Woke

Woke marks my debut as a playwright, which was produced in 2018 after winning the Essential Theatre Playwriting Contest. It went on to have six more productions on various budgets around the country and was even brought back virtually during quarantine when racial discourse was rampant. Despite the connotative baggage that the title may have now, Woke is actually a hilarious dramedy full of hijinx and heart. Read a free sample!

Synopsis: Two best friends named Jesse Blanche and Adrian Strong are making the rocky transition from high school to college. Jesse is white and Adrian is black, but their different backgrounds have never stopped them from loving each other like family. In fact, Adrian is simply counted as another Blanche family member. However, after the shootings of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile happen within just hours of each other, the ripple effects rock their whole community down to the core of who are—or at least— who they think they are. Through romance, family, and freestyle rap, they all comically struggle to understand what it truly means to be woke.