No Dream Deferred presented Dare to Dream with Playwright Philana Imade Omorotionmwan livestreaming on the global, commons-based, peer-produced HowlRound TV network on this page on Friday 5 May at 5 p.m. PDT (San Francisco, UTC -7) / 7 p.m. CDT (New Orleans, UTC -5) / 8 p.m. EDT (New York, UTC -4).
Playwright Philana Imade Omorotionmwan sits down to share how her dream of premiering The Defiance of Dandelions became a reality.
Philana Imade Omorotionmwan (fih-lah-nuh ih-muh-day o-more-o-tune-wha) is writing to save her body and spirit from a world that seems hell-bent on destroying them.
Her plays include Before Evening Comes, The Defiance of Dandelions, Fireflies, and Strong Face, or Misogynoir. She appeared on the 2019 Kilroys List and was a 2018-19 Playwrights’ Center Jerome Fellow. Her work has been developed and/or presented at the Bay Area Playwrights Festival, Br!nk New Works Festival, La MaMa Experiments Series, Geva Theatre Center, and Athena Project Festival. She has been a semifinalist for the Relentless Award, P73 Fellowship, and Many Voices Fellowship, as well as a two-time Heideman finalist, and a finalist for the Princess Grace Playwriting Fellowship, the Theatre503 Award, and the Playwrights Realm's Scratchpad Series. Her short plays have been commissioned and/or produced by Ensemble Studio Theatre, Pillsbury House + Theatre, and Ohlone College. Her poems have been published in New Delta Review and African American Review; she has been the recipient of residencies at Djerassi and the Atlantic Center for the Arts.
Originally from Baton Rouge, Philana earned a BA in English from Stanford University and an MFA in Playwriting from OU. She currently resides in New Orleans.
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