Harriet Jacobs - The Kansas City Repertory Theatre

THE PLAY
THE PLAYWRIGHT
Lydia R. Diamond
HARRIET JACOBS
LEARNING GUIDE | 2010
Lydia R. Diamond is an award-winning playwright whose works have
been seen across the country. Her plays include: Stick Fly (2010 LA
Drama Critics Circle Award–Playwriting and Best Production, 2010 LA
Garland Award–Playwriting, 2008 Susan S. Blackburn Finalist, 2006
Black Theatre Alliance Award–Best Play); Voyeurs de Venus (2006
Joseph Jefferson Award–Best New Work, 2006 BTAA–Best Writing);
The Bluest Eye (2006 Black Arts Alliance Image Award–Best New Play,
2008 AATE Distinguished Play Award); The Gift Horse (Theodore Ward
Prize, Kesselring Prize 2nd Place); Harriet Jacobs (2010 Elliot Norton
nomination–Best Play); and Lizzie Stranton.
Ms. Diamond was a 2007 TCG/NEA Playwright in Residence at
Steppenwolf, a 2006-07 Huntington Playwright Fellow and a 2009 NEA/
Arena Stage New Play Development Grant Finalist. She is a TCG board
member, a Resident Playwright at Chicago Dramatists and on the
faculty at Boston University.
Harriet Jacobs was commissioned, and its world premiere presented by,
Steppenwolf Theatre Company in Chicago, IL. In addition to Harriet’s
story, Ms. Diamond also incorporates spirituals and the narratives of
other slaves into the play. In conjunction with the world premiere of
Harriet Jacobs at Steppenwolf Theatre company, Ms. Diamond was
asked about the significance of these additions.
LYDIA DIAMOND: Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl is actually one long slave narrative. The addition of other
narratives is a means for providing the audience with context for Harriet’s story. They paint a picture of the reality she
is living in and the atrocities she is pleading with the audience to understand. The narratives also present characters
with a fortitude and ingenuity… a sense of survival and more agency than slaves are typically depicted with.
The spirituals are another piece of the fabric of the reality of slavery. They’re haunting and beautiful and they served
so many different purposes. Spirituals were used as a means of communication—outlining escape routes in the
lyrics—and as preservation of a spiritual identity. In the play, they function to move the action along with their
rhythm and, again, provide context for Harriet’s story.
Lydia Diamond’s comments originally appeared in the Harriet Jacobs Discussion Guide, prepared by Steppenwolf for Young
Adults. They are reprinted here courtesy of Steppenwolf Theatre Company.
Kansas City Repertory Theatre: Harriet Jacobs | 11