Lisa B. Thompson

Lisa B. Thompson’s satirical comedies and poignant dramas explode stereotypes about Black life in the US, particularly the experiences of the Black middle class. Her plays include Single Black Female, Underground, Monroe, The Mamalogues and Dinner. She is also the author of Beyond the Black Lady: Sexuality and the New African American Middle Class.

Thompson’s plays have been produced off-Broadway and throughout the US by Crossroads Theatre, The Lorraine Hansberry Theatre, Theatre Rhinoceros, New Professional Theatre, the Vortex, Ground Floor Theatre, Soul Rep Theatre Company, Black Spectrum Theatre, Austin Playhouse, and The National Black Theatre Festival.

Her work has been recognized with an LA Weekly Theatre Award for Best Comedy nomination, Austin Critics Circle David Mark Cohen New Play Award, a Broadway World Regional Awards Best Writing of an Original Work, and an Irma P. Hall Black Theatre Best Play Award. Thompson has held residencies at Hedgebrook, the Millay Colony for the Arts, Harvard University’s W. E. B. DuBois Research Institute, and MacDowell.

The artist/scholar is currently the Bobby and Sherri Patton Professor of African and African Diaspora Studies and affiliate faculty in the Department of Theatre & Dance at the University of Texas at Austin.