National Playwrights Conference - Hurt People

BY LADARRION WILLIAMS

Reunited for their high school reunion, childhood friends Marcel and Brandon confront the old wounds and buried secrets that led to their present estrangement. A tenderhearted coming-of-age that embraces the art of Black masculinity.

Hailing from the small town of Helena, Alabama, LaDarrion Williams is a self-taught playwright, filmmaker, author, and screenwriter. His goal is to cultivate a new era of Black fantasy, providing space and agency for Black characters and stories in a new, fresh, and fantastical way. Plays include: Katrina, winner of the Alabama State Thespian Conference; Black Creek Risin', developed with the Great Plains Theatre Commons; Coco Queens, 2019 Sundance Institute's Playwriting Intensive, upcoming world premiere at Playhouse on the Square in July 2024; Boulevard of Bold Dreams, Jeff Award nomination, developed at the New Works Festival at Morgan-Wixson Theatre, world premiere at TimeLine Theatre Company, East Coast premiere at Greater Boston Stage, upcoming productions nationwide in 2024-25. LaDarrion is a two-time Finalist for National Black Theatre's I AM SOUL Playwriting Fellowship, the David Ross Fetzer Foundation for Emerging Artist Theatre Grant, and the American Blues 2023 Blue Ink Award. He is an alum of Echo Theatre's Playwrights Lab and the Boise Contemporary Theater's BIPOC Playwrights Festival. Also a debut author, LaDarrion's first novel, Blood at the Root, was released in May 2024.

Location: Dina Merrill Theater - indoors.

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