Xavier Clark

Xavier Clark

Xavier (he/him/his) is a multidisciplinary theatre artist, born and raised in Turkey. As a playwright, he has developed work with The National Black Theatre, Fault Line Theatre, Playwrights' Arena, Echo Theatre Company of Los Angeles and more. His play "supper" was a finalist for the 2022 O'Neill NPC. His play "backstroke boys" was selected as a finalist for The 2021 Blue Ink...
Xavier (he/him/his) is a multidisciplinary theatre artist, born and raised in Turkey. As a playwright, he has developed work with The National Black Theatre, Fault Line Theatre, Playwrights' Arena, Echo Theatre Company of Los Angeles and more. His play "supper" was a finalist for the 2022 O'Neill NPC. His play "backstroke boys" was selected as a finalist for The 2021 Blue Ink Playwriting Award, The New Harmony Project's 2020 Spring Conference, and received a Workshop Production with Fault Line Theatre in NYC. He is an alum of IAMA Theatre's 2022-23 Emerging Playwrights Lab, The Strides Collective's 2023 Emerging Playwrights Program and The Gatekeeper's Collective's inaugural "learning to love" playwriting fellowship, led by Donja R. Love. He earned his B.F.A. in Drama from NYU Tisch School of the Arts, where he is currently on faculty, and his M.F.A. in Acting from UC San Diego.

Plays

  • supper by Xavier Clark
    Recommendations: 2
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    Cast: 
    2
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    Genre: dark comedy, drama
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    Keyword: queer, blackmen + 2 more
    Genre: dark comedy, drama
    Keyword: queer, blackmen, dark comedy, black LGBTQIA
    Maxwell and Greg reunite in the aftermath of a shared trauma for a dinner date. There's a thunderstorm outside and a missing person. But will these two friends make it to the morning to witness the calm after the storm? "supper" examines the ways in which black men fail to be soft with another and questions the possibility of trust and letting go when you have been hurt so deeply.
  • backstroke boys by Xavier Clark
    Recommendations: 6
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    Cast: 
    3
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    Genre: drama
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    Keyword: queer, Islamic Identity + 3 more
    Genre: drama
    Keyword: queer, Islamic Identity, intersectionality, high school, coming of age
    backstroke boys is a coming of age story that deals with the intersection of race, religion and sexuality. The play chronicles both the pain and joys of coming to terms with one's various social identities at a young age and how those identities work in tangent with one another to make someone full. On his first day of swim practice at a brand new high school, and country, Quentin befriends Zia, the...
    backstroke boys is a coming of age story that deals with the intersection of race, religion and sexuality. The play chronicles both the pain and joys of coming to terms with one's various social identities at a young age and how those identities work in tangent with one another to make someone full. On his first day of swim practice at a brand new high school, and country, Quentin befriends Zia, the captain of the swim team, and through their growing relationship they open up a whole can of worms. How can you hold on to your faith when your faith is showing grace and acceptance towards everything else but your own self?
  • retrofit(s) by Xavier Clark
    Recommendations: 2
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    Cast: 
    7
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    Genre: dark comedy
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    Keyword: millennials, dark comedy + 3 more
    Genre: dark comedy
    Keyword: millennials, dark comedy, queer, black, retail workers
    Xander is the newest employee at retrofits, a hip retail store in Los Angeles. As Xander begins to learn how to navigate the ins and outs of the retail world, him and his fellow millennial co-workers start to get tangled up in a web of relationships that eventually evaporates. Retrofit(s) examines the ways in which the millennial generation has been manipulated into subscribing to the American Dream and the...
    Xander is the newest employee at retrofits, a hip retail store in Los Angeles. As Xander begins to learn how to navigate the ins and outs of the retail world, him and his fellow millennial co-workers start to get tangled up in a web of relationships that eventually evaporates. Retrofit(s) examines the ways in which the millennial generation has been manipulated into subscribing to the American Dream and the inescapable nature of cultural exploitation.
  • Where Angels Fear to Tread by Xavier Clark
    Cast: 
    7
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    Genre: drama
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    Keyword: American/Middle East Personal Politics, military coup + 1 more
    Genre: drama
    Keyword: American/Middle East Personal Politics, military coup, Turkey
    The year is 1970. Sterling and Betsy, Harlem royalties, find themselves in Istanbul, Turkey for Betsy's cabaret tour. When the two venture to the unknown parts of Istanbul,they encounter Tanju, a Zenne dancer by night and fortune teller by day, and their lives are changed forever. Through the lens of the 1971 and 1980 Turkish military coup's, "Where Angels Fear to Tread" grapples with the...
    The year is 1970. Sterling and Betsy, Harlem royalties, find themselves in Istanbul, Turkey for Betsy's cabaret tour. When the two venture to the unknown parts of Istanbul,they encounter Tanju, a Zenne dancer by night and fortune teller by day, and their lives are changed forever. Through the lens of the 1971 and 1980 Turkish military coup's, "Where Angels Fear to Tread" grapples with the impossibility of a love story between two people who come from two different countries that are under their own civil pressures, and the troublesome consequences of exoticizing the Middle East.
  • ICONS by Xavier Clark
    Recommendations: 1
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    Cast: 
    5–10
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    Genre: dark comedy, drama
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    Keyword: legacy, death + 4 more
    Genre: dark comedy, drama
    Keyword: legacy, death, Black Queer Love, icons, intergenerational conflict, the cost of ambition
    When an established icon of a writer selects a younger Pulitzer prize winning author to interview him for a milestone newspaper article, lines between interviewer and interviewee get blurred as the interview spirals into a nauseating loop of chaos. ICONS grapples with the meaning of legacy, loving and letting go while still in the pursuit of peace, perfection and (im)mortality.