BLACK SOCIAL HISTORY : AFRICAN AMERICAN " LYDIA R. DIAMOND " A PLAY WRITER WHOSE PLAYS HAVE HIT BROADWAY A VERY PROLIFIC PLAY WRITER : GOES INTO THE " HALL OF BLACK GENIUS "

                                   BLACK                  SOCIAL                HISTORY                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              

LYDIA R. DIAMOND (Playwright) Broadway debut: Stick Fly (premiered at Congo Square Theatre Company, 2006 Joseph Jefferson Award nomination for Best New Work, 2006 BTAA Award for Best Play). Her plays include Stage Black (premiered at Arts Consortium of Cincinnati, 3rd place Theodore Ward Prize); The Gift Horse (premiered at the Goodman Theatre, 2nd place Kesselring Prize, 1st place Theodore Ward Prize); The Inside, premiered at MPAACT Theatre Company and published in TriQuarterly, where she is a contributing editor; and Voyeurs de Venus, premiered at Chicago Dramatists, 2006 Joseph Jefferson Award for Best New Work, 2006 BTAA Award for Best Writing, commissioned by Steppenwolf Theatre Co. Diamond's adaptation of Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye premiered at Steppenwolf Theatre, won the Black Arts Alliance Image Award for Best New Play and was recently remounted at Steppenwolf and moved to a co-production with New Victory Theatre in New York. The Bluest Eye has also been produced by Theatre Alliance, Washington, D.C.; Playmakers Repertory Co., Chapel Hill, North Carolina; and Plowshares Theatre Company, Detroit, Michigan. The Gift Horse is anthologized in 7 Black Plays, edited by Chuck Smith, Northwestern University Press. Diamond's third Steppenwolf Theatre commission, Harriet, a play based on the life of Harriet Jacobs, was recently workshopped and presented at The Kennedy Center's New Visions/New Voices Festival and at United Kingdom's Old Vic Theatre (New Voices Program). She is currently working on new commissions with The McCarter Theatre Company and Chicago Children's Theatre Company. Diamond holds a bachelor's degree in theater and performance studies from Northwestern University. She taught playwriting at Columbia College Chicago, DePaul University, Loyola University and currently at Boston University. Diamond is a Huntington Playwriting Fellow and a resident playwright at Chicago Dramatists. Diamond is a board member of StageSource, Boston's resource for theatre artists.