Plays
Collected Plays
Collected Plays include Shakin' the Mess Out of Misery, Flying Blind, Square Blues, Talking Bones and a short creation myth, There Are Many Houses in my Tribe.
Flying Blind
Flying Blind uses blindness as a metaphor for denial, deprivation of the senses as well as the ability to turn a blind eye to brutality, ugliness, pain, war and suffering as a means of survival.
FLORAL is a seventy-nine year old woman who has always dreamed of driving across country in her vintage Buick. While sitting behind the wheel of the car at a truck stop in Surrender, Alabama waiting for her son to drive her to an assisted living home, sixteen year old CHERRY asks Floral for a ride in this comic-drama that incorporates storytelling, animation and video.
Shakin' The Mess Outta Misery (1993)
Watch a livestream production by the Houston Ensemble Theater
Jubilee Theater - Ft.Worth, TX
"The Maid's Bus:" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFIThGJKwYI
Afterthought Theatre - Denver, Colorado
"The Prayer Meeting:" http://youtu.be/LDXUrxJtqDI
“This production...feels like a fresh shot of adrenaline and hope crafted just for these times..“
— Kerry Reid, Chicago Tribune
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“a master-class in delicious storytelling, and the audience is kept...riveted“
— Sheri Flanders, PerformInk
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“...whatever the theatrical tool, Shay's work soars.“
— Punch Shaw, DFW.com
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“..well-crafted, funny and heartfelt...“
— Mary L. Clark, Pegasus News
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“lovingly written and intricately woven“
— Bert Osborne, Atlanta Journal-Constitution
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“This must-see performance will remind you of what matters most in life. If you have someone who cares about you and is fully supportive of everything you do and aspire to, keep them close because you may never know when you might lose them.“
— Ariel Lafayette, VOX Teen Blog
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“Horizon Theatre's brazzy, bumptious production of "Shakin' the Mess Outta Misery" feels like one those family reunions that sprawls so far and wide, it comes with its own T-shirt.“
— Curt Holman, Creative Loafing
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“You don't want to miss this production...“
— Portia Scott, Atlanta Daily World
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Talking Bones (1993)
Talking Bones is set in Ancestor's Books & Breakfast, a half empty bookstore in a small Southern town, where three generations of women, Ruth, her daughter Baybay and her grand daughter Eila, hear the ancestors through a broken hearing aid, whispers in the dark and in talking bones. The ancestors bring a message about love, faith and family.
Interview with Shay Youngblood
Amazing Grace (1993)
Comedy/Drama. Adapted from the book by Mary Hoffman.
Cast: 4m., 7w. (Cast: 3 women, 4 girls and 4 boys, plus extra neighborhood children, adult offstage voice.) In the words of Ms. Youngblood, "Amazing Grace is about a little girl who loves acting out stories, those told and read to her by her grandmother as well as ones she reads on her own. She also makes up her own stories, acting out the most exciting parts. When Grace is in her playworld everything to her is real. In her imagination, she becomes the characters: Anansi the Spider, Joan of Arc, Mowgli, Hiawatha. She's a pirate with a peg leg and a parrot, an explorer, and a theater director of a production of 'Cinderella' in which she casts a boy in the title role. Grace's mother is very practical and hopes that Grace will become a doctor, a lawyer or a professional person given the opportunities she herself didn't have. Her grandmother, Nana, believes that Grace can be whatever she wants to be. Grace is told by two of her classmates that she can't be Peter Pan in the school play because she is a girl and because she is black. In the end, Grace shows us that she can indeed do anything she sets her mind to. I selected the West African Anansi story and use traditional storytelling techniques such as songs, rhythm and repetition to teach Grace and her friends a bit of folk wisdom." Unit set. Approximate running time without intermission: 1 hour.
photo courtesy of
Horizon Theatre Company
production rights available:
Dramatic Publishing Company
University of North Texas, Fall 2021
photos by George Warda
Square Blues
read "On Square Blues" by Daniel Alexander Jones >
Square Blues follows, a reparations activist, his mother Odessa, who married a Jewish store owner in the 1940's and her grand daughter Karma, an art activist, during one summer weekend in the early 1990's during which each member of his family is challenged to stand up for their beliefs in ways that threaten to tear the family apart. Three generations in a southern family respond to oppression and injustice and find the courage to stand up for their beliefs as they redefine what makes a family and what holds it together. For many years Square has been collecting names on petitions demanding Black Pay Back, financial reparations and a public apology for slavery and using money inherited from his father to bail out political prisoners and finance a radical underground movement. During the course of the play Square paints a ‘wall of resistance' mural on the interior wall of the café depicting modern heroes and activists while his niece Karma creates art on public walls using spray paint, nude models and found objects in her art actions to bring attention to the issues she feels passion for, and Odessa is lost in her memories, grieving the loss of a most profound and dangerous love.