Michael angel Johnson

Michael angel Johnson

Ms. Michael angel Johnson’s plays have been produced in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Cleveland, Amherst, New Haven, and other places across the U. S. The Price of Solitude was a finalist in the National Ten-Minute Play Contest at Actors Theatre of Louisville. The Apartment earned Michael angel the honor of special participant at the O’Neill Theatre Centre. Her screenplays: Seasons-semi-finalist in The...
Ms. Michael angel Johnson’s plays have been produced in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Cleveland, Amherst, New Haven, and other places across the U. S. The Price of Solitude was a finalist in the National Ten-Minute Play Contest at Actors Theatre of Louisville. The Apartment earned Michael angel the honor of special participant at the O’Neill Theatre Centre. Her screenplays: Seasons-semi-finalist in The Chesterfield Film/Writer’s Project, The Letters-semi-finalist Writemovies.com, The Tower- Honorable Mention Los Angeles Film and Script Festival, and Wild Fires- finalist at the Hollywood Black Film Festival. Her stories and essays: “The African American Woman Who Shaped the Future of Art” (On The Issues Magazine), “The Echo” (Persimmon Tree), “ and A Basket of Biscuits” (On The Issues Magazine). Michael angel has worked with the 52nd Street Project as a director, writer, and dramaturge. She is a member of The League of Professional Theatre Woman and a member of New York Women in Film & Television. She is an Associate Professor at New York University and the Fashion Institute of Technology (New York) where she developed and teaches their AFRICAN-AMERICAN LITERATURE course. She is a graduate of The Yale School of Drama in Playwrighting.

Plays

  • BLOOD TIES by Michael angel Johnson
    Recommendations: 4
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    Cast: 
    2
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    Genre: biography, docudrama/historic + 1 more
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    Keyword: 20th century black urban history, 365 Women A Year Playwriting Project
    Genre: biography, docudrama/historic, drama
    Keyword: 20th century black urban history, 365 Women A Year Playwriting Project
    BLOOD TIES (dramatization) takes place during the Civil War in the studio of EDMONIA WILDFIRE LEWIS (c.1843-1917- who is the first woman of African-American and Native American heritage to earn an international reputation as a visual artist-sculptor) who battles her patron MRS. LYDIA MARIA CHILD (1802-1880 who is a white abolitionist) for her (EDMONIA’S) right as a black artist to create her art and not to...
    BLOOD TIES (dramatization) takes place during the Civil War in the studio of EDMONIA WILDFIRE LEWIS (c.1843-1917- who is the first woman of African-American and Native American heritage to earn an international reputation as a visual artist-sculptor) who battles her patron MRS. LYDIA MARIA CHILD (1802-1880 who is a white abolitionist) for her (EDMONIA’S) right as a black artist to create her art and not to always be restricted by the abolitionists view of how EDMONIA, as a free black woman, should live her life. The relationship of these two powerful women reaches its turning point when each tries to makes the other understand a dramatic and traumatic experience, which was a turning point in each of their lives.
  • TEA WITH ELEANOR ROOSEVELT by Michael angel Johnson
    Recommendations: 1
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    Cast: 
    1–2
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    Genre: biography, drama
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    Keyword: Pauli Murray, 365 Women A Year Playwriting Project + 1 more
    Genre: biography, drama
    Keyword: Pauli Murray, 365 Women A Year Playwriting Project, African American women
    TEA WITH ELEANOR ROOSEVELT is a dramatization of the first time PAULI MURRAY, who had a 20-year letter correspondence with the first lady, is invited to have tea with MRS. ROOSEVELT at her New York apartment. PAULI is working as the executive secretary of the annual National Sharecroppers Week. PAULI is there to ask MRS. ROOSEVELT to be the speaker at a dinner the organization is having. PAULI is fighting for...
    TEA WITH ELEANOR ROOSEVELT is a dramatization of the first time PAULI MURRAY, who had a 20-year letter correspondence with the first lady, is invited to have tea with MRS. ROOSEVELT at her New York apartment. PAULI is working as the executive secretary of the annual National Sharecroppers Week. PAULI is there to ask MRS. ROOSEVELT to be the speaker at a dinner the organization is having. PAULI is fighting for the rights of white and black Sharecroppers, which will take PAULI and MRS. ROOSEVELT down a political road that will end in the execution of a black sharecropper named ODELL WALLER.

  • PASTELS and PARIS by Michael angel Johnson
    Recommendations: 1
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    Cast: 
    1
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    Genre: biography, drama
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    Keyword: 365 Women A Year Playwriting Project, African American culture and identity
    Genre: biography, drama
    Keyword: 365 Women A Year Playwriting Project, African American culture and identity
    Pastels and Paris -- it’s 1896 and Annie E. Anderson Walker’s (1855-1929) first day as an art student at the prestigious Academie Julian in Paris, France - probably making her the first African-American woman to attend the school - when at the entrance, Annie is overcome with fear because of her treatment when she tried to enter an art school in America where she was denied her role as a student when the...
    Pastels and Paris -- it’s 1896 and Annie E. Anderson Walker’s (1855-1929) first day as an art student at the prestigious Academie Julian in Paris, France - probably making her the first African-American woman to attend the school - when at the entrance, Annie is overcome with fear because of her treatment when she tried to enter an art school in America where she was denied her role as a student when the powers that be learned that she was a woman of color. Single set, 1w (African-American), 10 min.
  • "LITTLE LOUIS" by Michael angel Johnson
    Recommendations: 1
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    Cast: 
    2
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    Genre: biography, drama
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    Keyword: Valaida Snow, Josephine Baker + 2 more
    Genre: biography, drama
    Keyword: Valaida Snow, Josephine Baker, 365 Women A Year Playwriting Project, African American
    “LITTLE LOUIS” is inspired by the lives of Valaida Snow(1904-1956) and Josephine Baker (1906-1975), which takes place during World War 11 when Valaida is in Copenhagen, Denmark, and she receives a phone call from Josephine Baker telling her to leave the Denmark because Valaida is in danger because of the Nazis.
  • "Low-Lives" by Michael angel Johnson
    Cast: 
    7
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    Genre: adventure, drama + 1 more
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    Keyword: Bowery history, African American women
    Genre: adventure, drama, period
    Keyword: Bowery history, African American women
    “Low-Lives” -- the backdrop is a suicide saloon in the lower east side of New York during the 1850s where a multicultural cast of characters -- Dominique a free black, Kathleen, and Shakespeare (a woman who for the price of a drink will recite passages from female characters in Shakespeare’s plays) -- find danger and redemption, which transforms these hours of death into a station on the underground railroad.
  • PIGMENT & STONES by Michael angel Johnson
    Cast: 
    2
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    Genre: biography, docudrama/historic + 1 more
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    Keyword: Meta Vaux Warrick Fuller, Lois Mailou Jones + 2 more
    Genre: biography, docudrama/historic, drama
    Keyword: Meta Vaux Warrick Fuller, Lois Mailou Jones, 365 Women A Year Playwriting Project, African American culture and identity
    Pigment & Stones takes place around 1937 when Lois Mailou Jones (1905 – 1908 -a young black visual artist) faces racism in relation to one of HER paintings that has won a prize, but the committee wants to display the painting under the name of a white painter. Lois goes to see Meta Vaux Warrick Fuller (1877- 1968, who is an African-American sculptor) hoping that this older artist can help guide her (Lois)...
    Pigment & Stones takes place around 1937 when Lois Mailou Jones (1905 – 1908 -a young black visual artist) faces racism in relation to one of HER paintings that has won a prize, but the committee wants to display the painting under the name of a white painter. Lois goes to see Meta Vaux Warrick Fuller (1877- 1968, who is an African-American sculptor) hoping that this older artist can help guide her (Lois) through this challenging time.

  • THE VISITOR by Michael angel Johnson
    Cast: 
    3
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    Genre: drama
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    Keyword: African American
    Genre: drama
    Keyword: African American
    The Visitor -- when a music teacher (Ms. Williams) in an inner city school takes early retirement in order to return to Italy to recapture a past dream of becoming an opera singer, a former student (Lakishia, 18) surprises Ms. Williams one evening with a visit to seek guidance after the disappearance of her mother and after discovering that she is pregnant, turning the evening into a time when both women are...
    The Visitor -- when a music teacher (Ms. Williams) in an inner city school takes early retirement in order to return to Italy to recapture a past dream of becoming an opera singer, a former student (Lakishia, 18) surprises Ms. Williams one evening with a visit to seek guidance after the disappearance of her mother and after discovering that she is pregnant, turning the evening into a time when both women are forced to face the truth about themselves and each other, making the unborn child each woman’s salvation.
  • THE PRICE OF SOLITUDE by Michael angel Johnson
    Cast: 
    2
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    Genre: drama
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    Keyword: African American women
    Genre: drama
    Keyword: African American women
    The Price of Solitude -- After Sharon’s partner (Ted), who is a high-powered attorney, breaks up with her, she moves to France to explore her writing; a year later Ted finds her and wants to continue their relationship, but Sharon has discovered another part of herself in this magical French village, which seems to make Ted jealous since he is no longer happy with his own life.
  • THE OTHER by Michael angel Johnson
    Cast: 
    4
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    Genre: drama
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    Keyword: mother daughter relationship, African American women
    Genre: drama
    Keyword: mother daughter relationship, African American women
    THE OTHER -- after a mother (Beverly) is hospitalized with ovarian cancer and her daughter (Stephanie) sees how easy the mother and doctor (Dr. Wong) communicate, the daughter becomes jealous as more and more secrets about the mother’s past are revealed, causing more and more friction between these three women. Single set, 3w (two African-American, one Asian), 1m, 2 hrs.
  • WILD FIRES by Michael angel Johnson
    Cast: 
    4
    ·
    Genre: drama, period
    ·
    Keyword: 19th century American women history, African-American experience
    Genre: drama, period
    Keyword: 19th century American women history, African-American experience
    Wild Fires -- set in the Boston studio of Edmonia Lewis (c.1845-1911), the first woman of African-American heritage to earn an international reputation as a visual artist, in 1863, as she works on a bust of John Brown. Sculptor Anne Whitney (1821-1915) bursts in, upset because her commission to sculpt a statute has been taken from her when the committee discovered that she is a woman. Soon, the actress...
    Wild Fires -- set in the Boston studio of Edmonia Lewis (c.1845-1911), the first woman of African-American heritage to earn an international reputation as a visual artist, in 1863, as she works on a bust of John Brown. Sculptor Anne Whitney (1821-1915) bursts in, upset because her commission to sculpt a statute has been taken from her when the committee discovered that she is a woman. Soon, the actress Charlotte Cushman (1816-1876) rushes in to persuade Anne to sue the committee, while Edmonia is trying to convince her patron, the white abolitionist, Lydia Maria Child (1802-1880), that moving to Rome where Miss Cushman has encouraged a group of female sculptors to work and live, is not deserting the abolitionist cause. Single set, 4w, (1 African-American, 3 Caucasian), 90 min. Read this article in the League of Professional Theatre Women 30Blog, on the play and research.
  • THE GODDESS OF HYGIEIA by Michael angel Johnson
    Cast: 
    2
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    Genre: drama
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    Keyword: women's history
    Genre: drama
    Keyword: women's history
    The Goddess of Hygieia -- Edmonia Wildfire Lewis ( c.1843 -1907 is the first woman of African-American and Chippewa Indian heritage to earn an international reputation as a visual artist) goes to Dr. Harriot Hunt’s (1805 -1875 is one of the first women physicians) clinic named the “Ladies Physiological Society of Boston” to convince the doctor to let her sculpt the goddess of hygiene for Dr. Hunt’s grave....
    The Goddess of Hygieia -- Edmonia Wildfire Lewis ( c.1843 -1907 is the first woman of African-American and Chippewa Indian heritage to earn an international reputation as a visual artist) goes to Dr. Harriot Hunt’s (1805 -1875 is one of the first women physicians) clinic named the “Ladies Physiological Society of Boston” to convince the doctor to let her sculpt the goddess of hygiene for Dr. Hunt’s grave. Single set, 2w (one Caucasian, one African-American)
  • THE CARVER by Michael angel Johnson
    Cast: 
    1
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    Genre: biography, drama
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    Keyword: 365 Women A Year Playwriting Project, Nancy Elizabeth Prophet + 1 more
    Genre: biography, drama
    Keyword: 365 Women A Year Playwriting Project, Nancy Elizabeth Prophet, African American culture and identity
    The Carver -- after Nancy Elizabeth Prophet (1890- 1960), the first African-American to graduate from the Rhode Island School of Design, is hospitalized for depression and malnutrition in Paris, France; she returns to a cold studio in Paris with only her sculptures to keep her warm, waiting for the arrival of her estranged husband from America to either be her salvation or the source of her downfall. Single...
    The Carver -- after Nancy Elizabeth Prophet (1890- 1960), the first African-American to graduate from the Rhode Island School of Design, is hospitalized for depression and malnutrition in Paris, France; she returns to a cold studio in Paris with only her sculptures to keep her warm, waiting for the arrival of her estranged husband from America to either be her salvation or the source of her downfall. Single set, 1 w (African-American), 10 min.
  • WAVES by Michael angel Johnson
    Cast: 
    2
    ·
    Genre: drama
    ·
    Keyword: cancer
    Genre: drama
    Keyword: cancer
    Waves - Jessie has cancer and is spending a weekend at her friend Nomie’s summer home on the beach where the two women go over past and present indiscretions as a way of holding onto their friendship, as the shadow of death inches closer.
  • Autumn Leaves by Michael angel Johnson
    Cast: 
    5
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    Genre: drama
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    Keyword: family, African-American family
    Genre: drama
    Keyword: family, African-American family
    “Autumn Leaves” -- a family therapist (Tyrone) is preparing a special dinner because his wife (Gabrielle) has invited a surprise guest (Daren) to dinner, and who turns out to not only be homeless, but also Gabrielle’s lover for the past year.
  • THE REJECTION by Michael angel Johnson
    Cast: 
    2
    ·
    Genre: biography, docudrama/historic + 1 more
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    Keyword: 20th century black urban history
    Genre: biography, docudrama/historic, drama
    Keyword: 20th century black urban history
    The Rejection – the African-American sculptor Augusta Savage (1892-1962) after being informed by six white men that she will not be admitted to a summer art program in France because the other applicants are white women from the south and these white women should not be forced to spend time with a Black woman, with the help of her neighbor , Hattie Parker, who cleans houses, comes up with a plan to avenge...
    The Rejection – the African-American sculptor Augusta Savage (1892-1962) after being informed by six white men that she will not be admitted to a summer art program in France because the other applicants are white women from the south and these white women should not be forced to spend time with a Black woman, with the help of her neighbor , Hattie Parker, who cleans houses, comes up with a plan to avenge those six white men. Single set, 2w (African-American), 10 min.
  • THE DIME by Michael angel Johnson
    Cast: 
    3
    ·
    Genre: biography, drama
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    Keyword: Selma Burke, 365 Women A Year Playwriting Project + 1 more
    Genre: biography, drama
    Keyword: Selma Burke, 365 Women A Year Playwriting Project, African American
    The Dime -- Selma Burke (1900-1995), who is in the Navy at the time, goes to the White House to convince Eleanor Roosevelt that she is the best person to create the plaque of President Franklin D. Roosevelt that will eventually be used for the dime, but Selma Burke must first get pass a white woman who does not believe an African-American woman is capable nor worthy of the task. Single set, 3 w( 1 African-American, 2 Caucasian), 10 min.
  • THEIR GARDEN by Michael angel Johnson
    Cast: 
    3
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    Genre: drama
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    Keyword: African American women, France
    Genre: drama
    Keyword: African American women, France
    Their Garden -- a dramatization of the meeting of African American artist Meta Vaux Warrick (1871-1978) with sculptor Auguste Rodin (1840-1917) in 1901 in his garden in Meudon, France. The poet Ranier Rilke (1875-1926) was working for Rodin at the time. Each character has experienced the loss of a sibling, which has affected each character in its own way and each character's art. During this meeting,...
    Their Garden -- a dramatization of the meeting of African American artist Meta Vaux Warrick (1871-1978) with sculptor Auguste Rodin (1840-1917) in 1901 in his garden in Meudon, France. The poet Ranier Rilke (1875-1926) was working for Rodin at the time. Each character has experienced the loss of a sibling, which has affected each character in its own way and each character's art. During this meeting, Rodin becomes aware of Meta's talent as a sculptor, which becomes an introduction into the French art world. But before Rodin dubs Meta a true sculptor, Meta must prove herself during this visit. 1w (African-American), 2m (Caucasian), 90 min.
  • EDEN by Michael angel Johnson
    Cast: 
    3
    ·
    Genre: drama
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    Keyword: African-American experience, African American
    Genre: drama
    Keyword: African-American experience, African American
    EDEN - During the 60s, a black minister (Rev. James), is involved with the Civil Rights Movement in the south when his wife is murdered, leaving him to raise his daughter (Simone), who blames him for her mother’s murder. Simone returns to the father’s home after several years because of the death of a neighbor who was like a mother to Simone. Single set, 2w (one mature), 1m, 40 min. Even Shades Black History...
    EDEN - During the 60s, a black minister (Rev. James), is involved with the Civil Rights Movement in the south when his wife is murdered, leaving him to raise his daughter (Simone), who blames him for her mother’s murder. Simone returns to the father’s home after several years because of the death of a neighbor who was like a mother to Simone. Single set, 2w (one mature), 1m, 40 min. Even Shades Black History Month, Theatre Row, New York.
  • THE DREAM by Michael angel Johnson
    Cast: 
    3
    ·
    Genre: drama
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    Keyword: African American women
    Genre: drama
    Keyword: African American women
    The Dream -- a graduate student (Charlene) delves into the life and death of an African-American author, whom she is researching, only to discover an uncanny connection to both the author and the author’s white patron. Inspired by the life of Zora Neal Hurston
  • SINGING THOSE SONGS... by Michael angel Johnson
    Cast: 
    1–3
    ·
    Genre: biography, drama
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    Keyword: 365 Women A Year Playwriting Project, June Richmond + 2 more
    Genre: biography, drama
    Keyword: 365 Women A Year Playwriting Project, June Richmond, bio drama, African American entertainers
    Sing Those Songs…. is a dramatization of the night that Jimmy Dorsey and Bing Crosby go to hear June Richmond (1915-1962) sing in a night club, and Jimmy Dorsey asks June to sing with his orchestra, making June Richmond the first African-American jazz singer to sing regularly in a white orchestra.
  • DIAHANN as JULIA by Michael angel Johnson
    Cast: 
    1–2
    ·
    Genre: biography, drama
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    Keyword: Diahann Carroll, 365 Women A Year Playwriting Project + 1 more
    Genre: biography, drama
    Keyword: Diahann Carroll, 365 Women A Year Playwriting Project, African American culture and identity
    Diahann as Julia -- the glamorous actor Diahann Carroll is sent a script from NBC to play the role of Julia, which would make Diahann the first black woman to have a television series on primetime television, but she discovers that the creator Hal Cantor does not believe that Diahann has what it takes to play the part of Julia, which forces Ms. Carroll to dig deep inside of herself to prove this white man...
    Diahann as Julia -- the glamorous actor Diahann Carroll is sent a script from NBC to play the role of Julia, which would make Diahann the first black woman to have a television series on primetime television, but she discovers that the creator Hal Cantor does not believe that Diahann has what it takes to play the part of Julia, which forces Ms. Carroll to dig deep inside of herself to prove this white man wrong. Single set, 1 w (African-American), 1 OS Voice, male, 10 min.