Each month on The Subtext, Brian speaks with a playwright about life, writing, and whatever itches we are scratching. On this month’s episode, Brian visits Brooklyn, N.Y., for a chat with playwright Charly Evon Simpson.

Charly recalls a formative theatre memory, of playing Titania in a middle school production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Growing up in a musical family, she developed an early appreciation for the arts. She discusses writing from experience, realizing that a play never quite feels finished even after it’s published, and the necessity of believing in herself as a playwright.

Charly’s plays include Behind the Sheet, sandblasted, Jump, form of a girl unknown, it’s not a trip it’s a journey, and more. Her work has been seen and/or developed with Vineyard Theatre, WP Theater, Ensemble Studio Theatre, P73, NNPN, The Eugene O’Neill Theater Center, PlayMakers Repertory Company, Chautauqua Theater Company, Salt Lake Acting Company, and others. She is a recipient of the Vineyard Theatre’s Paula Vogel Playwriting Award and the Dramatists Guild’s Lanford Wilson Award. She is a resident of New Dramatists and a core writer at The Playwrights’ Center. She’s a former member of WP Theater’s 2018-2020 Lab, SPACE on Ryder Farm’s The Working Farm, Clubbed Thumb’s Early Career Writers’ Group, and Ensemble Studio Theatre’s Youngblood. In TV, she has worked on Showtime’s American Rust and she currently has an overall deal at HBO where she has worked on several shows including the second season of Industry. Charly has a B.A. from Brown University, a master’s in women’s studies from the University of Oxford, New College, and her MFA in playwriting from Hunter College.

This episode can also be found here.

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