Meet The W*rk Lab's Sukari Jones
To begin, Sappho is our “muse.” Would you say you have a writing muse? If so, who?
I just write whatever tickles me the most at the time.
Your project YOU ARE HERE is a part of The Sappho Project’s inaugural W*rk Lab. Tell us about it and what inspired you to write this particular piece.
I wanted to write a piece about a highly-intelligent, hardworking/overachieving, and attractive black woman with a strong moral code, that is micro-aggression and gaslit within an inch of her life, since that’s a narrative I can most relate to at this particular moment in my own personal development. Inspired by the Clarence Thomas Supreme Court Justice confirmation hearings of the 90s, I wanted to create a farce, with a sane woman at the middle, set to a new jack swing score, that alternates between past and present, satire and earnestness to show how black women often have the moral of the story robbed from their own narrative. And how we still persevere.
How are you finding your voice as a writer within the musical theater landscape?
Often ignored. Which only makes me get louder.
What are the themes and ideas you're most excited about exploring within your writing?
The intersection of race and power in America through a heightened, somewhat magical lens. I take a lot of pride in being a black female identifying person writing a show that centers a black female identifying person.
Who is your target audience and how are you hoping to impact them?
My only audience is me. I’m hoping to spend my exploration in drafting this piece, as well as this whole year, showing myself radical self love. Asking what I can do to honor myself the most. Specifically, with YOU ARE HERE, I seek to make myself physically react to moments - anger, sadness, and above all, hope - felt in the body.
Is there a song that encapsulates your artistic identity?
Kashmir - Led Zeppelin
What is giving you LIFE right now?!
Breaking a personal best at squats - I’m up to 205lb now!
When you think about the reopening of Broadway, what does it look like in your wildest dreams?!
There was a time when every musical that came out on broadway was the world premiere. Not to be nostalgic or get on a soapbox, but my wildest dream would be to see nothing but brand spanking new stuff, from brand spanking new artists. And for 2/3rds or more of those shows to have book, music, and lyrics all by people of color, presenting people of color, whose color is brown, the shade of which is darker than a paper bag.
What was the musical that made you think: musicals are for me?
I am basing my career on the fact that I don’t think musicals are for me, but my way into the world of musical theater was Disney movies, specifically ALADDIN. I remember saying “I’m going to write one of these someday.”
Sukari Jones is a playwright, screenwriter and musical theater lyricist passionate about exploring the intersection of race and power in America through a sci-fi lens. B.A. Vassar College, M.F.A. NYU Tisch School of the Arts. Memberships: BMI Musical Theater Workshop, Public Theater’s Emerging Writers group, WP (Formerly Women’s Project) and Sappho Project W*rk Lab. Productions/Development: The Public Theater, Eugene O’Neill Theater Center, The Cherry Lane Theater, Lincoln Center Theater, The Lark, 54/Below, NAMT, Goodspeed Opera House. Awards/fellowships: MacDowell Colony, W.K. Rose Fellowship in the Creative Arts. Commissions: WP Theater, Atlantic Theater Company & Atlantic Kids, Barrington Stage Company, Eugene O’Neill Theater Center Incubator. www.sukarijones.com