Lisa B. Thompson

Black Studies professor Beatrice “Bea” Free confronts her past and the parts of herself she wants to ignore as she drafts “The Black Feminist Guide to the Human Body.” With guidance from her body (Cee Cee) and soul (Dee), Bea ends up constructing a love letter to Black women and girls, from her memories, dreams, hopes and wonder. Part spiritual mixed tape, roadmap, “us” help book, and collective diary of nursery rhymes, sacred stories, praise dances, and love songs, this choreopoem urges us to honor all our pieces, even the broken ones.

What happens when an African American middle class woman and a wealthy Nigerian immigrant man, meet, fall in love and decide to marry after only knowing each other for six months? What will their parents think of this cross class, intercultural and transcontinental union? In STEW these characters come together for a meal in Oakland, California that highlights the pleasures and dangers of loving and misunderstanding in the Black Diaspora.

A mysterious pregnancy, a lynching and dreams of California haunt Cherry, a domestic who believes that God told her to leave the south. When her friend, Clyde, invites her to go along with him to California, Cherry must decide whether being the keeper of her family’s roots and cultural traditions justifies living under Jim Crow. Set in rural Louisiana during the of middle of the Great Migration, MONROE reveals how the threat and aftermath of racial terror occupied the psyches of young African Americans.

Underground reunites Kyle and Mason, a pair of old college friends who have gone from radicals in their youth to successful professionals approaching middle age. When Kyle unexpectedly shows up at Mason's door, the two have a chance to catch-up, reminisce and, as the evening goes on, engage one another in a battle of intellects over the best road to black liberation. As their argument becomes increasingly passionate and more personal, news reports reveal a police search for the leader of a black radical political movement. From flashbacks to their first meeting to the final game of chess that could change their lives forever, Mason and Kyle each pose to one another the central question of Underground: how far would you go to protect your people?

Reviews:
https://www.austinchronicle.com/arts/2017-03-31/underground/
http://www.broadwayworld.com/austin/article/BWW-Review-UNDERGROUND-a-Ta…

The Mamalogues portrays the experience of parenting while black, unmarried, and middle class in the age of anxiety. During a single mother’s retreat women share their angst about racial profiling on the playground, their child being the “only one” at their school, and the politics of soccer in the hood. The satirical comedy follows the agonies and joys of motherhood as these moms lean in, stress out and guide precious black children from diapers to college in a dangerous world.

SINGLE BLACK FEMALE (Samuel French, 2012) is a two-woman show that uses rapid-fire comic vignettes to examine the lives of thirty-something African American middle class women as they search for love, clothes, and dignity in a world that fails to recognize them among a parade of stereotypical images.

MOTHER’S DAY is a comedy where Afro-futurism meets motherhood. What happens when a black woman wants to “lean in” but first must find adequate childcare? In this one-act play the search for a nanny for one professional couple forces them to confront a litany of black maternal stereotypes.
Review: http://www.laweekly.com/arts/theater-reviews-bohemian-cowboy-tartuffe-b…

An elegiac theatrical short play where a chorus of black mothers mourn the loss of their children to police violence.

What happens to the last black woman on earth? Enter the Lab and find out.

In a world where men over 40 years old find themselves rejected and isolated, what will a mother and her adult daughter do with the aging men in their lives?