MDC Playwright: Darren Canady


Darren Canady hails from Topeka, KS.

His work has been produced at the Alliance Theatre (Atlanta, GA), Congo Square Theater (Chicago, IL), Horizon Theatre (Atlanta, GA), the Old Vic Theatre (London, UK), M Ensemble (Miami, FL), Milwaukee Repertory Theater (Milwaukee, WI) and others.

His awards include the Alliance Theater's Kendeda Graduate Playwriting Award, Chicago’s Black Excellence Award, the Black Theatre Alliance Award, and the American Theatre Critics Association’s Osborn Award.

His work has been recognized in the Lorraine Hansberry Playwriting Competition, the Theodore Ward Prize for African-American Playwrights, and the James W. Rodgers Competition. His work has been developed at numerous festivals including the O'Neill Theater Center’s National Playwright's Conference.

How Theo Changed His Name, an opera for which Darren provided the libretto, was premiered through the Pittsburgh (PA) Symphony Orchestra. His play You’re Invited appeared in The Best American Short Plays 2010-2011. His work has been seen or developed at the Quo Vadimus Arts’ ID America Festival, the Fremont Centre Theatre, Premiere Stages, the BE Company, Penumbra Theatre, and American Blues Theater.

Darren is an alum of Carnegie Mellon University, New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts and the Juilliard School. He is a former member of Primary Stages’ Dorothy Strelsin New Writers Group, and a past participant in the T.S. Eliot US/UK Exchange. He is an artistic affiliate with American Blues Theater and Congo Square Theatre. He currently teaches playwriting at the University of Kansas.