Robyn Brooks

Robyn Brooks, M.F.A., Creative Writing/Poetry, author of the poetry chapbook, "venus in retrograde" (Finishing Line Press, 2015), is a poet, playwright, and director. Brooks participated in the playwriting residency PlayGround, in residence at Berkeley Repertory Theatre, from 2007-2013. Her plays have been staged/read at Berkeley Repertory Theatre; Tennessee Women's Theater Project; Theatre of Yugen; Theatre Rhinoceros; Los Angeles Women's Theater Project; and Potrero Stage. She has directed several of her own plays, as well as the works of other playwrights. A recent graduate from Goddard College, M.F.A., Creative Writing/Playwriting, she is a member of SF PlayGround’s Writers Pool 2023-2025, and was a participant in CIMIENTOS 2024, a play development program for playwrights, through IATI...

Robyn Brooks, M.F.A., Creative Writing/Poetry, author of the poetry chapbook, "venus in retrograde" (Finishing Line Press, 2015), is a poet, playwright, and director. Brooks participated in the playwriting residency PlayGround, in residence at Berkeley Repertory Theatre, from 2007-2013. Her plays have been staged/read at Berkeley Repertory Theatre; Tennessee Women's Theater Project; Theatre of Yugen; Theatre Rhinoceros; Los Angeles Women's Theater Project; and Potrero Stage. She has directed several of her own plays, as well as the works of other playwrights. A recent graduate from Goddard College, M.F.A., Creative Writing/Playwriting, she is a member of SF PlayGround’s Writers Pool 2023-2025, and was a participant in CIMIENTOS 2024, a play development program for playwrights, through IATI Theater. Brooks, is a model in the internationally renowned Women En Large: Images of Fat Nudes, included in Martin Parr’s photo book collection, in the permanent collection at Tate Modern, London, UK.

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Scripts

INDIGO DUSK

by Robyn Brooks

Cast Size
4
Genre
comedy,
drama

Golden, an actress, playwright, and director returns to her family home, and land, now occupied by her three female cousins.

Golden, an actress, playwright, and director returns to her family home, and land, now occupied by her three female cousins.

MA RAINEY IN THE UNDERWORLD

by Robyn Brooks

Cast Size
5
Genre
comedy,
dark comedy,
docudrama/historic,
drama,
tragedy

MA RAINEY IN THE UNDERWORLD, is a tragicomedy, told in short scenes. Blues Icon, Ma Rainey, dreams as Orpheus/Orfeo. In a limbo state, in the Underworld, neither here, nor there, Ma Rainey is out of Time. Faced with a quest, and a reckoning of sorts, she encounters the “Sugar Chorus,” and the “Spectre” of her former paramour, Bessie Smith.

MA RAINEY IN THE UNDERWORLD, is a tragicomedy, told in short scenes. Blues Icon, Ma Rainey, dreams as Orpheus/Orfeo. In a limbo state, in the Underworld, neither here, nor there, Ma Rainey is out of Time. Faced with a quest, and a reckoning of sorts, she encounters the “Sugar Chorus,” and the “Spectre” of her former paramour, Bessie Smith.

DOOR NUMBER FOUR

by Robyn Brooks

Cast Size
3
Genre
comedy,
dark comedy,
drama,
tragedy

Lula Oscura Reyes has a great life in Chicago 1926: She is playing Lady Macbeth; She has her own dressing room; She makes good money as an actor; She has her own automobile and driver; and she has a secret. Lula is a black woman, with a black husband and child, passing as a white woman. When her secret is exposed, what will Lula do to keep her family safe?

Lula Oscura Reyes has a great life in Chicago 1926: She is playing Lady Macbeth; She has her own dressing room; She makes good money as an actor; She has her own automobile and driver; and she has a secret. Lula is a black woman, with a black husband and child, passing as a white woman. When her secret is exposed, what will Lula do to keep her family safe?

BESSIE IN MEDIAS RES

by Robyn Brooks

Cast Size
3
Genre
comedy,
dark comedy,
docudrama/historic,
drama,
experimental,
fable/folktale,
period,
tragedy

Bessie Smith and Ma Rainey reunite in the Underworld

Bessie Smith and Ma Rainey reunite in the Underworld

THE GHOST OF GENEVIEVE BAPTISTE

by Robyn Brooks

1
Cast Size
4
Genre
comedy,
dark comedy,
drama,
tragedy

Weaving together black lesbian love, Hoodoo, the dark arts, mythology, colorism, and cultural history, The Ghost of Genevieve Baptiste, is a tragicomedy, set in Obama-era New Orleans, told in eight scenes, in reversed chronological order. Claudette and Desiree are happily married newlyweds until Genevieve Baptiste, and then her ghost, decide to visit.

Weaving together black lesbian love, Hoodoo, the dark arts, mythology, colorism, and cultural history, The Ghost of Genevieve Baptiste, is a tragicomedy, set in Obama-era New Orleans, told in eight scenes, in reversed chronological order. Claudette and Desiree are happily married newlyweds until Genevieve Baptiste, and then her ghost, decide to visit.

TALES OF A BABY DYKE IN A SMOKING JACKET

by Robyn Brooks

Cast Size
4
Genre
comedy,
dark comedy,
drama

Baby Dyke, a playwright, is experiencing an existential crisis of sorts. Caught in the center of an "Imperfect Storm" of tragic and disappointing events, with the help of champagne and valium, her world begins to spiral out of control.

Baby Dyke, a playwright, is experiencing an existential crisis of sorts. Caught in the center of an "Imperfect Storm" of tragic and disappointing events, with the help of champagne and valium, her world begins to spiral out of control.