Billie
A kind of love letter.
Billie: A Conversation with Lady Day
In Billie: A Conversation with Lady Day, Billie Holiday is met after death and invited into a conversation she could never have had while she was alive: a chance to answer the stories, judgments, myths, and assumptions that gathered around her—and to speak for herself.
Billie began during my third year at The Juilliard School, in FreePlay. The Billie Holiday play I had chosen was no longer an option because it was too late to secure the rights in time. So I wrote the play I’d rather see. I researched Billie Holiday at the Schomburg Center through archival articles and microfiche. The work began as ten monologues woven through ten songs and later expanded to sixteen monologues and sixteen songs.
The work has continued to evolve through performances at Juilliard FreePlay, The Duplex in New York, Lord Leebrick Theatre (now Oregon Contemporary Theatre), the University of Oregon, and additional venues.
Available Formats
The piece can meet the room in different ways:
- Solo Production
- An intimate performance-centered presentation.
- Chamber Production
- A small-scale production with selected collaborators.
- Ensemble Production
- An expanded production shaped for a larger theatrical frame.
- Residency
- Performance combined with conversation, workshop, or community engagement.
Production scale may be shaped according to presenter resources.
Performance, conversation, workshop, and residency elements can be combined to suit the host, venue, and community.
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