Dominique Morisseau is an American playwright and actress from Detroit, Michigan. She has authored over nine plays, three of which are part of a cycle titled The Detroit Projects. She is a recipient of the MacArthur Foundation "Genius Grant" for 2018.
Early life
Morisseau grew up in Detroit, Michigan with her mother and father. Her mother's family is from Mississippi and her father's family is from Haiti. Later, she attended the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor where she received her BFA in Acting in the year 2000. There she met her husband, J. Keys, who is also from Michigan. J. Keys was born in Detroit but grew up in Southfield on the outskirts of the city. He is a music industry promoter, emcee and hip hop musician. The couple married in 2013.
Career
Acting
Morisseau's performance career began as a live poetry speaker, primarily performing for her home town community, Harmonie Park in Detroit. She began her career in the theatre as an actor and received a BFA in Acting from the University of Michigan. After college, she continued acting and worked with several organizations. At the Lark Play Development Center she worked as an actor in a developmental production of The Mountaintop by Katori Hall, workshopping the role of Camae. In 2013, in a production at Actor's Theatre of Louisville, she reprised the role of Camae once more. She continues acting now, but has stated that she would not act in any of her plays' premieres.
Writing
Morisseau began writing plays in college. She has stated that the lack of roles for her at the University of Michigan is what drove her to start writing plays. She wrote The Blackness Blues: Time to Change the Tune, A Sister's Story at this time. After college, in 2012 through 2013, she received a Playwrights of New York fellowship at the Lark Play Development Center. She has also worked as a Teaching Artist with City University of New York's Creative Arts Team. Morisseau has said that music plays a huge part in her work and often informs the work that she is writing. "It's a resource and clue to my work, and music plays a unifier among cultural barriers." Morisseau was on the list of Top 20 Most Produced Playwrights in America in 2015–16, with 10 productions of her plays being produced nationwide. Morisseau is currently a story editor for the television seriesShameless on Showtime and is also credited as a co-producer. She wrote the book for the jukebox musicalAin't Too Proud—The Life and Times of the Temptations, which is directed by Des McAnuff. The musical opened on Broadway at the Imperial Theatre in March 2019. It has played pre-Broadway engagements at the Berkeley Repertory Theatre, the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles, and the Kennedy Center. This marked Morisseau's Broadway debut, and she received a Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical nomination, the first Black woman to do so.
Work
The Detroit Projects
Morisseau has written a 3 play cycle, titled The Detroit Projects. The three plays are:
''Detroit '67''
This play "explores an explosive and decisive moment in a great American city. The play's compelling characters struggle with racial tension and economic instability." It began its development at the Public Theater in New York where it was workshopped. Detroit '67 eventually went on to be featured the Classical Theatre of Harlem with the National Black Theatre. It was nominated for 8 AUDELCO Theatre Awards, and received the 2014 Edward M. Kennedy Prize for Drama Inspired by American History.
''Paradise Blue''
Former musician, Blue, decides to sell his beloved jazz club in order to live out his dreams. He is left with the moral dilemma of leaving his partner, Pumpkin, and his loyal jazz band behind. Morisseau developed this play first at Williamstown Theatre Festival, where it would eventually go on to have its world premiere in July 2015. Paradise Blue continued its development at the McCarter Theatre, New York Theatre Workshop, the Public Theater, and the Signature Theatre Company. For this play, Morisseau received the L. Arnold Weissberger Award in 2012.
''Skeleton Crew''
The final play in the cycle revolves around a group of auto-plant workers, grappling with the likely possibility of foreclosure and impending unemployment. Skeleton Crew received a developmental production at the Lark Play Development Center. Directed by Ruben Santiago-Hudson, this play had its world premiere at the Off-Broadway Linda Gross Theater with the Atlantic Theatre Company in May 2016. Skeleton Crew also won Morisseau the 2016 Obie Award Special Citation for Collaboration along with director Santiago-Hudson and the Atlantic Theater Company. This play won the Edgerton Foundation New Play Award in 2015.
Works
Awards
Morisseau is a recipient of the MacArthur Foundation "Genius Grant" for 2018, which includes a stipend of $625,000. Morisseau was named an Honoree for the Jane Chambers Playwriting Award, which recognizes plays and performance texts created by women that present a feminist perspective and contain significant opportunities for female performers. She is a two time award winner of the NAACP Image Award, which celebrates the outstanding achievements and performances of people of color in the arts, as well as those individuals or groups who promote social justice through their creative endeavors.
