference. Originally from Binghamton, New York, Vincent first sharpened his storytelling skills as a stand-up comic, performing in clubs across the country before turning his focus to theatre. His plays—including the acclaimed “Polar Bears, Black Boys & Prairie Fringed Orchids”—blend humor, heart, and social insight to explore race, identity, and community. His work has been developed and commissioned by institutions such as PlayGround San Francisco/Planet Earth Arts, City Lights Theater, and the Utah Shakespeare Festival’s Words Cubed Series. Based in Los Angeles, Vincent continues to use his voice to challenge assumptions and uplift underrepresented perspectives through powerful, purpose-driven storytelling. Deeply influenced by his family of vibrant storytellers, he remains devoted to crafting theatre that entertains, enlightens, and sparks meaningful dialogue.

Scripts

Running After Shadows

by Vincent Terrell Durham

Synopsis

Morgan Collins is on a culinary journey. He used to buy his cookware at the Dollar Store and is now a budding gourmet and an America’s Test Kitchen devotee. But today, as he unboxes his new garlic press live on Instagram, he also opens something completely unexpected. This box brings him face-to-face with childhood memories and the pain left by an absentee father.

Morgan Collins is on a culinary journey. He used to buy his cookware at the Dollar Store and is now a budding gourmet and an America’s Test Kitchen devotee. But today, as he unboxes his new garlic press live on Instagram, he also opens something completely unexpected. This box brings him face-to-face with childhood memories and the pain left by an absentee father.

The Fertile River

by Vincent Terrell Durham

Synopsis

The Eugenics Board of North Carolina has dispatched its top social worker with the mission of visiting colored families in a small rural community. Sarah Woods is on the hunt for families with genetic defects to offer them the services of the North Carolina program. Cora Lee Burden is the latest to receive an appointment notice from the Board. The sixty-four-year-old woman has no idea what the agenda is behind...

The Eugenics Board of North Carolina has dispatched its top social worker with the mission of visiting colored families in a small rural community. Sarah Woods is on the hunt for families with genetic defects to offer them the services of the North Carolina program. Cora Lee Burden is the latest to receive an appointment notice from the Board. The sixty-four-year-old woman has no idea what the agenda is behind the government agency or what it wants with her family. But being a colored woman of the South, she knows any visit from a white person is a call for caution. She spends the morning preparing her family to present themselves in the best possible light. But she has no idea that the cards have already been stacked against her as Sarah Woods arrives with more than just her Eugenics Board questionnaire.

Polar Bears, Black Boys & Prairie Fringed Orchids (Molly's Story)

by Vincent Terrell Durham

Synopsis

Molly and Peter Castle are an upper-class white couple who have relocated to Harlem during the Black Lives Matter Movement with their adopted 3-year-old African-American son. Molly Castle believes she can become part of the historically Black neighborhood merely through homeownership and proximity. Meanwhile, her husband Peter has given little thought to becoming part of the historically Black neighborhood since...

Molly and Peter Castle are an upper-class white couple who have relocated to Harlem during the Black Lives Matter Movement with their adopted 3-year-old African-American son. Molly Castle believes she can become part of the historically Black neighborhood merely through homeownership and proximity. Meanwhile, her husband Peter has given little thought to becoming part of the historically Black neighborhood since the world he inhabits bends and reshapes to fit his presence. A privilege that he's painfully unaware of. Molly has gleefully explored her new community and befriended several Black Harlemites: BLM activist Jaquan Wallace, bookstore owner Shameka Davis, and single mother Rita Dupree. Hosting an intimate cocktail party for her new friends turns into an evening of humor, drama, stinging debates, painful revelations, and a shocking incident of implicit bias.

Polar Bears, Black Boys & Prairie Fringed Orchids (Jaquan's Story)

by Vincent Terrell Durham

Synopsis

Molly and Peter Castle are an upper-class white couple who have relocated to Harlem during the Black Lives Matter Movement with their adopted 3-year-old African-American son. Molly Castle believes she can become part of the historically Black neighborhood merely through homeownership and proximity. Meanwhile, her husband Peter has given little thought to becoming part of the historically Black neighborhood since...

Molly and Peter Castle are an upper-class white couple who have relocated to Harlem during the Black Lives Matter Movement with their adopted 3-year-old African-American son. Molly Castle believes she can become part of the historically Black neighborhood merely through homeownership and proximity. Meanwhile, her husband Peter has given little thought to becoming part of the historically Black neighborhood since the world he inhabits bends and reshapes to fit his presence. A privilege that he's painfully unaware of. Molly has gleefully explored her new community and befriended several Black Harlemites: BLM activist Jaquan Wallace, bookstore owner Shameka Davis, and single mother Rita Dupree. Hosting an intimate cocktail party for her new friends turns into an evening of humor, drama, stinging debates, painful revelations, and a life-changing event.

A Park For Children To Pretend In

by Vincent Terrell Durham

Synopsis

A Short Play - A couple take an Uber ride home from the hospital with their newborn son only to take a detour off into the future.

A Short Play - A couple take an Uber ride home from the hospital with their newborn son only to take a detour off into the future.

Masking Our Blackness

by Vincent Terrell Durham

Synopsis

A Short Play - 5 friends gather to welcome in the new year and share resolutions on how to survive another 365 days of being Black in America.

A Short Play - 5 friends gather to welcome in the new year and share resolutions on how to survive another 365 days of being Black in America.

Twelve

by Vincent Terrell Durham

Synopsis

A Short Play - 5 Black women recount the deaths of their sons over the course of several decades.

A Short Play - 5 Black women recount the deaths of their sons over the course of several decades.

Vol. 1, A Post Racial America

by Vincent Terrell Durham

Synopsis

Vol. 1 – A Post Racial America is a theatrical reminder of a broken promise. A reminder that the emergency brake on the Post Racial America train, conducted by Barack Hussein Obama, has been pulled, lurching a train full of hopeful Black Americans back to a time when 46.09% of voters thought America was great. Vol. 1 – A Post Racial America will ask theatergoers to bear witness as we disembark the stalled train...

Vol. 1 – A Post Racial America is a theatrical reminder of a broken promise. A reminder that the emergency brake on the Post Racial America train, conducted by Barack Hussein Obama, has been pulled, lurching a train full of hopeful Black Americans back to a time when 46.09% of voters thought America was great. Vol. 1 – A Post Racial America will ask theatergoers to bear witness as we disembark the stalled train and drag her back from 1619 to 2020 and reclaim the promise of a Post Racial America.

Trash Day

by Vincent Terrell Durham

Synopsis

A Short Play - A woman confronts a homeless man rummaging through her trash. She quickly discovers how much her trash reveals about herself.

A Short Play - A woman confronts a homeless man rummaging through her trash. She quickly discovers how much her trash reveals about herself.

A Change of Heart

by Vincent Terrell Durham

Synopsis

A Short Play - Two years after the death of their teenage son, Diane and Matthew Peterson meet the man who received his heart.

A Short Play - Two years after the death of their teenage son, Diane and Matthew Peterson meet the man who received his heart.

NOW

by Vincent Terrell Durham

Synopsis

A Short Play - A NOW organizer arrives at a home in 1973 Massapequa, Long Island with an invitation to liberate the long-suffering housewife inside. She mistakes the Black housekeeper as the lady of the house.

A Short Play - A NOW organizer arrives at a home in 1973 Massapequa, Long Island with an invitation to liberate the long-suffering housewife inside. She mistakes the Black housekeeper as the lady of the house.

A Barefooted Easter

by Vincent Terrell Durham

Synopsis

A Short Play - Alberta Mae simply needs to purchase a new pair of Easter shoes for her growing daughter. Jim Crow laws of 1962 Mississippi won't allow colored children to try shoes on beforehand, so mothers have made the practice of tracing their child's foot on brown butcher paper and presenting it at the shoe store in exchange for a new pair of shoes. This Easter that practice will be tested.

A Short Play - Alberta Mae simply needs to purchase a new pair of Easter shoes for her growing daughter. Jim Crow laws of 1962 Mississippi won't allow colored children to try shoes on beforehand, so mothers have made the practice of tracing their child's foot on brown butcher paper and presenting it at the shoe store in exchange for a new pair of shoes. This Easter that practice will be tested.

Baby Black Jesus - Play One

by Vincent Terrell Durham

Synopsis

A Short Play. Darryl and Richard have just leased their first apartment together as a couple. Darryl is out to his family, but Richard is still passing Darryl off as his best friend. A surprise visit from Richard's mother leaves the two men with a decision to make.

A Short Play. Darryl and Richard have just leased their first apartment together as a couple. Darryl is out to his family, but Richard is still passing Darryl off as his best friend. A surprise visit from Richard's mother leaves the two men with a decision to make.

Baby Black Jesus - Play Three

by Vincent Terrell Durham

Synopsis

A Short Play - Darryl and Richard are a couple of two years. Darryl is out to his family but Richard is still passing Darryl off as his best friend. This year Darryl wants Richard to come out during the annual Christmas Eve dinner party.

A Short Play - Darryl and Richard are a couple of two years. Darryl is out to his family but Richard is still passing Darryl off as his best friend. This year Darryl wants Richard to come out during the annual Christmas Eve dinner party.

Baby Black Jesus - Play Four

by Vincent Terrell Durham

Synopsis

A Short Play - Darryl and Richard are putting a final end to their relationship, after Richard's horrible coming out attempt at his mother's annual Christmas Eve dinner party.

A Short Play - Darryl and Richard are putting a final end to their relationship, after Richard's horrible coming out attempt at his mother's annual Christmas Eve dinner party.