Charlayne Woodard – Playwright & Actress
Charlayne Woodard is a two-time Obie Award winner and Tony Award nominee.
Playwright
Ms. Woodard’s new two-character play, The Garden, a commission of the LaJolla Playhouse, has productions scheduled in 2021 at both Baltimore Center Stage and The LaJolla Playhouse.
Her first solo play, Pretty Fire, was produced at the Fountainhead Theatre in Los Angeles, where it received LA Drama Critics and NAACP awards for best play and best playwright; Manhattan Theatre Club; Seattle Rep (directed by Dan Sullivan); and the La Jolla Playhouse (directed by Michael Greif).
Her second solo play, Neat, was developed at Seattle Rep, and subsequently produced at Manhattan Theatre Club, where it received the Irving and Blanche Laurie Theatre Vision Award and an Outer Critics Circle Award nomination; Seattle Rep and the Mark Taper Forum (both directed by Dan Sullivan), where the play received a Backstage West Garland Award.
Her third solo play, In Real Life, was a co-commission by Center Theatre Group and Seattle Rep, and developed at the Sundance Theatre Lab. In Real Life (directed by Dan Sullivan) was produced at: Seattle Rep; the Mark Taper Forum, where the play received a Backstage West Garland Award and NAACP Awards for best playwright and actor; and Manhattan Theatre Club, where Ms. Woodard received an Audelco Award and was nominated for Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards for best solo performance.
Her fourth solo play, The Night Watcher, was developed at the Ojai Playwrights’ Conference and the La Jolla Playhouse’s Page To The Stage. The Night Watcher, directed by Dan Sullivan, was produced at Seattle Rep; Primary Stages; and the Kirk Douglas Theatre, where the play received LA Drama Critics and NAACP Awards for best solo performance, as well as nominations from both for best play.
Flight, Ms. Woodard’s multi-character adaptation of African and African-American folktales, was commissioned by Center Theatre Group. Productions include the Lincoln Museum, Springfield, IL; Kirk Douglas Theatre in Los Angeles; and ACT in Seattle.
Her plays are published by Dramatists Play Service and performed at regional theatres around the country; and audio versions are available at Audible.com.
Ms. Woodard’s ten-minute play, Phenom, was performed as part of the Car Plays series produced by the LaJolla Playhouse. Grace a solo musical, written with Kristin Childs, was commissioned and produced by Inner Voices in New York City.
Actress
On Broadway, Ms. Woodard was nominated for Tony and Drama Desk Awards for her role in the original company of the hit musical, Ain’t Misbehavin’. She reprised her role at Her Majesty’s Theatre in London’s West End; the Los Angeles production, produced by Center Theater Group at the Aquarius Theater; and, ten years after the Broadway opening, the Broadway revival with original cast. NBC taped and broadcast the hit musical with the original Broadway cast; and, RCA recorded the original cast.
Ms. Woodard also appeared in the Broadway revival of Hair, directed by Tom O’Horgan.
Ms. Woodard’s off-Broadway theatre credits include Daddy by Jeremy O. Harris and directed by Danya Taymor for The New Group and received a Lucille Lortel Award nomination; Hamlet (Gertrude) directed by Sam Gold at the Public Theater; War by Brandon-Jacobs Jenkins and directed by Liliana Blain-Cruz at Lincoln Center; the revival of The Substance of Fire by John Robin Baitz, directed by Trip Cullman at Second Stage; The Witch of Edmonton directed by Jesse Berger at the Red Bull Theatre Company (Obie Award); world premieres of In The Blood by Suzan-Lori Parks, directed by David Esbjornson at the Public Theater (Obie Award); Fabulation by Lynn Nottage, directed by Kate Whorisky at Playwright’s Horizons; Stunning by David Adjmi at LCT3; Sorrows and Rejoicings written and directed by Athol Fugard at Second Stage (Audelco Award); and The Caucasian Chalk Circle directed by George C. Wolfe at the Public Theatre.
Ms. Woodard’s regional credits include: The Garden, by Charlayne Woodard and co-directed by Patricia McGregor and Delicia Turner Sonnenberg at Potiker Theatre; Midsummer Night’s Dream, directed by Chris Ashley, as well as Shout Up A Morning, directed by Des McAnuff, both at the La Jolla Playhouse; The Taming of the Shrew (Kate), directed by Rebecca Taishman at Shakespeare Theatre Company; The Good Person Of Setzuan, adapted by Tony Kushner and directed by Lisa Peterson at the LaJolla Playhouse; and Purgatorio by Ariel Dorfman and directed by David Esbjornson at Seattle Rep.
Film credits include: M. Night Shyamalan’s Glass and Unbreakable; John Sayle’s Sunshine State; Wim Wender’s Million Dollar Hotel; Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, directed by Nicolas Hytner; John Schlesinger’s Eye For An Eye; Around The Fire.; Hard Feelings (Genie Award nominee for Best Performance by a Foreign Actress) Things Never Said, Southern Comfort, Lackawanna Blues.
Her many television credits include: series regular on Pose (FX); starring roles in Cindy (NBC ) and Run For The Dream: The Gail Devers’ Story (Showtime); recurring roles on Prodigal Son; Sneaky Pete; Law and Order, Special Victims Unit; ER; Roseanne; Fresh Prince of Bel Air; Oprah Winfrey’s The Wedding; Sweet Justice (with Cicely Tyson); and, Days Of Our Lives.. Notable guest-starring roles include The Spiderwick Chronicles; Taxi; Frazier; and Terminator: The Sarah Connors Chronicles;.
Ms. Woodard serves on the Council of the Dramatist’s Guild of America. She has served on the Boards of Directors of both the Manhattan Theater Club and LaJolla Playhouse; as well as an artistic trustee and fellow at the Sundance Institute. She completed a TCG/PEW Charitable Trust National Theatre Artist Residency Program Fellowship at Center Theatre Group and has taught at California Institute Of the Arts and University of Southern California.
She trained at the Goodman School of Drama and received an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from The Theater School at DePaul University (formerly the Goodman School of Drama). She is a lifetime member of The Actor’s Studio.
For additional information, visit CharlayneWoodard.com.