Gethsemane Herron-Coward

Gethsemane Herron-Coward

Gethsemane Herron-­‐Coward is a poet-­‐turned-­‐playwright from Washington, D.C.
She has developed work with JAG Productions, The Hearth, Magic Time @ Judson, Playwright’s Playground at Classical Theatre of Harlem. Alumna of 24:Hour Plays-Nationals, The Fire This Time Festival, and VONA. Residencies from The Virginia Center of the Creative Arts, NYFA, and the Millay Colony, where she was the recipient...
Gethsemane Herron-­‐Coward is a poet-­‐turned-­‐playwright from Washington, D.C.
She has developed work with JAG Productions, The Hearth, Magic Time @ Judson, Playwright’s Playground at Classical Theatre of Harlem. Alumna of 24:Hour Plays-Nationals, The Fire This Time Festival, and VONA. Residencies from The Virginia Center of the Creative Arts, NYFA, and the Millay Colony, where she was the recipient of the Yasmin Scholarship. Semi-Finalist for the Many Voices Fellowship at Playwright’s Center , Rising Circle INK TANK and the Bay Area Playwright’s Festival. Finalist for Space on Ryder Farm and the Jane Chambers Playwriting Award. B.S. University of Wisconsin-Madison. MFA: Playwriting from Columbia University. A proud member of the Dramatists Guild. Breathing and Grateful for breath.

Plays

  • The Falling Man by Gethsemane Herron-Coward
    Recommendations: 5
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    Cast: 
    3–4
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    Genre: adaptation, tragedy + 1 more
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    Keyword: latina, black actors
    Genre: adaptation, tragedy, verse
    Keyword: latina, black actors
    Inspired by Richard Drew’s infamous photograph, two women war with a journalist in the aftermath of their father’s absence post 9/11. The Falling Man decides his own fate while the world around him is in chaos. The Falling Man asks how one mourns a man who won’t return, a man who was half stolen to begin with.
  • BLANKS by Gethsemane Herron-Coward
    Recommendations: 3
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    Cast: 
    7
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    Genre: comedy, drama
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    Keyword: romantic comedy, Black women
    Genre: comedy, drama
    Keyword: romantic comedy, Black women
    Medical student Reese desperately hunts for the romance of her dreams while her “aunties” - Black women throughout history and media - dissuade, distract and try to save her from love’s violent abandonment - something they all experienced, something they all did not survive.

    Blanks interrogates how intimate partner violence, intersectional patriarchy, and neglect affect Black women’s pursuit of...
    Medical student Reese desperately hunts for the romance of her dreams while her “aunties” - Black women throughout history and media - dissuade, distract and try to save her from love’s violent abandonment - something they all experienced, something they all did not survive.

    Blanks interrogates how intimate partner violence, intersectional patriarchy, and neglect affect Black women’s pursuit of romantic and filial love. It asks if love conquers all, what happens when it conquers you?
  • HEIFER by Gethsemane Herron-Coward
    Cast: 
    7–8
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    Genre: tragedy, verse
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    Keyword: sexual assault, classical mythology + 1 more
    Genre: tragedy, verse
    Keyword: sexual assault, classical mythology, Antebellum period
    A child survivor testifies while the mother of a man accused of her rape spews her own testimony. An antebellum slave plots her freedom from her liberal, scholarly, intensely lonely slave mistress. All the while, the goddess Hera and her strange companion watch over the women, ensuring no one steps out of role, out of line, in order to maintain the illusion of a safe world for women. Heifer explores victim...
    A child survivor testifies while the mother of a man accused of her rape spews her own testimony. An antebellum slave plots her freedom from her liberal, scholarly, intensely lonely slave mistress. All the while, the goddess Hera and her strange companion watch over the women, ensuring no one steps out of role, out of line, in order to maintain the illusion of a safe world for women. Heifer explores victim blaming, white feminism, and religion’s effect on women: how they bond, how they love, how they are pulled apart. ​
  • LORDES by Gethsemane Herron-Coward
    Recommendations: 2
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    Cast: 
    10–50
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    Genre: biography, drama
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    Keyword: poetry, cancer
    Genre: biography, drama
    Keyword: poetry, cancer
    Black, Lesbian, Feminist, Poet, Warrior, Mother.

    Audre Lorde battles her way through her last poem, determined to finish a work women will inherit before her body writes her eulogy.

    Performed by an ensemble of 50 women and inspired by Lorde's works, LORDES asks the question: How do we feed ourselves in a world where we are meant to starve?

    Co-written with Katherine Wilkinson