Jahna Ferron-Smith

Nicole is an unmarried, nearly thirty-year-old Black Creative living in Brooklyn, New York in 2019. How does she stay grounded? She runs. Running While Black follows one Black woman's journey to becoming a consistent, recreational jogger and the circumstances that drove her to that point. The consequences of thirty years' worth of coping mechanisms begin manifesting uncontrollably, as Nicole is finally overwhelmed by the one thing she can't outrun: change.

Since its creation, the United States National Park Service has been tasked with preserving, arguably, this country's most stunning monuments to the "American Dream"--majestic swaths of untamed land, symbolizing the unbridled American spirit that forged a world power; a birthright theoretically available to all Americans, regardless of race; this land was made for you and me! However, dwindling Park attendance nationwide has sent the NPS scrambling to ensure it's survival. The mission? To engage those they’ve traditionally left out of the narrative of the great outdoors!—people of color. But how do you excite people—specifically Black people—about exploring, celebrating and (NPS hopes) eventually investing in environments that for many, are not at all symbolic of majesty, but misery? THE WOODS. explores our learned relationships to the "American" landscape--who’s taught to love it? Who's taught to fear it? Who's allowed to claim it?--and the consequences those cultural narratives have on young Black Americans, only just learning what being Black in today's "American landscape" might mean for them. Going forward, might there be a way to manifest a more positive narrative surrounding the natural environment, for the sake of those next in line to inherit it?...

Leila and Chris navigate the intricacies of BDSM in an interracial relationship.

Kaila, a Black woman, and Louis, a White man, are starting to introduce kink into their relationship.

Erica and Malik are trying to buy their house—that is, if a new NYC-wide LARP (live action role-playing game) doesn’t gentrify and disappear them from it first.

A dramedy about a forced family vacation to one of the most inconspicuously un-fun places on Earth—a water park.

A group of middle-schoolers and their earnestly intrepid instructor embark on a three month sex-ed course, as part of the kids’ Coming Of Age ceremonies within their Unitarian Universalist Church. Each of the students navigate what sexuality means for them through craft projects, vulnerable conversations and (graphically) illustrated slides—the whole course culminating in the HIGHLY anticipated IN-CHURCH CO-ED SLEEPOVER!! The Owls and The Whales is a play about self-doubt, -discovery, and -acceptance and the ocean of emotions that carry us along that journey, regardless of our age. Grab your workbook and a pencil with an eraser: we’re (un)covering it all.

Deep Learning navigates the socioeconomic biases programmed into some of the seemingly ubiquitous, “helpful” technological information-gathering platforms many use today and how that engagement can help isolate us from our surroundings, one another, and our sense of self. Following three different settings in present day--a mother caring for her infant son while her partner is away; a couple becalmed at sea while crossing the Atlantic Ocean; two undergrads coding their first A.I. for a school project—Deep Learning explores how the ways our brains learn to process one another provide the blueprint for how A.I. learns and influences us in return.

This Merger is happening. Sandwiched between team building exercises and more team building exercises is a mandatory karaoke hour at The Golden Sun Convention Center where everyone has to sing for their job. While Lenny and Vince vamp onstage and Elena and Janet hide in Stairwell D, Big Boss Pete is in the back still working with the numbers and there’s not enough Svedka & OJ to assuage everyone’s existential panic: Who’s getting fired? Who’s staying hired? And which is worse? Don’t worry. No matter what happens, everyone gets tote bags, toothpicks, and a killer selection of midi files to take with them on the road to whatever comes next.

A young Black nanny. Three White Brooklyn parents. could(n't) you just explores the small cruelties we commit against one another in our efforts to maintain status.

SALT: A Rom Com explores a Black woman’s journey in navigating how, where, and when she may have internalized certain standards of beauty/gender-based expectations and how the consequences of said passive absorption are manifesting in the men she chooses to date; as well as how they are contributing to a lack of intimacy she so desperately desires.

Karen—a single, recently unemployed, life-long learner navigates a potentially devastating medical diagnosis, while relentlessly pursuing an unlikely friendship with what little time she may have left. Hello, My Name Is explores self propelled suffering and the physical effects of loneliness.