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Talvin Wilks

Talvin Wilks is a playwright, director and dramaturg. His plays include Tod, the boy, Tod, The Trial of Uncle S&M, Bread of Heaven, and An American Triptych. Directorial projects include the world premiere productions of UDU by Sekou Sundiata (651Arts/BAM), The Love Space Demands by Ntozake Shange (Crossroads), No Black Male Show/Pagan Operetta by Carl Hancock Rux (Joe's Pub/The Kitchen), Banana Beer Bath by Lynn Nottage, (Going to the River Festival), the Obie Award/AUDELCO Award winning The Shaneequa Chronicles by Stephanie Berry (Ensemble Studio Theatre), Relativity by Cassandra Medley (Ensemble Studio Theatre AUDELCO nomination for Best Director 2006), On the Way to Timbuktu by Petronia Paley (Ensemble Studio Theatre AUDELCO nomination for Best Director 2008), and Anne and Emmett by Janet Langhart-Cohen (Atlas Theatre).

He has served as co-writer/dramaturg for ten productions in Ping Chong's ongoing series of Undesirable Elements, and dramaturg for five collaborations with the Bebe Miller Company, Going to the Wall, the Bessie Award winning, Verge, Landing/Place for which he received a 2006 Bessie Award, Necessary Beauty and the currently touring A History. Recent dramaturgical collaborations also include work with Camille Brown and Dancers (Mr. TOL E. RaNcE), Carmen DeLavallade (My Life in Dance and Theatre and Legends I Met Along the Way) and Ping Chong (The Civil War Project). He is currently writing a book on black theater, Testament: 40 Years of Black Theatre History in the Making, 1964-2004, and recently curated The Aunt Ester Cycle, a theatre festival at the August Wilson Center for African American Culture in Pittsburgh, PA.

Several people pose for a picture.
The Tradition of Defining a Tradition
Essay

The Tradition of Defining a Tradition

11 March 2013

For the State of Black Theatre Series, Talvin Wilks looks at the history of black theatre telling its own story.