Another great get for the podcast: the playwright and actress Jocelyn Bioh. She talked to us about her breakthrough as a writer, “School Girls; or, the African Mean Girls Play” (2017), and how it has become one of the most produced plays in the United States during the 2019-20 season, and of course she also discussed her Broadway debut, “Jaja’s African Hair Braiding,” which is currently in previews in a Manhattan Theater Club productions. Her other plays include “Nollywood Dreams” and “Merry Wives,” an adaptation of “The Merry Wives of Windsor” that Peter described as “a garden of earthly delights.”
Jocelyn talked us through her upbringing in New York City, her West African heritage, how and why she has combined writing and acting — the latter providing a key connection when she appeared in the Soho Rep production of Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’s “An Octoroon,” in 2014. She also talks about using comedy as a genre and what expectations are placed on her as a Black woman in the theater. Considering those topics, Elisabeth brought up one of her favorite movies about theater, Radha Blank’s “The 40-Year-Old Version.”
We were lucky that Jocelyn found the time to drop by our virtual studio in between working on “Jaja” previews. Enjoy!
Thanks to Christian Huygen for our theme music.
A chat with Jocelyn Bioh