Introducing Zharia O’Neal, our 2023 Playwright Resident!

[Image description: headshot image of Zharia, a Black woman with cropped hair wearing glasses with dark green frames, a cream-colored turtleneck, and a smile. End description.]

Back in October, Sound Theatre Company had the pleasure of announcing our first-ever William S. Yellow Robe Jr. Playwright Resident, Zharia O’Neal. Ahead of the upcoming “Meet the Playwrights” even on Sunday, December 18th, we’d love to take a moment to spotlight her and bring more insight into the art she’ll be bringing next year to our community, Seattle, and the world at large.

Playwriting entered Zharia’s life “by complete accident” her sophomore year of undergrad. In the wake of cancelled classes, she took her first playwriting course and found herself “hooked on speaking in a million voices. On figuring out questions of my identity, collective memory, of chosen and unchosen family through a specifically Afro-Caribbean lens, and more.”

Through her residency, Zharia will be continuing her work on Roost, a play which will unpack Black women in reality television and the complexities of their representation in media, the ways in which they’re consumed by audiences, respectability politics, and the dangers of hotep-ery. “I’m trying to do this in a darkly comic way, and create some moments through the experience of the play that feel redemptive to the Black women in the room, both on stage and witnessing,” she says.

“Sound Theatre is one of the first theaters that I’ve witnessed weave accessibility and intersectionality into everything they do—from discussions about access needs during the interview process, the cultural humility training, to the thoughtful way in which this residency is structured. Already, there’s so much willingness to welcome me. And I’m so excited to teach! The educational arm of this residency demonstrates a real investment in access to art,” she explains. “Being able to pass it on and pay it forward while I’m there makes my heart full.”

Additional events relating to the residency will include a playwriting course for students from undeserved communities, taught by Zharia starting this coming January and culminating in a 10-minute play festival, as well as a public staged reading of Roost in March. There will be both Zoom and in-person events within Seattle to take part in.

We’re absolutely thrilled to have her on the lineup of artists whose stories we have the honor of presenting to you in the new year! You can catch Zharia, along with fellow 2023 season playwrights Nikki Yeboah (11th & Pine—working title) and Aimee Chou (Autocorrect Thinks I’m Dead), during our digital “Meet the Playwrights” event and follow-up discussion moderated by Valerie Curtis Newton this Sunday. Tickets and more information can be found at the event’s Facebook page.