The Global Voices Podcast – Behind the Plays, Beyond the Stage (S1)

Abigail Sewell is a theatre and film director. She is Co-Founder and Artistic Director of Uproot, a socially driven, cross-arts production company with the mission of supporting Black artists.

Abigail’s work is motivated by the transformative power of storytelling, and engages with themes of race, gender, class and sexuality, championing untold narratives from underrepresented voices. She specialises in working with young people, be it in educational settings as a director, or with marginalised community groups as a drama facilitator.

Abigail is an Associate Artist at National Youth Theatre, an Associate Learning Practitioner at Royal Shakespeare Company and a Trustee at Young Vic and Represent Theatre.

Koleka Putuma is an award-winning poet, playwright and theatre director. Her theatre works include UHM (2014) Woza Sarafina (2016), and Mbuzeni (2017/8). She is a Forbes Africa Under 30 Honoree, recipient of the Imbewu Trust Scribe Playwriting Award, Mbokodo Rising Light award, CASA playwriting award and 2019 Distell Playwriting Award for her play No Easter Sunday for Queers, published by Junkets in 2020. ​Koleka is the Founder and Director of Manyano Media, a multidisciplinary creative company that produces and champions the work and stories of black queer artists and queer life. 

Lisa Langford is a Cleveland-based playwright and actor. Her play Rastus and Hattie was a Joyce Award winner; a National Playwrights Conference finalist; and was published by New Stage Press. Lisa’s other plays include How Blood Go, selected for the August Wilson New Play Initiative reading series at the Congo Square Theatre and Global Black Voices at the Roundhouse; The Art of Longing, a Leslie Scalapino Award finalist; The Bomb, published in Black Lives/Black Words; and Revolt. Ing, part of the I Am…Festival at Goodman Theatre. Lisa received commissions from the Cleveland Playhouse, the College of Wooster and others, and is a recipient of the Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Award.

Maxwell Odoi-Yeboah is a part-time lecturer at the Communication Unit of Pentecost University, Ghana, and serves as the resident writer for the Global Arts and Development Centre (GADEC). Over the years, Maxwell has written a number of plays and had a couple of them produced on stage. Notable among his plays are I’m so Happy I could just SHIT!, Sorry Ever After, Masking the King, I Love Him but… among others. His interest lies in using his plays to engage social issues in plays in order to entertain, educate, inform as well as spur readers/audience into action.

Shayera Dark is a writer. Her fiction and non fiction work have appeared in various publications that include Refinery29, Johannesburg Review of Books, Aljazeera, AFREADA and Quartz. Her play, The Preacher’s Wife, was one of several selected by Global Voices Theatre in 2019 for a reading at the Roundhouse in London.

Named “Someone to Watch” by American Theatre magazine, France-Luce Benson’s play Talking Peace topped the list of most impactful plays in ATLA’S Together L.A. Festival 2020. Tigress of San Domingue was featured in Atlantic Theatre Company’s African Caribbean Mixfest 2021, and Anjelique is currently running in Juggerknot/Popup Theatre’s Long Distance Affair event. Honours include: Dramatist Guild Fellow, Zoetrope Grand Prize, Samuel French OOB Festival Winner, Bay Area Playwrights Festival finalist. Productions and workshops at Ensemble Studio Theatre New York, Crossroads Theatre, New Black Fest, City Theatre Miami, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and The Playwrights Center. Publications: Samuel French; Routledge Press, DPS.

Africa Ukoh is a playwright, screenwriter, and theatre director. He tells stories to global audiences through a uniquely African voice. His play 54 Silhouettes has won multiple awards such as the BBC African Performance prize and the Best International Show award at New York’s United Solo Theatre Festival. It has received a showcase performance by Global Voices Theatre at London’s Roundhouse and a staged reading at Canada’s Belfry Theatre as part of the Spark Theatre Festival. Africa has worked on two of Nigeria’s most critically acclaimed films which both received world premieres at the Toronto International Film Festival.