Discipline: Theatre – devised

Amara Janae Brady

Discipline: Theatre – devised
Region: Chicago, IL
MacDowell Fellowships: 2023

Amara is a generative artist and cultural dramaturg from Chicago. At the crux of her artistry is showcasing the humanity and divinity of Black women and connecting underserved communities with experiences that mirror their own. “Resist, check your privilege, and then give some space to Women of Color & Trans Folx. Ashé to the ancestors. All Power to all people.“

Amara is a 2023 New Roots Resident, a member of The Public Theater's Devised Theater Working Group, and WP's Pipeline Lab.

Brady has acted in "my dick is david duke" or The Sad Fat Negress Can't Get A Date (Ars Nova), Hachetation (O’Neill), Wine in the Wilderness (Roundabout), Abduction (Atlantic Theater Co.), This Is Where We Go (MCC), Bernarda’s Daughters (The Lark; Audible + New Group), Annie Golden: Broadway Bounty Hunter (Barrington Stage Co.), and others.

Works that she has written include "my dick is david duke" or The Sad Fat Negress Can't Get A Date (Ars Nova), This is Where We Go (MCC), Last Ones First (Crux VR in association with Blair Russell Productions); When We Were gods (Blackboard collective + Kervigo Ensemble); Manic Pixie Dream Girls Aren’t Black (The Parsnip Ship), and The Wickedness of Men or Love Songs for the End of the World (MTF + Broadviews on Broadway).

At MacDowell, Brady worked on composing music for her new musical, Manic Pixie Dream Girls Aren't Black. The musical will be workshopped next year as a culmination of her residence with WP Theater in New York and Northwestern University as a part of their American Music Theatre Project. She also worked on her new pilot and began research for a project about MacDowell's own Pauli Murray.

Studios

Sprague-Smith

Amara Janae Brady worked in the Sprague-Smith studio.

In January of 1976, the original Sprague-Smith Studio — built in 1915–1916 and funded by music students of Mrs. Charles Sprague-Smith of the Veltin School — was destroyed by fire. Redesigned by William Gnade, Sr., a Peterborough builder, the fieldstone structure was rebuilt the same year from the foundation up, reusing the original fieldstone. A few…

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