J. E. Robinson

J. E. Robinson

An award-winning essayist and fiction writer, J. E. Robinson's plays have appeared in Alaska, in Louisville, Kentucky, in Saint Louis, Off-Off-Broadway, and Off-Broadway, including at Theatre for the New City, New York, New York. They have been honored by the Downtown Urban Theater Festival, by Shakespeare in the 'Burg, and by the Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Literary Festival. He was graduated from...
An award-winning essayist and fiction writer, J. E. Robinson's plays have appeared in Alaska, in Louisville, Kentucky, in Saint Louis, Off-Off-Broadway, and Off-Broadway, including at Theatre for the New City, New York, New York. They have been honored by the Downtown Urban Theater Festival, by Shakespeare in the 'Burg, and by the Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Literary Festival. He was graduated from Howard University and from the University of Missouri-Columbia, and is a retired professor of history.

Plays

  • Anita
    In the jazz world of 1950s New York City, not everyone wants to hear the truth. A singer, Anita certainly does not. But her friends care about her more than she can imagine, and what they say surpasses the gig Anita came in seeking.
  • Spades
    After a stint as a Hollywood screenwriter, Wallace Thurman returns to Harlem as a desolate man. His friend Bruce Nugent wants to know "why?"
  • The Strong Man
    Decades ago, at the head of his gang, Pearl Crabtree was strong enough to kill any man. Is he now strong enough to kill one of his own?
  • The Diva Club
    Set in South Memphis 1948. As the daughters of Lessie and Ably Freeman gather to help their nephew prepare for a new life in Cincinnati, their sister "Mother Susie" announces news that disturbs.
  • Watch Night
    An Expressionistic journey of a woman from awaiting sale in Saint Louis in youth to spiritual reunion with her mother as a free person in Chicago, 1855.
  • The Fabulous Flowing Robe of the Fulani
    The spirits of two enslaved Fulani Americans avenge their executions
    against the spirit of the English official who condemned them
    for “participating” in the New York slave revolt of 1712

  • Soledad
    SYNOPSIS

    Brother and Queenie wait in the colored chapel at Angola State Prison, Louisiana, for a Maundy Thursday foot washing during Holy Week 1934, their last before their death sentence. Floyd, another prisoner, kills Queenie in the chapel, and, in the second act, Queenie finds himself dining in the kitchen in Heaven with Floyd, posing as David, the New Orleans police officer who had Queenie sent to prison.
  • Groove
    Playwright meets actors from Central Negro Casting, a la Pirandello. Excerpt from it, titled "Monologue for a Tutting Face," scheduled to appear in New World Theater's anthology "8:46, a Time to Listen," a collection of monologues responding to the death of George Floyd.
  • Fleshtones
    In National City, Illinois, 1970, the State of Illinois is determined to have the Giddings' home for a new highway, Hollis Giddings is determined to go the her future in Chicago, Sister Giddings is determined to have a new washing machine and an automatic dryer, gas, and Brother Giddings is determined to have peace in his home. Something has got to give, and everyone is determined that it gives their way.
  • Mother Ashante Gathers the War Clouds for Her Children
    A retelling of the story of Cain and Abel, in the context of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade,
    Mother Ashante loses her children, thanks to her sister’s trickery, then regains
    family, through selflessness.

  • May 1934, a two-part play
    The first part, "Spades," features Wallace Thurman's return to Harlem as a dissolute man, questioned by his friend Bruce Nugent for his reasons for abandoning Hollywood for death; in the second part, "The Strong Man," Pearl Crabtree comes to grips with a request to do one last job, this time the murder of his friend Victor.**Both initially appeared in the Downtown Urban Theatre/Arts Festival as individual plays.