Under the title Young Griots: New Works for the Stage, the Chadwick A. Boseman College of Fine Arts Department of Theatre Arts at Howard University showcased works from four students in its Playwrights minor program. The production, directed by Professor Denise J. Hart, was performed October 9 through 11, 2025.
All times can be said to be difficult in some ways, but in the face of our current difficult times, Young Griots: New Works for the Stage offered visions of a way forward. As I watched and absorbed the efforts of these young playwrights at the beginning of their journeys, I felt a sense of hope that continued to grow as each successive play unfolded.
Each play in the showcase explored a different topic. In 5 Minutes by Essence Jackson (senior, TV and Film major), a young woman finds that she cannot — and does not want to — continue her alcohol binge-inducing relationship with a young man from whom she receives neither support nor affirmation. In Echo Chamber by Kevoy Somerville (junior, Acting major), a young wife and mother feels unseen by her video-game-playing husband — even in their own home. In Incline, by Joycelyn Sophia Jackson (senior, TV and Film major), a sister and her older guardian/brother retrace the obstacles their deceased mother placed in their relationship to each other. In Two Sides to Black by Efeoghene Rhonor (senior Musical Theatre major), the male head-of-household announces, “I don’t fuck with Africans,” just before the couple’s African immigrant friends arrive for game night. The play is a topical drama in the vein of Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, but here, Black American and African friends confront the divisions and misunderstandings that continue to separate them.
The entire cast, Ramere Kelly, Mahlet Gebreyesus, Tyler T Lang, Skylar Jade, Kameron Outland, Niani Braxton, and Cody Holmes, was urgent: embedded and focused on the relationships in the plays rather than the audience. Despite the fact that they were surrounded by audience members on all sides, psychologically, this was very fourth-wall-contained. In other words, the performers were fully immersed in the worlds of the stories they were telling. It was a no-frills (essential) production that moved cleanly and decisively from moment to moment and scene to scene. All except one actor played double roles.
“Give us more to see,” implores one of the characters in Stephen Sondheim’s Sunday in the Park with George. The playwrights showcased in Young Griots did just that. And that’s an encouraging sign for the future of American storytelling.’
