Jeremy O. Harris Thinks the Theater Industry is 'In a State of Crisis'

The lights of Broadway have been dark for almost a year and Jeremy O. Harris knows it. "The theater industry - like most of the arts - is in a state of crisis," the playwright writes in an opinion piece for The Guardian.

"Americans will want to flock to cinemas, live concerts, plays and musicals and more as soon as the pandemic is over. But if we want there to be a lively arts scene to return to, we must act now. Other countries understand this." he writes. "And America's own history is a reminder of the lengths to which we have gone to protect the arts. We must be just as ambitious now as we were then. Our times require nothing less."

Read Harris' full piece here.

Jeremy O. Harris is a writer and performer living in New York City. His play Slave Play, which closed on Broadway earlier this year, was nominated for a record-breaking twelve Tony Awards.

Slave Play was a New York Times Critic's Pick, winner of the 2018 Kennedy Center Rosa Parks Playwriting Award, the Lorraine Hansberry Playwriting Award, and The Lotos Foundation Prize in the Arts and Sciences. His other plays include: Daddy (Vineyard Theatre/The New Group); Xander Xyst, Dragon: 1; and WATER SPORTS; or insignificant white boys (published by 53rd State Press). His work has been presented or developed by Pieter Performance Space, JACK, Ars Nova, The New Group, New York Theatre Workshop, Performance Space New York, and Playwrights Horizons.

Harris co-wrote A24's Zola with director Janicza Bravo, is developing a pilot at HBO, and worked on their hit new series "Euphoria." He is the 11th recipient of the Vineyard Theatre's Paula Vogel Playwriting Award, a 2016 MacDowell Colony Fellow, an Orchard Project Greenhouse artist, a resident playwright with Colt Coeur, and is under commission from Lincoln Center Theater and Playwrights Horizons. Harris is a graduate of the Yale M.F.A. Playwriting Program.

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