Artist

Lydia R. Diamond is a Huntington Playwriting Fellow and a Resident Playwright at Chicago Dramatists. Her plays include Stage Black (Premiered at Arts Consortium of Cincinnati, 3rd Place Theadore Ward Prize), The Gift Horse (Premiered at Goodman Theatre, 2nd place Kesselring Prize, 1st Place Theadore Ward Prize); Stick Fly (Premiered at Congo Square Theatre Company, Joseph Jefferson Award recommended, BTAA Nominated); and The Inside (premiered at MPAACT Theatre Company), and recently published in TriQuarterly, where she is a contributing editor; Voyeurs de Venus (premiered at Chicago Dramatists, Joseph Jefferson Award recommended, BTAA Nominated, commissioned by Steppenwolf Theatre Co.) Ms. Diamond's adaptation of Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye premiered at Steppenwolf Theatre, won the Black Arts Alliance Image Award for Best New Play, and will be remounted at the Steppenwolf and moved to a co-production with New Victory in NY next season. Theatre Alliance, D.C., Playmakers Rep, N.C., and Plowshares, MI, will also mount productions The Bluest Eye this coming season. The Gift Horse is anthologized in 7 Black Plays, edited by Chuck Smith, Northwestern University Press. Ms. Diamond is currently working on her third Steppenwolf Theatre commission, a play based on Harriet Jacob's "Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl", recently workshopped and presented at The Kennedy Center's New Visions New Voices festival. Ms. Diamond holds a B.S. in Theatre and Performance Studies from Northwestern University. She has taught playwriting at Columbia College Chicago, DePaul University, Loyola University, and Boston University.