Thomas Bradshaw

Satire

5m, 2f (doubling, flexible casting possible)

Modular sets

Inspired by a true story, Strom Thurmond is Not a Racist is an absurdist look at the life of Senator Strom Thurmond. After fathering a child with his black maid as a young man, the extremely white Strom Thurmond became one of the country's greatest segregationists; all the while playing daddy to his bi-racial daughter Essie Mae Washington Williams. How could someone live such a duplicitous life? It happens. Winner of The American Theater Coop’s National Playwriting Contest in 2005. Published with CLEANSED.

“Perhaps your average night at the theater doesn’t include screams of ‘Nigger Monkey’s’ and ‘Black skinned beasts!’ but Thomas Bradshaw’s does. The playwright-provocateur presents a wickedly shocking double bull that unapologetically flaunts racial conflict….Bradshaw doesn’t deliver a normal night out, but his outrages are worth every second of discomfort.”— Time Out New York

“Tom Bradshaw’s most important contribution to society is snatching narrative and its elements back from the clutches of the ordinary” — Richard Maxwell, Playwright and Director

“Bradshaw has a positive genius for explosive imagery, putting biracial Lauraul in a Klan costume and penning a demonic parody of Martin Luther King’s “I Have A Dream” speech for Strom Thurmond….Bradshaw has a deep dramatic and linguistic intelligence.”— Village Voice

“These uncomfortably intense plays focus on racism in our society, from the Dixiecrats of the south to the confused generation of today…. The intensity that Bradshaw intended came through tenfold.” — New York Cool

"Thomas Bradshaw is sometimes billed as a playwright/provocateur. In actuality, he is a playwright/academic…. The provocateur comes from the fact that he is a black author who often holds a blinding spotlight on the issues of race and black identity in this country. His work is characterized by an unflinching concentration on the fundamental effects of racism on black self worth…. Strom Thurmond is Not a Racist/Cleansed is a provocative, gripping, and unsettling evening.” — New York City Onstage

This play contains mature language and situations.

FEE: $75 per performance.

About the author:
"Provocateur Thomas Bradshaw continues to needle our notions of morality, making us laugh like madmen at things our Internet browsers would flag as porn." —Time Out NY, Best of 2009
Thomas Bradshaw has been featured as one of Time Out New York's ten playwrights to watch, as one of Paper Magazine's 2006 Beautiful People, and Best Provocative Playwright by the Village Voice in 2007. His play entitled Prophet was presented at PS 122 in December 2005 and Strom Thurmond is Not a Racist won The American Theater Coop's 2005 National Playwriting Contest. His was a fellow at New York Theater Workshop in 06-07' and is now a Usual Suspect. Cleansed will also be published in Plays and Playwrights 2008. He has been a member of Soho Rep's writer/Director lab as well as Lincoln Center's. He performed in the premiere of Richard Maxwell's The End Of Reality at The Kitchen in January 2006 and he performed in Young Jean Lee's Pullman, WA at PS 122 in March 2005. He performed throughout Europe with The End Of Reality in the fall of 06'. He received his MFA from Mac Wellman's playwriting program and is a Professor at Brooklyn College and Medgar Evers College. Thomas is also the recipient of a 2006 Jerome Foundation Grant. Strom Thurmond Is Not a Racist was produced in Los Angeles in June 08' and Thomas's play Dawn will receive a workshop with New York Theater Workshop at Dartmouth College in August. Dawn will also be translated into German and be presented at Theater Bielefeld in Germany in October. His play Purity was published by Theaterheute in Germany in April and his play Dawn will be published by Theater Der Zeit in October. He is currently working on an adaptation of The Book Of Job which has been commissioned by Soho Rep. He is also Soho Rep's 2008-2009 Streslin Fellow and a Playwriting Fellow at The Lark Play Development Center. Mr. Bradshaw was awarded a 2009 Guggenheim Fellowship.

Other Thomas Bradshaw titles available from Samuel French include:
Cleansed
Dawn
Prophet
Purity
Southern Promises