Tracey most recently wrote the teleplay for MGM’s upcoming film Respect, based on the life of Aretha Franklin. On the TV side, she served as a Co-Executive Producer on Fosse/Verdon at FX and Apple’s The Morning Show. Before that, she was a Co-Executive Producer on FX’s award-winning series The Americans, where she wrote for 4 seasons and received two WGAE awards, two Peabody awards and a Golden Globe. Tracey is also a renowned playwright, and her plays include Buzzer (Guthrie Theater, The Public Theater), The Good Negro and The Story (both at The Public Theater and the Goodman Theater). Tracey is the winner of the 2001 Helen Merrill Emerging Playwright Award, the 2003 AT&T Onstage Award, the 2004 Kesserling Prize, the 2007 Weissberger Playwriting Award as well as the 2007 Time Warner Storytelling Fellowship. In 2009, she was the writer-in-residence at the O’Neil National Playwriting Conference. She has taught and guest lectured at several schools including, Brown University, Yale University, Rutgers University and NYU. She holds a Master’s degree in English Literature from Temple University.
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The StoryA Play
LATISHA: The cops ain’t looking for no girl so we don’t get caught. (Pause.) Until now. Now, we kinda worried. Kinda in trouble.
YVONNE: (To Latisha.) Why?
LATISHA: Yo! You can’t tell nobody. And I mean nobody.
YVONNE: (To Latisha.) No, no, I won’t.
LATISHA: I’m telling you I’ll jack you up for real.
YVONNE: (To Latisha.) I won’t tell.
LATISHA: (Pause.) We capped that teacher.
The Story (wilstory)Premiered in2003 -
The StoryA Play
JESSICA: But you know black kids don’t really do that, do they? Black kids don’t go into the cafeteria and shoot up everybody or stalk teachers and shoot them. Isn’t that true? If one of Tim’s black students was angry with him, the black student would have shot Tim right there in the moment. Isn’t that right? (Pause.) Isn’t that right? (Detective doesn’t answer. Continuing.) Then we wouldn’t be here. The black student would have been arrested and we wouldn’t be here. (Pause.) A couple of months ago some people were even saying I had something to do with it. Like it was all some elaborate scheme I thought up. (Pause.) I don’t know if it was a girl dressed like a guy or a guy dressed like a girl dressed like a guy. I only know the killer was black. (Pause.) The killer was black.
The Story (wilstory)Premiered in2003 -
The StoryA Play
PAT: They’re promoting you on one story, but your work here has been…
YVONNE: Fine.
PAT: Sloppy.
YVONNE: It was fine.
PAT: You don’t really believe that. (Pause.) The things you say and the way you say them matter because words matter. When I was going through hell integrating this paper that was the only thing that kept me going, knowing the power of words to effect change. You had an opportunity to do some great things at Outlook…
YVONNE: If you hadn’t given me such a hard time…
PAT: If you liked me then you would have done your job? What kind of journalist do you want to be?
The Story (wilstory)Premiered in2003
Selected Works
