playwright.
poet.
dramaturg.
jay mazyck
About
JAHQUALE MAZYCK (he/they) is a black queer creative from Brooklyn, NY. A reading of their first full length play, MAD, was included in the 2019 season of Corkscrew Theater Festival. They were one of the seven playwrights award commission in the 11th season of the Obie Award-winning Fire This Time Festival. Their short play, If Men Were Flowers premiered on the streaming platform All-Star in 2020. Their short play Dude premiered at the 2020 Frigid Queerly Festival and The Reparations Show produced by Kevin R. free. Their play Grieved won the 46th Samuel French OOB Short play contest. Their full length digging, like monkeys, our grave in [gilead] was developed as part of the Fire This Time Festival’s New Works Lab. Their play This Is How You Destroy a Body was developed under The Royal Court Theatre's Writers Group and was a semi-finalist in the Eugene O'Neill Playwrights Conference.
Most recently, Mazyck was one of two black queer playwrights to join the 2023 Gatekeepers Collective’s Learning to Love cohort. Also in 2023, a reading of The House That Jack Built, a full length play about a mute boy who stumbles upon the birth of house music, was co-produced by Native Son. Mazyck is an alum of the Royal Court Theaters Writers Group in London and BTU Rise Fellowship in partnership with Black Theatre United and Williamstown Theater Festival as well as a 2021-2022 SoulCenter Fellow.
Mazyck has won numerous awards for their academic writing. They are currently a Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellow doing research on the intersections between queerness and the black church. They are also currently serving as a dramaturg on plays in development at NYTW and The New Group.
Selected Works
Academic Awards
2024-2026 / Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellow
2025 / Kay Kier Memorial Prize for an Essay on 19th Century American Literature
2025 / Faculty Prize for Excellence in Creative Writing (Multiple Genres: Poetry/Short Fiction/Creative Non-Fiction)
2025 / Clinton Oliver Prize for Work in Black American Studies
2024-2025/ Charles G. Weekes Memorial Scholarship (Creative Writing)
Playwriting Fellowships
2023 / Learning to Love Playwriting Fellowship
Learning to Love is a public art and theater initiative highlighting the work of seven same-gender loving, Queer and Trans identifying artists under the age of 35 sharing narratives of trajectories of self-acceptance through art.
2022 / The Fire This Time New Works Lab
In 2015 The Fire This Time established The Fire This Time Writers' Group with the mission to provide TFTT alumni and writers from the TFTT community the opportunity to develop new work in a nurturing and supportive environment. In 2017, the initiative was renamed the New Works Lab. From its inception to the present, the lab has been co-directed by educator and playwright Cynthia Grace Robinson ("Letters From Loretta," "Freedom Summer" "What If?" "Dancing on Eggshells") and A.J. Muhammad, a producer with TFTT.
2022 / 24 Hour Nationals
Each summer, The 24 Hour Plays bring together a group of talented early-career theater artists for a free professional intensive in partnership with Pace University. Participants are invited into a weeklong experience in NYC featuring workshops, master classes, panel discussions, career development, community building, and more. The program culminates in a cohort production of The 24 Hour Plays in an Off-Broadway theater.
2021 / Williamstown/BTU Rise Literary Fellow
The program is in partnership with Black Theatre United (BTU) and Williamstown Theatre Festival (WTF) and the Tiger Baron Foundation. The fellows will be embedded in WTF departments, working alongside experienced theatremakers, while also participating in seminars, panels, and structured mentorship with BTU founding members within a classroom setting.
2020 / Royal Court Theatre Writers Group
The Royal Court’s Playwriting group is a series of six weekly sessions where emerging playwrights work to develop their craft alongside their peers, facilitated by a leading professional playwright. At the end of the sessions, there is an opportunity to submit a first draft for feedback from the Royal Court’s Literary and Artistic team.
Get In Touch
For all inquiries and collaborations contact me at jahqualem@yahoo.com