On Art and Activism

This past spring, DG Treasurer Christine Toy Johnson gathered with Guild members Ifa Bayeza, Mashuq Mashtaq Deen, and Catherine Filloux on Zoom to discuss their thoughts, feelings, and experiences around art and activism. This transcript was edited with the participation of all the panelists.

May 01, 2023

Craft

Four different headshots of four different people collaged together: a Black woman with thick, dark hair; a bald man with a dark beard and wears glasses with dark, rectangular frames, a white woman with dark blond hair, and a woman with straight, dark, long hair and v-neck jacket

Ifa Bayeza, Mashuq Mushtaq Deen, Catherine Filloux, and Christine Toy Johnson

CHRISTINE TOY JOHNSON: Thank you for coming here together virtually. I’m excited to see all your faces from around the country. Because the impetus for the issue began last June with an event called The Playwright as Activist: Lorraine Hansberry’s Legacy, we wanted to start with this question: Lorraine Hansberry considered her work as a playwright and activist as inseparable. Do you feel the same way? What are your feelings about the intersection of your plays and activism?

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Christine Toy Johnson

is a Tony and Obie award-honored writer, actor, and advocate for inclusion. Treasurer of the DG, chair of the Guild’s Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, & Access Committee, host of the Guild’s podcast TalkBack on the Broadway Podcast Network. More at christinetoyjohnson.com

Ifa Bayeza

is an award-winning theatre artist and educator. Works include String Theory, Welcome to Wandaland, Kid Zero, and The Till Trilogy (The Ballad of Emmett Till, That Summer in Sumner, and Benevolence), which made its world premiere in rotating repertory at Mosaic Theatre Company of DC in October 2022.

Mashuq Mushtaq Deen

is a Lambda Literary Award winner, a frequent attender of artist residencies, a former core writer at the PWC and resident playwright at New Dramatists, and author of Flood, The Betterment Society, Set Zero, Draw The Circle, The Shaking Earth, The Telegram, and more. mashuqmushtaqdeen.com

Catherine Fillioux

is an award-winning French Algerian American playwright and librettist who has been writing about human rights for decades. Her plays, operas, and musicals have been produced nationally and internationally. catherinefilloux.com

Related Dramatist(s)

Christine Toy Johnson,

Ifa Bayeza,

Mashuq Mushtaq Deen,

Catherine Filloux