Cynthia Grace Robinson

Plays include DANCING ON EGGSHELLS (The Billie Holiday Theatre); PEOLA'S PASSING (Samuel French Off Off Broadway Theatre Festival; New Perspectives Theatre Company; Festival de Teatro Alternativo, Bogota, Colombia); WHEN NIGHT FALLS (Eugene O'Neill semi-finalist; Developed at Rising Circle Theater Collective/INKtank Play Development Lab); GOLD STAR MOTHER (EstroGenius Festival); ASCENSION (National Black Theatre Festival; New York International Fringe Festival); THUNDER: A MUSICAL MEMOIR (New York International Fringe Festival); NIGHTFALL (The Fire This Time Festival); ROME IN LOVE (48 Hours in…Harlem, The National Black Theatre); FREEDOM SUMMER (World Premiere-North Carolina Black Repertory Company); IN THIS LIFE: An Imperfect Love Story (Quick Silver Theater Company); WHAT IF...? (Conch...

Plays include DANCING ON EGGSHELLS (The Billie Holiday Theatre); PEOLA'S PASSING (Samuel French Off Off Broadway Theatre Festival; New Perspectives Theatre Company; Festival de Teatro Alternativo, Bogota, Colombia); WHEN NIGHT FALLS (Eugene O'Neill semi-finalist; Developed at Rising Circle Theater Collective/INKtank Play Development Lab); GOLD STAR MOTHER (EstroGenius Festival); ASCENSION (National Black Theatre Festival; New York International Fringe Festival); THUNDER: A MUSICAL MEMOIR (New York International Fringe Festival); NIGHTFALL (The Fire This Time Festival); ROME IN LOVE (48 Hours in…Harlem, The National Black Theatre); FREEDOM SUMMER (World Premiere-North Carolina Black Repertory Company); IN THIS LIFE: An Imperfect Love Story (Quick Silver Theater Company); WHAT IF...? (Conch Shell Productions; The Black Motherhood and Parenting New Play Festival); ROSES OF THE WILLAMETTE: A MUSICAL (in development).

Awards and honors include: Center Theatre Group, Los Angeles "Not A Moment, but A Movement" New Play Project Commission, Eugene O'Neill Theater Center Playwriting Conference (Semi-finalist); Finalist: Inaugural Black Motherhood and Parenting New Play Festival; The River Writers Unit at The Lark; Playwrights of Color Summit/Quick Silver Theater Company; Rising Circle Theater Collective/INKTank Residency; AUDELCO Award for Excellence in Black Theatre (Nominee); Westchester Community College Foundation Faculty Excellence Award for Scholarship; State University of New York Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Scholarship and Creative Activities; Final Forty Playwright, Samuel French Off Off Broadway Short Play (Finalist); Black and Latino Playwrights Conference (Finalist); Calvin B. Grimes Scholar-in-Residence Inaugural award winner (New York University); Tribeca All-Access Open Stage Inaugural award winner; Best New Play IRNE (Nominee); Thomas Barbour Memorial Playwright’s Award (Finalist).

Publications include: ON HOLY GROUND: Plays from the National Black Theatre Festival (TCG Books); WE’RE NOT NEUTRAL: RESET SERIES 2020 COLLECTED SHORT PLAYS (Conch Shell Press); SHE PERSISTED. Monologues from Plays by Women Over 40 (Applause Theatre & Cinema Books); The Book of Estrogenius 2012: A Celebration of Female Voices (Playsource).

I am the Co-director of The Fire This Time New Works Lab, a member of The League of Professional Theatre Women, and a member of The Dramatists Guild of America, Inc.

I hold a B.A. in English from Syracuse University and an M.A. in English Education from New York University. Post-graduate studies include Trinity College, University of Oxford in the U.K.

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Scripts

Letters From Loretta

by Cynthia Grace Robinson

Cast Size
6—8
Genre
drama,
faith-based

Loretta, a widow living with dementia, clings to her relationship with her late husband while fighting to maintain her independence amid pressure from her daughter to be cared for.

Loretta, a widow living with dementia, clings to her relationship with her late husband while fighting to maintain her independence amid pressure from her daughter to be cared for.

In This Life

by Cynthia Grace Robinson

Cast Size
5—6
Genre
drama,
tragedy

Over a passionate relationship that spans four decades, an artist couple love each other through a lifelong journey of friendship, fame, aging and tragic loss.

Over a passionate relationship that spans four decades, an artist couple love each other through a lifelong journey of friendship, fame, aging and tragic loss.

Freedom Summer

by Cynthia Grace Robinson

Cast Size
2—3
Genre
drama,
period,
political,
young audiences

August 4, 1964. Nora starts a new life “passing” as a white woman while her sister, Carrie, travels to the Deep South to register Blacks to vote. The bodies of three civil rights workers have just been found in Mississippi, leading the sisters to question the price of civil rights, Black identity and what it means to be Free.

August 4, 1964. Nora starts a new life “passing” as a white woman while her sister, Carrie, travels to the Deep South to register Blacks to vote. The bodies of three civil rights workers have just been found in Mississippi, leading the sisters to question the price of civil rights, Black identity and what it means to be Free.

Dancing on Eggshells

by Cynthia Grace Robinson

Cast Size
4
Genre
drama,
melodrama,
movement/physical,
tragedy

Sometimes the best way to confront the demons of your past...is to dance with them...In this play of memory and movement, a woman struggles with a family secret that threatens to destroy her. An emotional story of love, loss, forgiveness and redemption.

Sometimes the best way to confront the demons of your past...is to dance with them...In this play of memory and movement, a woman struggles with a family secret that threatens to destroy her. An emotional story of love, loss, forgiveness and redemption.

What If....?

by Cynthia Grace Robinson

Cast Size
2
Genre
drama,
political,
young audiences,
zoom

A young woman’s need to fight for justice unleashes her mother’s fears for her child’s life.

A young woman’s need to fight for justice unleashes her mother’s fears for her child’s life.

When Night Falls

by Cynthia Grace Robinson

Cast Size
6—7
Genre
drama,
political

A young Sudanese woman meets an African American doctor who brings her to the United States. Bonded by grief and personal loss, these women struggle to heal, find peace, and the courage to love again.

A young Sudanese woman meets an African American doctor who brings her to the United States. Bonded by grief and personal loss, these women struggle to heal, find peace, and the courage to love again.

Ascension

by Cynthia Grace Robinson

Cast Size
4
Genre
drama,
period,
political,
tragedy

Two slaves' impending marriage is haunted by the woman's sexual relationship with the master of the plantation.

Two slaves' impending marriage is haunted by the woman's sexual relationship with the master of the plantation.

Peola's Passing

by Cynthia Grace Robinson

Cast Size
2
Genre
drama,
period,
political,
young audiences

Set in 1964, two sisters from Jackson, MS-one "passing" and the other about to risk her life for change-confront the realities of the color bar on the eve of the Civil Rights Act.

Set in 1964, two sisters from Jackson, MS-one "passing" and the other about to risk her life for change-confront the realities of the color bar on the eve of the Civil Rights Act.

Gold Star Mother

by Cynthia Grace Robinson

Cast Size
2
Genre
drama,
faith-based,
political

The reality of war threatens to destroy a couple as their faith is put to the ultimate test.
The term “Gold Star Mother” refers to any mother who has lost a child in the service of the United States Armed Forces.

The reality of war threatens to destroy a couple as their faith is put to the ultimate test.
The term “Gold Star Mother” refers to any mother who has lost a child in the service of the United States Armed Forces.