July 13, 2022 – August 7, 2022
“I build, and the hurt goes away. I build a world where they don’t touch me anymore. I build, I make – I make the darkness mine.”
The year is 1935, and the Taft State Hospital is one of seven psychiatric facilities in the U.S. built exclusively to care for “insane and idiotic negroes,” where the homeless and downtrodden are housed alongside the criminally insane and diseased. Attius builds coffins at Taft Hospital, where he has been locked up for years, but when two new patients ask him to help them escape, Attius dares to dream of a life beyond the hospital walls. Terence Anthony offers a penetrating and moving portrayal that conjures hope in the face of physical, mental, and spiritual incarceration.
Sponsored by Beth K. Batdorf and John S. Bresland
THE HOUSE OF THE NEGRO INSANE is presented by special arrangement with the
Robert A. Freedman Dramatic Agency, Inc.
THE HOUSE OF THE NEGRO INSANE was developed in part with the 2019 Bay Area Playwrights Festival and PlayPenn’s 2017 New Play Development Conference
Photo by Seth Freeman
Photo by Seth Freeman
Watch an interview with playwright Terence Anthony from the 2020 UNMUTED series. These interviews and discussions took place during the development process of the play.
Watch The Making of The House of the Negro Insane from the 2020 UNMUTED series. These interviews and discussions took place during the development process of the play.
True to CATF nature, some elements of the show have changed. Be on the lookout for updated information about the shows!
PLAYWRIGHT INTERVIEWS – ANTHONY – 2022
PLAYWRIGHT INTERVIEWS Interviews conducted and edited by Colin McGuire. Of all the plays produced during this installment of the Contemporary American Theater Festival, The House of the Negro Insane has perhaps the most storied history with the event. The COVID-19 pandemic delayed the play ultimately coming to CATF since 2020. As a result, festival organizers … Continued
Learn more about The House of the Negro Insane by reading the 2020 UNMUTED Companion. The Companion was created during the development process of the play.
Terence Anthony is a playwright, artist, and TV writer based in Los Angeles. He has been awarded writing fellowships to the Djerassi Resident Artist Program, the Santa Fe Art Institute, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and the Ragdale Foundation. Terence’s plays include Burners (nominated for four 2017 Ovation Awards), Euphrates (Max K. Lerner Playwriting Fellowship), Tombolo (Finalist for the O’Neill National Playwrights Conference), and Blood and Thunder (LA Weekly Award Winner). Terence’s plays have been performed and developed at the Bay Area Playwrights Festival, PlayPenn, Moving Arts, Radar LA, La Jolla Playhouse, the Segerstrom Center, Chicago Dramatists, Company of Angels, the Great Plains Theatre Conference, and the Last Frontier Theatre Conference.