Marcus Gardley
Marcus Gardley is an African American poet, playwright, TV writer, and screenwriter from West Oakland, California. He is currently the co-chair of playwriting at the David Geffen School of Drama at Yale University.
Gardley is among a new group of young African-American playwrights who have come to prominence during the "Age of Obama." He has cited the Harlem art scene as influential to his work, with James Baldwin as a primary inspiration.
The New Yorker described Gardley in 2010 as the "heir to Federico Garcia Lorca, Pirandello and Tennessee Williams."Early life and education
Gardley was born and raised in Oakland, California. The son of a nurse and a minister, he describes growing up in a home surrounded by books, ultimately leading him toward his academic path, at first wanting to become an anesthesiologist. Gardley originally studied and wrote poetry at San Francisco State University, though his poetry professors told him that his poems read like plays. Initially not wanting to admit this, Gardley eventually came around to acknowledge that his poems often did incorporate elements of playwriting. Regarding this time, Gardley later recalled: "What I like about theater is it's like an orchestra. There are these different sounds from different people. I think of my plays as compositions in a way." Gardley earned the SFSU African American Student of Outstanding Achievement Award for 2000–1 and graduated with his B.F.A. He went on to earn his M.F.A. in playwriting from Yale School of Drama in 2004. Upon graduation, Gardley started teaching creative writing at Columbia University.
He was previously a member of New Dramatists, The Dramatists Guild, and the Lark Play Development Center.
In 2013, Gardley began a three-year term as the Playwright in Residence at Victory Gardens Theater, through the National Playwright Residency Program, funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and administered by HowlRound. It was renewed in 2016 for another three years.Theater
Plays
The House that will not Stand
The House ''that will not Stand'' was commissioned by Berkeley Repertory Theatre and Yale Repertory Theatre, and had productions in both spaces in January 2014, directed by Patricia McGregor. It subsequently premiered in London at the Tricycle Theatre in 2014 to rave reviews, a sold-out run, and two extensions, directed by Indhu Rubasingham. It was the most celebrated play in London at the time for a small theater. It then had an Off-Broadway premiere at New York Theatre Workshop in July 2018, directed by Lileana Blain-Cruz. It won the Obie Award in 2019 and the AUDELCO Award for Best Play. The play centers on a Creole woman in the early 1800s who, recently widowed, must contend with the possibility of losing her daughters and her home. Even though she is one of the wealthiest women in New Orleans, she loses the little freedom she has when the United States purchases the Louisiana territories from France. The work utilizes dark humor and stylized melodrama to tell the story of female sexuality agency and race relations.…And Jesus Moonwalks the Mississippi">...And Jesus Moonwalks the Mississippi">…And Jesus Moonwalks the Mississippi
...And Jesus Moonwalks the Mississippi had a workshop production at the Sundance Theater Laboratory in 2006, directed by Matt August. It was then produced at The Cutting Ball Theater in 2010, directed by Amy Mueller, and earned both positive reviews and two sold-out extensions. It was rated as one of the top ten plays in the Bay Area. It had a workshop production at The Public Theater, directed by Robert O'Hara and starring Colman Domingo. The show is a poetic voyage of forgiveness and redemption, highly influenced by the myth of Demeter and Persephone, that encompasses traditional storytelling, gospel music, and humor to create a rich and vividly imaginative world.black odyssey
In 2014, black odyssey was commissioned by the Denver Center Theater Company, where it premiered in 2017, directed by Chay Yew, with musical composition by Jaret Landon. It was revised for production at California Shakespeare Theater, where it was reset in Oakland, directed by Eric Ting, and included new musical composition by Linda Tillery and Molly Holm. The production was so successful it was mounted again the following year. It garnered 11 nominations and seven Theatre Bay Area Awards, including: Outstanding Production, Outstanding Ensemble, Outstanding Male Actor, Outstanding Female Actor, Outstanding Direction, Outstanding Costume Design, and the Creative Specialties Award. The third production took place in Boston as a co-production between The Front Porch Arts Collective & Underground Railway Theater in 2019, directed by Benny Sato Ambush. In 2023, the fourth presentation of the play, directed by Stevie Walker-Webb and with music composition by Linda Tillery and Molly Holm, occurred at Classic Stage Company in New York City. It was revised to take place in Harlem. It was nominated for the 2023 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Adaptation. The next production of the play occurred in Memphis, Tennessee, at the Hattiloo Theatre, directed by Ekundayo Bandele & Maya Robinson. The play is about Ulysses Lincoln, a War veteran lost at sea and presumed dead, fighting to find his way back home to his wife and son. The meddlesome Gods, Deus and Paw Sidin have other plans in mind as they battle for control of Ulysses’ fate.every tongue confess
every tongue confess was commissioned and produced at The Arena Stage in 2011. The first play ever produced in their new theater, the Kogod Cradle, was directed by Kenny Leon and starred Phylicia Rashad. The successful run sold out. The show takes place in Boligee, Alabama, where the temperature is rising, hailstones are falling, ghosts are walking among the living, and someone is setting black churches on fire. As one church burns to the ground, the parishioners trapped inside tell tales spanning generations that may unravel the mystery of who is behind the arsons. It blends lending folklore, magic, and real American history, in an epic fantasia that probes the line between redemption and damnation.The Gospel of Lovingkindness
The Gospel of Lovingkindess was produced in Chicago at Victory Gardens Theater in 2014, directed by Chay Yew. It won Best Play at the African American Arts Alliance of Chicago. It was sold out and extended twice. It had a subsequent production in Washington, D.C. at the Mosaic Theatre in 2015, directed by Jennifer L. Nelson. It is a hymn-and-hip-hop-tinged elegy, set on the South Side of Chicago in a time of rising gun violence in a cosmopolitan, yet divided, city. The play tells the story of Manny, a 17-year-old who sings for President Obama at the White House only to be held up weeks later for his Air Jordan sneakers. Manny's mother retraces the trajectory of her son's fateful encounter with Noel, a fellow teenager with heartbreaking setbacks of his own, as she conjures the ghost of Ida B. Wells, the Civil Rights activist, now 153 years old, who offers a challenging perspective for the family and our community.An Issue of Blood
An Issue of Blood was produced at Victory Gardens Theater in 2015, directed by Chay Yew. It opened to critical acclaim. The show takes place in 1676 in Virginia – a time when class, not color, defined an American’s destiny. Historic figure and wealthy landowner Negro Mary believes a vile curse has been cast upon her family and land. But her plans to break the curse are thwarted by a secret wedding, an interracial love triangle, and a crime of passion.No More Monsters Here
In 2013, Gardley contributed this short play to The New Black Fest as part of a collaborative project titled Facing Our Truth: 10-Minute Plays on Trayvon, Race and Privilege, premiering in New York City. The piece features a black psychiatrist who prescribes that a white woman live as a black man for three days as a cure for her "negroidphobia."On the Levee
On the Levee was produced at Lincoln Center in 2010, directed by Lear deBessonet and with set design by Kara Walker. It was nominated for 11 AUDELCO Awards. Based on a true story, this play with music revisits the Greenville, Mississippi flood of 1927, the worst in U.S. history before Hurricane Katrina. At the heart of the story are two fathers and their sons.the road weeps, the well runs dry
the road weeps, the well runs dry had a national tour in 2012 and 2013, produced by the Lark Play Development Center, with a grant from the Mellon Foundation. The tour started in Juneau, Alaska at the Perseverance Theatre, directed by Aaron Davidman. It was then at the Pilsbury House Theatre, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, directed by Marion McClinton. It then was in Tampa Bay, Florida, at the University of South Florida School of Theater and Dance, directed by Fanni Green. The final production was in Los Angeles at The Los Angeles Theatre Center, directed by Shirley Jo Finney. The play is part of a trilogy about the migration of a mixed tribe of African American and Seminole people in Florida.This World in a Woman’s Hands
This World in a Woman’s Hands was a commission and production made possible by The Wallace Alexander Gerbode Foundation and The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation Emerging Playwrights 2006 initiative, produced in the Bay Area at Shotgun Players, directed by Patrick Dooley and with music composition by Linda Tillery and Molly Holm. It was a critical success. This is a play with music that details women of color building warships in the Richmond Shipyards during WWII.A Thousand Ships
A Thousand Ships was commissioned by the Hewlett Foundation and had its world premiere at Oakland Theater Project. It was directed by Michael Socrates Moran and included an original music composition by Molly Holm. The show is an extraordinary tale of friendship between two black women and their families, from their wartime work in the Oakland shipyards to the fulfillment of a dream: their own hair salon.