Eisa Davis

named in honor of Ruby Bridges, one of the first African Americans to integrate public schools in New Orleans, the Ruby honors a woman playwright of color with $10,000 and development of a new work through Southern Rep Theatre. this was the first year the prize was given out and yours truly received it, along with finalists Katori Hall, Jocelyn Bioh, Tanya Saracho, and Kimber Lee. the play, RAMP, was commissioned by American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco, and has been supported by New York Stage and Film, LAByrinth Theater Company, and The Hip Hop Theater Festival. rumor has it we’ll have a workshop in the spring at New Dramatists–and as the play is in its nascent stages, I need it badly. feeling quite grateful for this unexpected distinction.

…premiered at the Contemporary American Theater Festival in July, directed by Liesl Tommy. David Emerson Toney, Lee Roy Rogers, Jason Denuszek and Amelia Workman rounded out the cast (the latter two in the image below).

EISA DAVIS wrote and starred in the acclaimed Angela’s Mixtape, directed by Liesl Tommy. After an almost entirely sold-out run this spring produced by New Georges, Angela’s Mixtape was remounted in the Hip-Hop Theater Festival October 15-17, and later named a best of 2009 by The New Yorker. Eisa was also a finalist for the 2007 Pulitzer Prize in Drama for her play Bulrusher, now published by Samuel French. Other plays include The History of Light (premiere, 2009 Contemporary American Theater Festival), Warriors Don’t Cry (Cornerstone Theater Company, Tennessee Women’s Theater Project), Hip Hop Anansi (Imagination Stage, published through Playscripts), Paper Armor, Umkovu, and Six Minutes, and Secretary of Shake (in Point of Revue). Eisa is a winner of the Helen Merrill Award, the Whitfield Cook Award, The Lippmann Family Award, and has received fellowships from the MacDowell Colony, Cave Canem, and the Van Lier and Mellon Foundations. She is currently under commission from the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco. Eisa’s writing has been published in American Theatre, The Source, To Be Real, Everything But The Burden, Step Into A World, Role Call, and Total Chaos. A Harvard graduate and Berkeley native, Eisa is a freshly minted alum of New Dramatists.