Dael Orlandersmith

1959

New York, United States

In the early 1990s, Dael Orlandersmith became reacquainted with the Nuyorican group as a poet-performer, toured with them in Europe and Australia, and began landing small acting jobs. She even appeared in an episode of Spin City, but it was sometimes suggested to the statuesque Orlandersmith that she lose some weight, and so she eventually turned her energies to playwriting full-time. Her first finished play was for her Manhattan Class Company and titled Liar Liar. Orlandersmith's playwriting skills were honed at the Sundance Theatre Laboratory in Salt Lake City, Utah, established by actor-director Robert Redford. She finished and starred in the play Beauty's Daughter in 1995, whose story centered on the challenges that a young woman from Harlem meets in life, beginning at a young age in the home of her alcoholic mother. Her next play, The Gimmick, was commissioned by the McCarter Theatre in Princeton, New Jersey, and staged at the Long Wharf Theater in New Haven, Connecticut, in 1998; it also ran at the New York Theater Workshop the following year. The Gimmick was a one-person show that starred Orlandersmith as Alexis, who recounts a life in Harlem beginning in 1968 when Alexis is eight years old and befriends Jimmy. Both dream of artistic careers and life in Paris; Alexis longs to write and Jimmy grows up to enjoy some brief success as a painter. The "gimmick" of the title is the constant lure of drugs, sex, and easy money that bring so many around them - including their own parents - down back to the street level, despite their innate talents. Telling her story in flashback, Alexis pays tribute to the librarian she met in her youth that instilled in her the love of reading and sadly recalls the fleeting fame Jimmy achieved as a painter until his death from drugs supplied by his father. Orlandersmith's next solo show, Monster, enjoyed a successful run at A Contemporary Theatre (ACT) in Seattle. She played nine characters in the life of a young woman in Harlem, Theresa. The title refers to the longtime family home in Harlem, from whose window one day Theresa spies a mother beating a child on street. She runs out and attacks the mother, but realizes she is simply perpetuating the cycle of family abuse that has occurred over three generations in her "monstrous" house, which she then resolves to sell and rid herself of forever. Orlandersmith’s next work, Yellowman, was the first to have been written with more than one character. It was also commissioned by the McCarter Theatre and staged in Princeton in early 2002. After critically acclaimed runs in New Haven, Philadelphia, and Seattle, the Manhattan Theater Club beat out two other off-Broadway venues that had been vying to stage its New York premiere. Both Parks and Orlandersmith are often mentioned in discussions about a new generation of African American women writing for the stage, along with Kia Corthron (Breath, Boom) and Oni Faida Lampley (The Dark Kalamazoo). Orlandersmith took the Alma role in Yellowman opposite Howard W. Overshown as Eugene, and critics commended both her stage presence and her playwriting skills. Orlandersmith began writing her next work, tentatively titled Raw Boys, while Yellowman was still enjoying its successful run. Its story centered around two warring Irish men - one Catholic, one Protestant. Orlandersmith said it was a theme she was drawn to after spending time in Scotland and Ireland, where her plays have been well received. She was also working on a novel and is impatient to move forward from journalists’ questions about the nature of her work. Orlandersmith's plays have been published in a book by Vintage. Beauty's Daughter, Monster, The Gimmick: Three Plays, appeared in 2000, and in 2002 Yellow-man and My Red Hand, My Black Hand - the latter work for three characters - appeared in print. An ardent fan of music in all forms, Orlandersmith continues to live in New York City and is a well-known figure in the downtown art scene with her six-foot frame and multi-colored, sometimes platinum-blond dreadlocks. She admits that her plays are not to everyone's liking, and have been met with a somewhat cool reception by the African-American cultural establishment. Pulling from extensive interviews with Missouri residents, Orlandersmith wrote Until the Flood, a play chronicling the social uprising following the shooting of teenager Michael Brown, and performed it solo to rave reviews at the St. Louis Repertory Theatre in 2016. Her most recent work, Lady in Denmark (2018), is a passionate meditation on life, love, and marriage that tells the story of a Danish-American woman who finds solace and connection through the music of Billie Holiday.

Dael Orlandersmith Edit Profile

also known as Donna Dael Theresa Orlander Smith Brown

playwright actress poet

Background

Dael Orlandersmith was born Donna Dael Theresa Orlander Smith Brown in 1959, in New York, United States. She grew up in public housing in New York's rough East Harlem neighborhood. Her father died when she was young.

Education

Dael's mother sent her to a Roman Catholic parochial school, despite the hardship the expense brought on the household. An encouraging teacher suggested that Orlandersmith take acting classes, and for a time she was involved with the Nuyorican Poets Cafe in her teens. As a young woman, she enrolled in Hunter College and settled in New York's East Village in the 1980s. When she returned to acting classes after leaving Hunter, she began writing her own dramatic scenes for performance assignments, and her classmates often asked her who had written them. Dael also studied drama at HB Studio in Greenwich Village in New York City.

Career

In the early 1990s, Dael Orlandersmith became reacquainted with the Nuyorican group as a poet-performer, toured with them in Europe and Australia, and began landing small acting jobs. She even appeared in an episode of Spin City, but it was sometimes suggested to the statuesque Orlandersmith that she lose some weight, and so she eventually turned her energies to playwriting full-time. Her first finished play was for her Manhattan Class Company and titled Liar Liar.

Orlandersmith's playwriting skills were honed at the Sundance Theatre Laboratory in Salt Lake City, Utah, established by actor-director Robert Redford. She finished and starred in the play Beauty's Daughter in 1995, whose story centered on the challenges that a young woman from Harlem meets in life, beginning at a young age in the home of her alcoholic mother. Her next play, The Gimmick, was commissioned by the McCarter Theatre in Princeton, New Jersey, and staged at the Long Wharf Theater in New Haven, Connecticut, in 1998; it also ran at the New York Theater Workshop the following year.

The Gimmick was a one-person show that starred Orlandersmith as Alexis, who recounts a life in Harlem beginning in 1968 when Alexis is eight years old and befriends Jimmy. Both dream of artistic careers and life in Paris; Alexis longs to write and Jimmy grows up to enjoy some brief success as a painter. The "gimmick" of the title is the constant lure of drugs, sex, and easy money that bring so many around them - including their own parents - down back to the street level, despite their innate talents. Telling her story in flashback, Alexis pays tribute to the librarian she met in her youth that instilled in her the love of reading and sadly recalls the fleeting fame Jimmy achieved as a painter until his death from drugs supplied by his father.

Orlandersmith's next solo show, Monster, enjoyed a successful run at A Contemporary Theatre (ACT) in Seattle. She played nine characters in the life of a young woman in Harlem, Theresa. The title refers to the longtime family home in Harlem, from whose window one day Theresa spies a mother beating a child on street. She runs out and attacks the mother, but realizes she is simply perpetuating the cycle of family abuse that has occurred over three generations in her "monstrous" house, which she then resolves to sell and rid herself of forever.

Orlandersmith’s next work, Yellowman, was the first to have been written with more than one character. It was also commissioned by the McCarter Theatre and staged in Princeton in early 2002. After critically acclaimed runs in New Haven, Philadelphia, and Seattle, the Manhattan Theater Club beat out two other off-Broadway venues that had been vying to stage its New York premiere. Both Parks and Orlandersmith are often mentioned in discussions about a new generation of African American women writing for the stage, along with Kia Corthron (Breath, Boom) and Oni Faida Lampley (The Dark Kalamazoo).

Orlandersmith took the Alma role in Yellowman opposite Howard W. Overshown as Eugene, and critics commended both her stage presence and her playwriting skills.

Orlandersmith began writing her next work, tentatively titled Raw Boys, while Yellowman was still enjoying its successful run. Its story centered around two warring Irish men - one Catholic, one Protestant. Orlandersmith said it was a theme she was drawn to after spending time in Scotland and Ireland, where her plays have been well received. She was also working on a novel and is impatient to move forward from journalists’ questions about the nature of her work.

Orlandersmith's plays have been published in a book by Vintage. Beauty's Daughter, Monster, The Gimmick: Three Plays, appeared in 2000, and in 2002 Yellow-man and My Red Hand, My Black Hand - the latter work for three characters - appeared in print. An ardent fan of music in all forms, Orlandersmith continues to live in New York City and is a well-known figure in the downtown art scene with her six-foot frame and multi-colored, sometimes platinum-blond dreadlocks. She admits that her plays are not to everyone's liking, and have been met with a somewhat cool reception by the African-American cultural establishment.

Pulling from extensive interviews with Missouri residents, Orlandersmith wrote Until the Flood, a play chronicling the social uprising following the shooting of teenager Michael Brown, and performed it solo to rave reviews at the St. Louis Repertory Theatre in 2016.

Her most recent work, Lady in Denmark (2018), is a passionate meditation on life, love, and marriage that tells the story of a Danish-American woman who finds solace and connection through the music of Billie Holiday.

Achievements

Dael Orlandersmith is a celebrated playwright and actress whose solo and multi-character plays have received great acclaim. She was a Pulitzer Prize finalist and nominated for a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Play and Outstanding Actress in a Play in 2002 for Yellowman. Her play The Gimmick won the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize in 1999. She has also toured extensively with Nuyorican Poets Café (Real Live Poetry).

In addition to her Pulitzer Prize nomination, Orlandersmith has been recognized with many awards and prizes, including the Flora Roberts Award, a New York Foundation for the Arts Grant, the Helen Merrill Award for Emerging Playwrights, a nomination for an Off-Broadway Alliance Award - Best Solo Performance 2015, a nomination for Joseph Jefferson Equity Awards - Solo Performance 2013, the 2005 PEN/Laura Pels Foundation Award, the Lucille Lortel Foundation Playwrights Fellowship and an Obie Award for Beauty's Daughter.

Works

$Beauty\'s Daughter, Monster, The Gimmick: Three Plays Beauty\'s Daughter, Monster, The Gimmick: Three Plays$ Yellowman: and My Red Hand, My Black Hand Yellowman: and My Red Hand, My Black Hand

Yellowman: and My Red Hand, My Black Hand Yellowman: and My Red Hand, My Black Hand

The Gimmick and Other Plays The Gimmick and Other Plays

$Black n Blue Boys\/Broken Men Black n Blue Boys\/Broken Men$ Forever Forever

book
- Yellowman: and My Red Hand, My Black Hand
  (These two raucously acclaimed new plays by Dael Orlanders...)
  2002
- Beauty's Daughter, Monster, The Gimmick: Three Plays
  (The sheer exuberance of language that pours forth in Dael...)
  2000
- Black n Blue Boys/Broken Men
  (Bold, beautiful, and fierce-Dael Orlandersmith delivers a...)
  2013
- Until the Flood 2018
- Forever 2015
- Stoop Stories 2011
- The Gimmick and Other Plays 2003
- Yellowman 2002
- Horsedreams 2012
movie
- Amateur
  (An ex-nun who writes pornographic short stories crosses p...)
  1994
- Get Well Soon
  (He left her for fame.. but wants her back. She still love...)
  2001

Religion

Dael is a member of the Roman Catholic church.

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