Ang Bey
(they/them/theirs)
Performer | Playwright | Producer | Director | Teaching Artist
"Societies never know it, but the war of an artist with his society is a lover’s war, and he does, at his best, what lovers do, which is to reveal the beloved to himself and, with that revelation, to make freedom real."
-James Baldwin, "The Creative Process"
[abridged] mission
"I am a Black, Queer artist from Southwest Philadelphia. I am committed to the transformative power of storytelling. Provocation with purpose makes for dynamic, socially conscious, and challenging work. I create to ignite decolonization and radical healing within myself & within the world. It is our divine duty to strive for the Utopia we may not live to see."
Click here to read my viral Facebook post about white "allyship". Formal publishing with Power Street Theatre coming soon.
Click here to listen to a three-part podcast I recorded with The Eagle Theatre discussing Blackness in the performing arts.
Click here to watch my interview with Ryan Rebel for Venice Island at a Distance discussing racism in theatre.
[selected] credits
[co-artistic director of Shoe Box Theatre Collective]
[co-creative director of the new Wings of Paper Theatre Company]
[member of Jouska Playworks]
[member of Director's Gathering]
[admin]: Freelance teaching artist; 2019/20 Season Apprentice at Theatre Horizon
[stage]: Candles (Philadelphia Young Playwrights); Our Ouija Board… (On the Rocks); Twelfth Night (Shakespeare in Clark Park) upcoming:, Lilith & Her Demons (Apartment20),The American Revolution (Theatre Unspeakable), The Niceties (InterAct Theatre Company)
[film]: Sundance Directors Lab Actors Ensemble 2017; LP (AE Film; Carl Lerner Award, Best Student Film Nominee at Bronzelens & Woodstock Film Festivals); Georgie (dir. Lars Keer); Bracelet (dir. John Deswert)
[playwriting]: Everyman ( & co-directing; Shakespeare in Clark Park); The Medusa Play ( Shoe Box Theatre Collective); Peter Pan and Other Men (Apartment20: Ghost Stories 24 Hour Theatre Festival); The White Feather Project (Upstream Performance Collaborative);Com[promising] Future (National Constitution Center); Pedestals (Philadelphia Young Playwrights); Jouska Play Works Inaugural Member (Simpatico Theatre Company) upcoming: virtual presentations of Twenty-Six (Jouska PlayWorks) & Walk the Line (Philadelphia Women’s Theatre Festival).
Contact:
Artistic resume download here. Arts administration resume download here.
Upcoming
"All of the actors put in strong performances, but Bey is the strongest, their soulful eyes and magnetic voice making it clear why director Bi Jean Ngo would have wanted such a performer in so central a role. But just as Bey is able to break your heart with a single glance, the rest of the cast shows the hard work of mending after a tragedy."
-Jillian Ashley Blair Ivey, Broad Street Review of Candles
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Playwriting
COMPLETED
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The Medusa Play (Full-Length; Themes of Racial Injustice; WORLD PREMIERE @ Shoe Box Theatre Collective- Barrymore Recommended Production)
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Who is the black artist? Who is Medusa?
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The White Feather Project @ Ursinus College (Director and Playwright)
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The White Feather Project is a theatre piece devised from interviews of the Ursinus community concerning cowardice under racial stress. Accompanying the final performances and script, a website including a reading list, video diaries (of the process), and original blog posts will be available for public and academic use long after the project’s completion.
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Com[promising] Freedom (One- Act; Historical Fiction; Produced @ The National Constitution Center
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"What will we do with all this freedom?"- Elizabeth Powell and her peers ask themselves this question in studying for their final history exam about The Declaration of Independence.
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Pedestals (Monologue; Themes of Racial Injustice; Produced @ Interact Theater Company)
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After assaulting a peer due to a racially charged incident, an African-American star student is confronted by her principal and her future
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The Playground (Full-length; Themes of Mental Health; How I Learned to Write Festival & produced @ Ursinus College)
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High school senior Grey Bowman tries to reorient himself after a severe trauma involving himself and a childhood best friend.
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Editorial for Grid Magazine about my experience as a young artist of color.
IN-DEVELOPMENT
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The Pageant Wagon: Everyman- a devised, socially-distant, live adaptation of Everyman with contemporary emphasis on Black liberation.
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Twenty-Six (Full-Length)
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154 Revisited with Revolution Shakespeare (Adapting sonnets 46, 85, & 98)
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Walk the Line (One-Act)- Auburn.1938. A bopping night at The Top Hat Club turns to a fever-dream more fierce than an Atlanta afternoon. The lynching of Lacy Mitchell was only a weekend ago. Grieving cousin and nightclub singer, Ida, seeks retribution and has a plan. Afraid for their lives, Ida’s lover and confidant-- high-yellow, gender-bending Mae-- will do anything to stop her. Loosely based on the irreplaceable suffragists Angelina Welde Grimke and Ida B. Wells.
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The Utopia Project- a devised, multimedia performance piece/time capsule//machine with the Upper School students of Friends Select.
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The Treehouse (Full-Length)- "I want to build a world Black dads don't get lost in..."
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Rice & Em Fight a Lion (Full-Length)
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On-going, world-building exercise exploring the intersections of (non-binary) gender and race in the digital age.
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For more information (commissions, writing samples, inquiries), please email
Directing and Producing
COMPLETED
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The Medusa Play by Ang Bey @ Shoe Box Theatre Collective (New Work) [Co-Director with Ryan Rebel & Playwright]
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The White Feather Project @ Ursinus College & Shoe Box Short Theatre Festival (New Work; Devised) [Co-Devised/Directed with Rachel Ceciro, Playwright, & Producer]
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Twenty-Six by Ang Bey @ Ursinus College (New Work) [Director & Playwright]
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Little Dancer by Ang Bey @ Ursinus College (New Work) [Director & Playwright]
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The Medusa Play by Ang Bey @ Ursinus College & AAI (Workshop Readings) [Director, Producer, & Playwright]
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Daffodil by Arthur Robinson @ Ursinus College (New Work) [Director]
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The Playground by Ang Bey @ Ursinus College (New Work; Workshop Reading) [Director & Playwright]
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8 the Play by Dustin Lance Black @ Friends Select School (Staged Reading) [Director]
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High School Daze! by Ang Bey @ Friends Select School (New Work) [Co-Director with Jenny Hayden & Producer]
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Dracula by Paul Olsen @ Friends Select School [Director & Producer]
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The Guardian by Ang Bey @ Episcopal Academy Play Slam [Director]
UPCOMING
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The Pageant Wagon: Everyman- co-directing with Kittson O'Neill and produced by SCP.
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The Utopia Project- a devised, multimedia performance piece/time capsule//machine with the Upper School students of Friends Select.
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Mt. Vernon Park Play- Assistant-directing Nell Bang-Jensen on James IJames's new play for Shakespeare in Clark Park's Park Plays series. Postponed due to COVID-19
The Medusa Play
Academic Premiere at Ursinus College in Spring of 2019 (Directed by Tamanya Garza)
BARRYMORE RECOMMENDED World Premiere with Shoe Box Theatre Collective at Venice Island Performing Arts Center November 15th though 27th (Co-Directed by Ang Bey & Ryan Rebel)
Click here to read my director/playwright's note.
(Photography by Christian Hayden from World Premiere featuring cast members Taylor Cawley, Briyana D. Clarel, Bryce Menard, Terriny Morrison, & William Morrison; poster design by Shahana Jan)
is a ethnographic play concerning white fragility and cowardice. Devised from scholarly texts, primary sources, and in-person interviews, the community of Ursinus College is the vehicle and incubator for this piece.
Performances took place on Thursday, April 25th, 2019 at Ursinus College as part of Celebration of Student Achievement (COSA) and Sunday, May 19th, 2019 as part of Shoebox Short Theatre Festival.
(Cast: Bonnie Baldini & Quinton J. Alexander)
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Headshots & Production Stills
Click on a photograph for specifications and to expand and/or download.
