Lydia R. Diamond
Assistant Professor (Playwriting and Theatre Arts)
BS, Northwestern University (Theatre and Performance Studies). Lydia Diamond is a Huntington Playwriting Fellow and a Resident Playwright at Chicago Dramatists. Her plays include Stage Black (Premiered at Arts Consortium of Cincinnati, 3rd place Theodore Ward Prize), The Gift Horse (Premiered at Goodman Theatre, 2nd place Kesselring Prize, 1st place Theodore Ward Prize); Stick Fly (Premiered at Congo Square Theatre Company, 2006 Joseph Jefferson Award, nominated—best new work, 2006 BTAA Award, Best Play); and The Inside (premiered at MPAACT Theatre Company), and published in TriQuarterly, where she is a contributing editor; Voyeurs de Venus (premiered at Chicago Dramatists, 2006 Joseph Jefferson Award—Best New Work, 2006 BTAA Award—Best Writing, commissioned by Steppenwolf Theatre Co.). Lydia's adaptation of Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye premiered at Steppenwolf Theatre, won the Black Arts Alliance Image Award for Best New Play, and was recently remounted at the Steppenwolf and moved to a co-production with New Victory in New York. Theatre Alliance (Washington, DC), Playmakers Rep (North Carolina), and Plowshares (Michigan) are also producing productions of The Bluest Eye. The Gift Horse is anthologized in 7 Black Plays, edited by Chuck Smith, Northwestern University Press. Lydia is currently working on her third Steppenwolf Theatre commission, a play based on the life of Harriet Jacobs, recently workshopped and presented at The Kennedy Center's New Visions New Voices festival and a new commission with The McCarter Theatre Company. Most recently, Lydia participated in a week-long cultural exchange program with the United Kingdom's Old Vic theatre (New Voices Program), where she had a workshop and public reading of her work in progress, Harriet Jacobs. Stick Fly and The Bluest Eye are scheduled for various productions in 2007 across the country. Lydia has taught playwriting at Columbia College Chicago, DePaul University, and Loyola University.