Joël René Scoville

2&1: A Harlem Love Story with Loose Morals is a 2023 Eugene O’Neill Finalist and a 2022 Relentless Award Honorable Mention. From rent parties and domestic labor just to make ends meet to swinging on the moon while lip locked and dancing with champagne bubbles at a cross-dressing night club, 2&1: A Harlem Love Story with Loose Morals dissects colorism, Black femininity and the social mores regarding sex all while dancing the Black Bottom to a contemporary jazz score best described as a Baz Lurman film curated by Prince.

It’s 1927; the Harlem Renaissance is in full swing and Negros are in vogue. Everybody who’s anybody slums it uptown for a bit of hooch and a good time. Out in Sugar Hill, the sweet part of Harlem, Olivia is a writer determined to be successful like her male counterparts. One night at a wild party with femme boys and butch girls, she catches the eye of Irene, a promiscuous flapper who white-passes for social status. Moments later she’s locked in a passionate kiss and despite the loud rumblings of her gal pal Max, she plunges into a torrid love affair that disrupts her moral compass. Life is a gas until Irene plots to claim her inheritance through a sham marriage to Tommy, a white British Aristocrat eager to try on the bohemian lifestyle but who’s none the wiser of the women’s relationship. With their duo now a trio, Olivia juggles her career, her lover and her lover’s husband. But just as Olivia is on the brink of success, an impetuous move by Irene compels Olivia to finally choose between her morals and her heart, or risk losing herself forever.

2&1: A Harlem Love Story with Loose Morals is a two act queer musical written by two Black women committed to rectifying the absence of musicals by Black writers within the musical theatre landscape and to also celebrate Black female joy, dispel the trope that Black women are a monolith and reclaim Black female sexuality. With a cast of 12-15 as riotous characters inspired by the era, 2&1: A Harlem Love Story with Loose Morals finally shows the Roaring 20’s from a perspective routinely ignored: the Black women who not only defined the “modern woman”, but also invented her. And this time, no one’s getting arrested.

Set in Harlem 1925, this Ten-Minute play is a fictional account of a night in the life of famous jazz singer Ethel Waters and her secret girlfriend, dancer Ethel Williams. Following a club performance "Little Ethel" rushes home to get her tiny apartment ready for "Big Ethel" to come over for a special night: it's their two year anniversary. But when a mysterious person keeps calling on the phone Big Ethel had installed "just for her" will their night be ruined?