Plenary Speakers

PLENARY #1

ERIKA DICKERSON-DESPENZA is a Blk, queer feminist poet-playwright and cultural-memory worker from Chicago, Illinois. Awards include Susan Smith Blackburn Prize Finalist (2021), Laurents/Hatcher Foundation Award (2020), Thom Thomas Award (2020), Lilly Award (2020), Barrie and Bernice Stavis Award (2020), Grist 50 Fixer (2020), and Princess Grace Playwriting Award (2019). Residencies and fellowships include Tow Playwright-in-Residence at The Public Theater (2019-2020), U.S. Water Alliance National Arts & Culture Delegate (2019), New York Stage and Film Fellow-in-Residence (2019), New Harmony Project Writer-in Residence (2019), Dramatists Guild Foundation Fellow (2018-2019), and The Lark Van Lier New Voices Fellow (2018). Communities include BYP100 Squad Member, Ars Nova Play Group (2019-2021), and Youngblood Collective (EST). Commissions include The Public Theater, Studio Theatre, and Williamstown Theatre Festival. Productions include cullud wattah (originally slated at The Public Theater, 2020; Victory Gardens Theater, 2021), and [HIEROGLYPH] (San Francisco Playhouse, 2021).

PLENARY #2

JAMES IJAMES is a 2022 Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright, director, and educator.

James’ plays have been produced by Flashpoint Theater Company, Orbiter 3, Theatre Horizon, Wilma Theatre, Theatre Exile, Azuka Theatre (Philadelphia, PA), The National Black Theatre, JACK, The Public Theater (NYC), Hudson Valley Shakespeare Theater, Steppenwolf Theatre, Definition Theatre, Timeline Theater (Chicago IL) Shotgun Players (Berkeley, CA) and have received development with PlayPenn New Play Conference, The Lark, Playwright's Horizon, Clubbed Thumb, Villanova Theater, Wilma Theater, Azuka Theatre, and Victory Garden.

James is the 2011 F. Otto Haas Award for an Emerging Artist recipient, and two Barrymore Awards for Outstanding Direction of a Play for THE BROTHERS SIZE with Simpatico Theatre Company and GEM OF THE OCEAN with Arden Theatre. James is a 2015 Pew Fellow for Playwriting, the 2015 winner of the Terrance McNally New Play Award for WHITE, the 2015 Kesselring Honorable Mention Prize winner for ....MIZ MARTHA, a 2017 recipient of the Whiting Award, a 2019 Kesselring Prize for KILL MOVE PARADISE, a 2020 and 2022 Steinberg Prize and the 2022 Pulitzer Prize in Drama recipient.

James was a founding member of Orbiter 3, Philadelphia’s first playwright-producing collective.

He received a B.A. in Drama from Morehouse College in Atlanta, GA, and an M.F.A. in Acting from Temple University in Philadelphia, PA. James an Associate Professor of Theatre at Villanova University. He resides in South Philadelphia.