Quinn D. Eli

Quinn D. Eli

Quinn D. Eli grew up in the Bronx, NY, and lives now in Philadelphia. His short plays have appeared in Best American Ten-Minute Plays and been produced throughout the country. Longer works include "Chasing Waves," developed at PlayPenn’s New Play Development Conference; and HOT BLACK/ASIAN ACTION, a satire about sexual and racial stereotypes that premiered at the New York International Fringe...
Quinn D. Eli grew up in the Bronx, NY, and lives now in Philadelphia. His short plays have appeared in Best American Ten-Minute Plays and been produced throughout the country. Longer works include "Chasing Waves," developed at PlayPenn’s New Play Development Conference; and HOT BLACK/ASIAN ACTION, a satire about sexual and racial stereotypes that premiered at the New York International Fringe Festival. He is a cofounder of Jouska PlayWorks, a Philadelphia-based initiative for playwrights of the African Diaspora, sponsored by Simpatico Theatre. A member of the Literary Managers & Dramaturgs of the Americas and the Black Theater Network, Eli serves as Resident Dramaturg for Azuka Theater and heads the Theater program at the Community College of Philadelphia.

Plays

  • IN COMMON by Quinn D. Eli
    Recommendations: 5
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    Cast: 
    5
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    Genre: dark comedy, drama + 1 more
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    Keyword: gender, African American + 8 more
    Genre: dark comedy, drama, political
    Keyword: gender, African American, privilege, LGBTQ, friendship, murder, police violence, Violence against women, ghosts, Living While Black
    Melanie is haunted by a voice that won’t leave her head. Call it a ghost, a hallucination, or clear evidence of a mental collapse. Either way, it's a lingering reminder of a friend who was killed years ago; the friend was black, Melanie is white, and questions about why it happened – and who was to blame – come newly into focus when Melanie is drawn into a relationship that offers her a brighter future,...
    Melanie is haunted by a voice that won’t leave her head. Call it a ghost, a hallucination, or clear evidence of a mental collapse. Either way, it's a lingering reminder of a friend who was killed years ago; the friend was black, Melanie is white, and questions about why it happened – and who was to blame – come newly into focus when Melanie is drawn into a relationship that offers her a brighter future, but no clear escape from the past.
  • Scraps by Quinn D. Eli
    Recommendations: 4
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    Cast: 
    3
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    Genre: comedy, farce + 1 more
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    Keyword: Asian American, African American + 5 more
    Genre: comedy, farce, political
    Keyword: Asian American, African American, zoom, American race relations and racism, plays about actors, Afro-Surrealism, comic surrealism
    In this surreal fable of art and race, an African-American playwright, an Asian-American hostess, and a hip-hop waiter try fending off ethnic stereotypes and fried appetizers at a ghost-filled Chinese restaurant.
  • Play On! by Quinn D. Eli
    Cast: 
    3
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    Genre: comedy, drama + 1 more
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    Keyword: African American, technology + 6 more
    Genre: comedy, drama, political
    Keyword: African American, technology, Race, racism, marriage, music, artificial inteligence, blues
    In a future full of mystery and magic, a Black musician and his wife fight to survive as a robotic presence—a chatty A.I.—takes up residence in their home, stirring up racial mischief, marital strife, and the irresistible pull of a world where technology (not music) is the food of love.
  • True Identity by Quinn D. Eli
    Recommendations: 2
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    Cast: 
    5
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    Genre: comedy, dark comedy + 2 more
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    Keyword: Living While Black, African American + 8 more
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy, drama, political
    Keyword: Living While Black, African American, comic books, white privilege, interracial friendship, coming out, adult friendship, Politics, property damage, racial conflict
    A real-life adventure is taking place inside Damascus Comics. But there are no superheroes around to save the store’s African-American proprietor, Ramir, after his oldest friend and only employee, a white woman named Beth, attracts the frenzied attention of protestors and reporters in a case caught live on video: spotting two white children traveling in a car with a black man, Beth becomes convinced the...
    A real-life adventure is taking place inside Damascus Comics. But there are no superheroes around to save the store’s African-American proprietor, Ramir, after his oldest friend and only employee, a white woman named Beth, attracts the frenzied attention of protestors and reporters in a case caught live on video: spotting two white children traveling in a car with a black man, Beth becomes convinced the children are in danger and calls the police, setting off a series of events that threatens the store she runs with Ramir, jeopardizes their relationship, and demands in the end an enormous price for Living While Black.
  • Tiny Daggers by Quinn D. Eli
    Recommendations: 3
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    Cast: 
    3
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    Genre: dark comedy
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    Keyword: Asian American, African American + 4 more
    Genre: dark comedy
    Keyword: Asian American, African American, theatre, Race, Macbeth, Shakespeare
    When two women of color audition for the role of Lady Macbeth in a “woke” production of the Scottish Play, color-blind casting gets a comic makeover, and forces a theater director to realize that any stale assumption about race can live forever—unless someone takes a dagger to its heart.
  • Stark Naked by Quinn D. Eli
    Recommendations: 1
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    Cast: 
    3
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    Genre: comedy, dark comedy + 2 more
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    Keyword: African American, African American culture and identity + 8 more
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy, drama, political
    Keyword: African American, African American culture and identity, African American sexuality, sex tape, white privilege, Black women, interracial relationships, black mental health, angry white male, 2000s
    A decade before Obama, in a forgotten black neighborhood, Walter sits alone in his apartment, waiting for the worst. Years earlier, he and his ex, Dana, made a sex tape, and now the fact of its existence is putting Dana’s husband-to-be, Frank, over the edge. He bursts into the apartment one night, determined to destroy the tape. But Frank is white, Walter is black, and for what he cites as “historical reasons...
    A decade before Obama, in a forgotten black neighborhood, Walter sits alone in his apartment, waiting for the worst. Years earlier, he and his ex, Dana, made a sex tape, and now the fact of its existence is putting Dana’s husband-to-be, Frank, over the edge. He bursts into the apartment one night, determined to destroy the tape. But Frank is white, Walter is black, and for what he cites as “historical reasons”—slavery, lynching, apartheid—Walter refuses to surrender anything to Frank, least of all a magnetic record of two black bodies in love. By the time Dana arrives, the “worst” that Walter was expecting is already underway—a red-hot proxy fight over who owns a memory.
  • Chasing Waves by Quinn D. Eli
    Recommendations: 1
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    Cast: 
    5
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    Genre: comedy
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    Keyword: Alzheimer's Disease, married life + 3 more
    Genre: comedy
    Keyword: Alzheimer's Disease, married life, parenthood, surfing, Long Island
    In the surfing paradise of Montauk, Long Island, Colleen is losing her mind, her memory, and her fashion sense—all at the same time! It has something to do with her ailing mother, an Alzheimer’s patient who often confuses her own life story with the plot of Breakfast at Tiffany's. Sudden bursts of forgetfulness lead Colleen to believe the disease will soon claim her as well, so she heads for the ocean—and...
    In the surfing paradise of Montauk, Long Island, Colleen is losing her mind, her memory, and her fashion sense—all at the same time! It has something to do with her ailing mother, an Alzheimer’s patient who often confuses her own life story with the plot of Breakfast at Tiffany's. Sudden bursts of forgetfulness lead Colleen to believe the disease will soon claim her as well, so she heads for the ocean—and is quickly swept under by forgotten desires and unexpected disasters. This comic fable charts the emotional distance between who we are and who we allow ourselves to become.