GLORIA MAJULE
Playwright of Possessed (or, "The Crazy African Girl" Play)
Gloria Majule is a storyteller from Dodoma, Tanzania. She seeks to tell stories that bring multiple black voices together from across the world, and are accessible to black audiences no matter where they are. She writes for and about Africans and the African diaspora. Gloria has been awarded fellowships from MacDowell and Artist Trust; commissions from Audible, Milwaukee Repertory Theater, Atlantic Theater Company, and Princeton University/The Civilians; and residencies at Yaddo, Art Omi, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, The New Harmony Project, and New York Stage and Film. A three-time O'Neill Finalist and six-time Susan Smith Blackburn Prize nominee, Gloria's work includes Uhuru (upcoming world premiere at the Alley Theatre), Mala Aria (upcoming New Play Production at Premiere Stages), My Father was Shot in the Back of the Head (Relentless Award Finalist), Culture Shock (Leah Ryan Prize Winner), and Fifteen Hundred (Blue Ink Award Finalist). Gloria graduated summa cum laude from Cornell University with a BA in Performing & Media Arts and Spanish, and was the first African woman to receive an MFA in Playwriting from Yale School of Drama.
Why are you excited to bring this piece to the O'Neill and what are you hoping to accomplish here?
I am excited to bring a story about my home, as a Tanzanian playwright, to the incredible platform provided by the O'Neill. I look forward to having dedicated time to workshop Possessed with collaborators, try new things, and hear it twice with a live audience of new play lovers. I am also excited to have a design team dream up concepts for what the world of this road trip could look like.
What inspired you to create this piece?
Growing up in a Pentecostal Christian community in Tanzania, mental illness was a taboo that was often associated with demon possession. So when I started struggling with my own mental health, I had to find the right vocabulary to talk about it with my community. Possessed was inspired by this journey, by me and my friends’ experiences of being black and brown immigrant students in elite institutions in America, and by the joys (and trials) of having siblings.
Why are you drawn to plays/musicals as a medium for storytelling and/or for telling this particular story?
In my youth, my mother worked in community development in Tanzania, primarily to raise HIV/AIDs awareness in villages. One of the tools her work used for this was theater. I saw theater being used in real time to educate and heal a community and became enamored by the medium. There is something undeniable about the vulnerability of live performance. Mental illness is a vulnerable topic. So seeing two siblings in real time navigating wildly different views while trapped in a car together felt like an exciting setting to have audiences sit with and be part of the journey.
What advice would you give to aspiring playwrights?
Don't be discouraged by the nos, pay attention to the yeses.
Build a supportive community, and focus on your own journey.
Gloria's reading recommendations to accompany your experience with Possessed (or, "The Crazy African Girl" Play):
The Homecoming Queen by Ngozi Anyanwu
My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwhite
Death of the Author by Nnedi Okorafor