Playwright
Daysha is an award-winning playwright whose work centers on exploring the rich history and complexity of the African-American female condition. Her plays primarily feature black people—specifically black women, and her artistic aim is to write plays that center black women and the messy, painful, beautiful complexity that is their existence. She writes to give black women catharsis; to let them be the eye of desire, the messy heroine, the complicated antagonist. She wants to give black female actors a script that they know holds them at the core of the imaginative fabric of the text. Due to her background and passion for psychology, a lot of her work tends to deal with family, memory, legacies, defining success (and at what costs), and how to define your place in the world.
She also has an extensive digital media and spoken word poetry background that appears in her work from time to time. Due to the COVID-19 crisis, she is both nervous and excited by the new theatrical possibilities that might allow her to blend her digital and theatrical backgrounds. (Check out the Experimental section to see how she is dabbling in theatre during quarantine).
Her plays have been staged/workshopped at UC San Diego, UCLA, Meet Cute LA, Celebration Theatre, New York Theatre Workshop (in collaboration with UCLA), IAMA Theatre and PlayGround-LA. She received her MFA in playwriting from UCLA (‘21) and has been commissioned twice by PlayGround-LA.
The zoom rehearsal room for The Write Choice, Daysha’s thesis play done in collaboration with New York Theatre Workshop.
Playwriting accolades
2022
The 2022 Lorraine Hansberry Playwriting Award (1st Place) of The John F. Kennedy Center For The Performing Arts (The Deliverance)
The 2022 Rosa Parks Playwriting Award (1st Place) of The John F. Kennedy Center For The Performing Arts (The Deliverance)
Semi-Finalist for The 2022 Eugene O'Neill Playwright's Conference (The Deliverance)
Semi-Finalist for Playwright's Horizons' Bay Area Playwright's Festival 2022 (The Deliverance)
2021
PlayGround-LA 2021 New Play Commission (Waiting For Umoja)
2021 Top 30 Finalist for Samuel French Off-Off Broadway Short Play Festival (Mother Earth Day)
Semi-Finalist for Playwright's Horizons' Bay Area Playwright's Festival 2021 (The Write Choice)
The 2021 Lorraine Hansberry Playwriting Award (Distinguished Achievement)
of The John F. Kennedy Center For The Performing Arts (The Write Choice)
The 2021 Rosa Parks Playwriting Award (Distinguished Achievement)
of The John F. Kennedy Center For The Performing Arts (The Write Choice)
Best of PlayGround-LA Season 9 Winner (Waiting For Umoja)
2020
People’s Choice Award for PlayGround-LA Monday Night Reading Series December 2020 (Waiting For Umoja)
People’s Choice Award for PlayGround-LA Monday Night Reading Series October 2020 (The Beds We Make)
PlayGround-LA 2020 New Play Commission (Mother Earth Day)
Best of PlayGround-LA Season 8 Winner (Mother Earth Day)
People’s Choice Award Winner for PlayGround-LA & Planet Earth Arts New Play Festival 2020 (Mother Earth Day)
Top 40 Finalist for University of Central Florida’s Pegasus Playlab 2020 (19/20 Vision)
Semi-Finalist for Playwright's Horizons' Bay Area Playwright's Festival 2020 (19/20 Vision)
Pre-2020
Winner of University of California, San Diego (UCSD) Dr. Floyd Gaffney National Award in Playwriting (Sisters/Sistahz)
Finalist for Kentucky Women Writers Conference’s Prize for Women Writers (Sisters/Sistahz)
2x Winner of UCLA's Dini Ostrov Award in Playwriting (Sisters/Sistahz and What Happened To The Taco Truck On Santa Monica and Vine?)
New York Screenplay Contest Grand Prize Winner for Stage Plays (Sisters/Sistahz)
Las Vegas Screenplay Contest Grand Prize Winner for Stage Plays (Sisters/Sistahz)
Official Finalist for Beverly Hills Screenplay Contest for Stage Plays (Sisters/Sistahz)
UCLA's Judith and Milton R. Stark Scholarship recipient for playwriting
UCLA's Beverly Robinson Scholarship recipient for playwriting
FULL LENGTHS
BreathLESS
The Deliverance (adaptation of Mother Earth Day)
19/20 Vision
What Happened To The Taco Truck On Santa Monica and Vine?
Sisters/Sistahz
10-MIN
Waiting For Umoja
The Beds We Make
Mother Earth Day
Legacy
Olivia’s Last Night In Venice
Farewell Dad
What Did You See?
Love In The Time Of Covid
The Hand Of God
EXPERIMENTAL
Leftover Woman
Plays
To read or learn more about Daysha’s plays, please check out her New Play Exchange profile to download.