Lydia R. Diamond is an American playwright. Her plays include Here I Am...See Can You Handle It, The Inside adapted from the poems of Nikki Giovanni

Nikki Giovanni

Yolande Cornelia "Nikki" Giovanni is an American poet, writer, commentator, activist, and educator. Her primary focus is on the individual and the power one has to make a difference in oneself and in the lives of others. Giovanni’s poetry expresses strong racial pride, respect for family, and her...

, Stage Black, The Gift Horse, Stick Fly, Voyeurs de Venus, The Bluest Eye

The Bluest Eye

The Bluest Eye is a 1970 novel by American author Toni Morrison. It is Morrison's first novel, written while Morrison was teaching at Howard University and was raising her two sons on her own. The story is about a year in the life of a young black girl in Lorain, Ohio, named Pecola...

, an adaptation from Toni Morrison

Toni Morrison

Toni Morrison is a Nobel Prize and Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist, editor, and professor. Her novels are known for their epic themes, vivid dialogue, and richly detailed characters. Among her best known novels are The Bluest Eye, Song of Solomon and Beloved...

's novel and Harriet Jacobs' Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl

Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl

Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl is a book that was published in 1861 by Harriet Jacobs, using the pen name "Linda Brent". While on one level it chronicles the experiences of Harriet Jacobs as a slave, and the various humiliations she had to endure in that unhappy state, it also deals with...

(work-in-progress). Her play Stick Fly will be produced on Broadway

Broadway theatre

Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...

 at the Cort Theatre

Cort Theatre

The Cort Theatre is a legitimate Broadway theatre located at 138 West 48th Street in the Theatre District of midtown Manhattan in New York City...

 on November 18, 2011. The producers include musician Alicia Keys

Alicia Keys

Alicia Augello Cook , better known by her stage name Alicia Keys, is an American singer-songwriter, record producer, and occasional actress. She was raised by a single mother in the Hell's Kitchen area of Manhattan in New York City. At age seven, Keys began playing the piano...

, filmmaker Rueben Cannon and legendary Broadway producer Nelle Nugent

Nelle Nugent

Nelle Nugent is an independent Broadway producer of the late 20th and early 21st centuries. She has won numerous awards including the Tony Award. She has overseen productions such as Amadeus, Morning's at Seven, The Elephant Man, The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, and Dracula...

.
She holds a B.A. in Theatre and Performance Studies from Northwestern University

Northwestern University

Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston and Chicago, Illinois, USA. Northwestern has eleven undergraduate, graduate, and professional schools offering 124 undergraduate degrees and 145 graduate and professional degrees....

 and has taught at Loyola University, Columbia College, Boston University

Boston University

Boston University is a private research university located in Boston, Massachusetts. With more than 4,000 faculty members and more than 31,000 students, Boston University is one of the largest private universities in the United States and one of Boston's largest employers...

 and with Chicago Dramatists Outreach Program.

Recently Voyeurs de Venus won a Joseph Jefferson

Joseph Jefferson

Joseph Jefferson, commonly known as Joe Jefferson , was an American actor. He was the third actor of this name in a family of actors and managers, and one of the most famous of all American comedians....

Award for Best New Work.