a.k. payne (they&she) is a playwright, artist-theorist, and theatermaker with roots in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania by way of the U.S. South & the Black Atlantic.
upcoming
upcoming
FURLOUGH’S PARADISE
West Coast Premiere
@ Geffen Playhouse, Los Angeles (April 16- May 18, 2025)
DIRECTED BY TINASHE KAJESE BOLDEN
Winner of the 2025 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize
“you will speak as you speak/ you will walk like you have a right to it./ you will have a right to it./ you will breathe easy…”
—SMITH
“so this is for us being pushed out and dying too young with brief extraordinary lives and images worthy of a hundred thousand poems.”
“if you combust, ain’t nothing left for me to lose, so you can’t combust, okay?”
—Sade
