Antoinette Nwandu is a New York-based playwright. In 2018, her play Breach:
a manifesto on race in america through the eyes of a black girl recovering from
self-hate will premiere at Victory Gardens, and her play Pass Over will run
at LCT3/Lincoln Center. A filmed version of Pass Over—directed by Spike
Lee—premiered at Sundance and will stream on Amazon Prime. Antoinette is
a MacDowell Fellow, Dramatists Guild Fellow, and Ars Nova PlayGroup alum.
Institutions supporting her work include Sundance Theater Lab, Space on Ryder
Farm, Ignition Fest, the Cherry Lane Mentor Project, Page 73, and PlayPenn.
Honors include the Paula Vogel Playwriting Award and spots on the 2016 and
2017 Kilroys lists. Antoinette is under commission from Echo Theater Company,
Colt Coeur, Audible, and Ars Nova.
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Pass OverA Play
MOSES
yo ass gon rise up to yo full potential too
gon git up off dis block
man
you remember
dat sunday school
ol reverend Missus be like
(as reverend missus)
sed uh
do you wanna cross dat river now chillun
sed uh
do you wanna cross dat river now chillum
KITCH
(gasping)
pass ovuh
MOSES
yeah nigga damn
i feel like we cud do dis shit
you feel me
git up off dis block
KITCH
amen!
MOSES
be all we cud be
KITCH
yes lawd!
Pass OverPremiered in2017 -
Pass OverA Play
OSSIFER takes out his gun and points
it squarely at MOSES.OSSIFER
watch it boy
MOSES
a’ight then
do it
cuz where i’m standin
my black ass dead already
all dat’s left
is how it happens
and who gets to bury
dat body
so come on nigga
less go
OSSIFER
my pleasure
(bang) (bang)
OSSIFER pulls the trigger twice in
rapid succession.The lamppost flickers.
We hear the brief buzz of locusts.
But nothing else happens.
OSSIFER (con’t)
what the—
Pass OverPremiered in2017
In the insanity of a city filled with guns, and people ready and willing to use them whenever temperatures rise, waiting isn't so much a malaise as a badge of survival. That's one of the takeaways of Antoinette Nwandu's Pass Over, a very potent and promising play. . . the language in the work is thrilling, poetical." —Chicago Tribune
"Emotional, sobering. . . fiercely poetic play” —The Daily Herald [on Pass Over]
“Stunning and lyrical. . . should be on every theatergoer's 'must see' list." —Broadway World [on Pass Over]
Selected Works
Antoinette Nwandu can spin a single phrase out of its own meaning and into something larger, graver, and more potent. In her plays, there is no rushing to climax, epiphany, or intellectual remedy for the audience, since there is none of these for the characters; instead, there is the urgent churning of a mind gifted with sharp sociological insight attempting to tease apart the fraught fabric of the current moment. A blistering interrogation of race, power, and violence courses through an oeuvre that ranges from symbolic to highly naturalistic works, each of them tightly shaped, sonically cohesive, and superb. The theatre needs more of Antoinette. American letters needs more of Antoinette.