In honor of Black History Month, Ms. Yarborough shares one of her favorite reads of 2025:
“One of Ms. Rettig’s and my favorite reads of 2025 was Lynn Nottage’s Clyde’s, a play about sandwiches and second chances that could only have been better if we saw it performed live. We’re not the only ones who loved this play, either. Post-pandemic, American Theatre magazine finally returned to reporting the “most-produced play” of the season in 2022-2023, when Clyde’s was recorded as the most-produced play and Nottage as the most-produced playwright (sharing the spotlight with Lauren Gunderson). Perhaps, with people returning to their everyday lives after the pandemic, theaters thought audiences could well empathize with the ensemble cast, a kitchen-full of ex-cons who, under the tutelage of sandwich guru, Montrellous, aspire to more than the line at a struggling truck-stop diner. Still, despite the kitchen crew’s personal growth within the confines of the sandwich shop, they struggle to fully reenter society and feel hope for themselves and their futures.
Like many Black American playwrights before her–Alice Childress, Adrienne Kennedy, Anna Deavere Smith, August Wilson – Nottage captured an audience and a moment with her writing, engaging playgoers in social commentary and offering them a window into a world they recognize, but perhaps haven’t visited themselves. In honor of this fantastic play and Black History Month, here are a collection of reads from Black American playwrights!
You may also use the school’s subscription to DigitalTheatre+ to listen to LA Theater Works’ audio productions of other plays by Lynn Nottage or watch the Lincoln Center’s 2019 production of Dominique Morisseau’s Pipeline.
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