Alan Sharpe

Alan Sharpe

Alan Sharpe is Founding Artistic Director of Washington, DC's African-American Collective Theater (ACT), for which he has written and directed over 100 plays and short films focused on African-American LGBTQ themes.

Plays

  • Here. And Now.
    In rapidly-gentrifying Washington, DC during the Obama administration, the long-term relationship of an African-American gay couple with two sons – one grown and one growing up -- is tested by a major family crisis…as well as the inevitable challenges of change and passing time.
  • Damage Control
    During the week leading to a major musical awards show in Los Angeles, an emerging, but barely-legal, thugged-out rapper, and a R&B teen heartthrob with a squeaky-clean image, are forced into collaboration by one’s superstar producer and the other’s manipulative manager/mother. Thrown together, they discover more in common than anticipated, and an unlikely, but intense, romance develops between the two...
    During the week leading to a major musical awards show in Los Angeles, an emerging, but barely-legal, thugged-out rapper, and a R&B teen heartthrob with a squeaky-clean image, are forced into collaboration by one’s superstar producer and the other’s manipulative manager/mother. Thrown together, they discover more in common than anticipated, and an unlikely, but intense, romance develops between the two youths. Their resulting performance is a smash hit -- creating an overnight viral sensation that triggers massive publicity...but also shines a threatening spotlight on scandalous secrets from each boy's past...attracting the predatory attention of a celebrity gossip blogger -- and a notoriously-homophobic, gospel superstar intent on preventing his own indiscretions from coming to light.
  • Play Ball
    Time unravels backwards, to reveal the emotional/physical abuse, loneliness, and homophobic bullying -- that have driven a bright, tormented, 13 year-old, inner-city, boy to commit suicide.
  • Family Business
    Sexual skeletons hidden in the collective closet of a prominent, middle-class, Black family threaten to destroy each member, when the oldest son - a star college athlete - is unable to shield his younger brother -- a sensitive, budding spoken word artist - from the physical and emotional abuse of their rabidly homophobic and rigidly religious, ex-con father.
  • BrotherHOODS
    Homophobic violence on a prominent HBCU campus endangers the life of the freshman victim…and the relationship of a young, gay, professor who attempts to defend and empower him.
  • Missing Pieces
    A veteran detective and his rookie partner scramble to unravel the mystery and motives behind the brutal murder of a popular gay activist -- a crime triggering shockwaves throughout Washington, DC’s Black, LGBTQ community. Before long, they discover that the various stories aren’t adding up…as the constantly shifting pieces of the puzzle grow to include the activist’s roommate, ex-lover, mentor, protégée,...
    A veteran detective and his rookie partner scramble to unravel the mystery and motives behind the brutal murder of a popular gay activist -- a crime triggering shockwaves throughout Washington, DC’s Black, LGBTQ community. Before long, they discover that the various stories aren’t adding up…as the constantly shifting pieces of the puzzle grow to include the activist’s roommate, ex-lover, mentor, protégée, friends, co-workers, online hook-ups, strippers, hustlers, dealers and random street trade.
  • HeartBeats
    When a young gay man’s troubled relationship with his closeted and very-married lover is further threatened by his efforts to rescue and redeem a homeless, HIV+, teenaged street hustler...his only support comes from a small group of wary friends.
  • Good Hope Road
    The gay male tenants, aged 20 to 70's of a four-family flat, experience relationship, aging, and family drama as the eminent threat of gentrification encroaches on their group...and their home.