Kristen Adele Calhoun

Kristen Adele Calhoun is a writer, actor, producer and curator who loves Black people. She is the founding Program Director of ArtChangeUS and co-producer of InterFest, an intersectional arts and ideas festival that began at the Harlem School of the Arts. She is also the Assistant Editor of Contemporary Plays by Women of Color and is currently an I AM SOUL Playwriting Resident at Dr. Barbara Ann Teer’s National Black Theatre. Her writings are inspired by red clay roads, bloodline healing, joy, time travel, water, fugitivity, the transmutation of our world, and historic acts of uprising. Her plays include Black Cypress Bayou, Bellewood, The Offering, Now, She is Rising, Canfield Drive, A Pocket Full of Dandelions, Quilombo, With These Hands, and Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody.

Her television and...

Kristen Adele Calhoun is a writer, actor, producer and curator who loves Black people. She is the founding Program Director of ArtChangeUS and co-producer of InterFest, an intersectional arts and ideas festival that began at the Harlem School of the Arts. She is also the Assistant Editor of Contemporary Plays by Women of Color and is currently an I AM SOUL Playwriting Resident at Dr. Barbara Ann Teer’s National Black Theatre. Her writings are inspired by red clay roads, bloodline healing, joy, time travel, water, fugitivity, the transmutation of our world, and historic acts of uprising. Her plays include Black Cypress Bayou, Bellewood, The Offering, Now, She is Rising, Canfield Drive, A Pocket Full of Dandelions, Quilombo, With These Hands, and Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody.

Her television and film acting credits include House of Cards, Orange is the New Black, Elementary, The Sinner, Blue Bloods, The Good Wife, and Everything I Whispered to Dorothy.

Off-Broadway & regional acting credits include Canfield Drive (St. Louis Black Rep); Jackie and Me (Denver Center); Skeleton Crew (Premiere Stages); A Raisin in the Sun (Clarence Brown Theatre); Myrna in Transit (Ensemble Studio Theatre); Clybourne Park (Geva Theatre & Cleveland Playhouse); and Joe Turner’s Come and Gone (Shadow Theatre Co.)

A native of Dallas, Texas, she is a graduate of the University of North Texas (Bachelor of Fine Arts in Acting) and the Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University (Master of Fine Arts in Acting). Kristen currently splits her time between Ghana, Mexico and the United States of America.

Scripts

Black Cypress Bayou

by Kristen Adele Calhoun

Synopsis

In the midst of a global pandemic, a family of Black Texan women gather down at the edge of the bayou to get to the bottom of the unexpected death of their former boss - a man their family has been battling for years. What they discover will either lead to their total destruction or their long awaited liberation.

This story asks - what will it take to shake power loose from those who wield it for evil? What is...

In the midst of a global pandemic, a family of Black Texan women gather down at the edge of the bayou to get to the bottom of the unexpected death of their former boss - a man their family has been battling for years. What they discover will either lead to their total destruction or their long awaited liberation.

This story asks - what will it take to shake power loose from those who wield it for evil? What is the cost of freedom? As systems of oppression burn to the ground, what will we build out of the ashes of society?

Canfield Drive

by Kristen Adele Calhoun

Synopsis

Two high-powered news reporters from across the aisle are thrown together during a ratings frenzy in Ferguson, MO following the shooting of unarmed teenager Michael Brown. As they untangle the real cause of Mike Brown’s death, they struggle to keep their own secrets out of the spotlight. Created from diverse interviews of people from around the corner and around the world, Canfield Drive shines a light of hope...

Two high-powered news reporters from across the aisle are thrown together during a ratings frenzy in Ferguson, MO following the shooting of unarmed teenager Michael Brown. As they untangle the real cause of Mike Brown’s death, they struggle to keep their own secrets out of the spotlight. Created from diverse interviews of people from around the corner and around the world, Canfield Drive shines a light of hope as it asks is the “great American experiment” beyond repair? Written and gathered by Kristen Adele Calhoun and Michael Thomas Walker.

Bellewood

by Kristen Adele Calhoun

Synopsis

Bellewood Lake. Mid-Hudson Valley. New York State. September 1921. Bellewood is an historical one act play inspired by the real African American resort, Snowdale Farm. Under the last sunset of the season, five friends lean into what it means to be Black and free. This play explores themes of fugitivity, community, PTSD, ritual, water, intimacy and vision casting.

Bellewood Lake. Mid-Hudson Valley. New York State. September 1921. Bellewood is an historical one act play inspired by the real African American resort, Snowdale Farm. Under the last sunset of the season, five friends lean into what it means to be Black and free. This play explores themes of fugitivity, community, PTSD, ritual, water, intimacy and vision casting.

Now, She is Rising

by Kristen Adele Calhoun

Synopsis

Is it possible to hold fast to Black joy in a country designed to steal it at every turn? In the midst of ongoing social unrest in the United States, one family of women asks “what happens when enough is enough?”. As they wrestle with the prospect of leaving the U.S. for good, secrets come to the surface and truths are laid bare.
(an online play)

Is it possible to hold fast to Black joy in a country designed to steal it at every turn? In the midst of ongoing social unrest in the United States, one family of women asks “what happens when enough is enough?”. As they wrestle with the prospect of leaving the U.S. for good, secrets come to the surface and truths are laid bare.
(an online play)