JOCELYN BIOH Knows How To Keep Busy

After a wildly successful run of Jaja’s African Hair Braiding at Manhattan Theatre Club on Broadway earlier this season, Jocelyn Bioh has been hard at work developing projects for the stage and screen, both big and small. Bioh’s plays have been seen on stages across New York with School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play, Nollywood Dreams, and Merry Wives at the Delacorte. She is currently writing for the upcoming Star Wars series The Alcolyte, the live screen film adaptation of the hit musical Once On This Island, as well as the book for the Broadway bound musical Goddess.   

I recently sat down with Bioh to reflect back on her hit play from this past fall, working with Disney, and her fantastic work she has been doing with Black Women on Broadway. Our conversation has been edited for clarity and length. 

Theatrely: When you reflect back now that Jaja’s has been closed for four or five months, I’m curious what was one of the goals you had in writing this play and do you feel you accomplished that?

Jocelyn: Well, it's funny how the goals kind of shifted, but initially the goal for the play was just to write a beautiful love letter to the hair braiding ladies who have been saving my life and my hair since I was 4 or 5 years old. I'm a native New Yorker, grew up in Washington Heights and live in Harlem now. I've been going to these shops since I was a kid. They are just ripe with storytelling, with characters, with the people who come in and out. I'm also a first generation Ghanaian and the child of two Ghanaian immigrants. When I wrote the play in 2019, we were having such a different conversation about immigration and what home means to different communities of people. I wanted to write a kind of response to that. And then we had one reading with MTC and it was programmed to go straight to Broadway so then the goal became make sure I write the best possible play and reach a different community than the typical Broadway audience. I would say in that way, the goals were all met. I feel really proud of what kind of reach we had, and how successful it was.

When you look back, is there one moment that stands out in your mind?

It was so surreal to have a play on Broadway. I was also a brand new mom at the time — when we started rehearsals my baby was only six weeks old so there were so many surreal things happening for me at the same time. But opening night, there were so many people in that theater who I knew and loved, and it was such an incredible moment for me.  

Your ensemble is one of my favorite ensembles I've seen on stage this season…

I think it makes a really good case for why ensembles should be recognized. You know, I think our play, if I can toot my own horn for a moment, shows why sometimes shows need to acknowledge artists who are in a beautiful, incredible ensemble. It's not just one or two people who are the standouts, it's all of them who created that beautiful tapestry.

Talk to me about your work with Black Women on Broadway. 

Black Women on Broadway, co-founded by myself, Amber Iman who is now in Lempicka, and our newly Oscar nominated Danielle Brooks. The three of us came together and wanted to just start a group that celebrated black women in theater, both on and off Broadway with fellowships, mentorship, and events that are completely free. Our goal was to celebrate the achievements of black women in theater and our flagship event is our Black Women on Broadway Awards Celebration that we have every spring, usually the week leading into Tony Awards. We're really grateful for all of the support we've received and I’ve learned fundraising is very hard!. But we're thrilled with how much we've been able to do in the last couple of years and we're very hopeful to start an active mentorship program soon! 

You recently had Goddess out at Berkeley Rep. What did you learn from that experience? 

Yes! We are of course keeping our eyes set on Broadway and we're actually very hopeful that we'll have more to announce soon. But we learned so much at Berkeley. It was our world premiere, so it was the first time we were finally able to put all of the elements together. We were probably about a week after we opened, and the creative team and I were already talking about rewrites. It's a great thing to have an out-of-town process to just not have the pressure of audiences and critical eyes from here in New York. When people get to see it on Broadway, they will be seeing a really worked on, muscular, completed piece of artistry that is a completely original musical and I don't really know how many people can say that, recently. It's exciting to add to the American songbook in that way. So I'm thrilled!

You are also helming Once On This Island with Disney. What can you share about that process?

I can say that the process has been really amazing. I’ve spoken to LaChanze who was in the original production who produced Jaja’s and Kecia Lewis who was also in the original and in Goddess now [she currently can be seen in Hell’s Kitchen on Broadway] about some of the changes and things that I've made to the script. I'm really hopeful it will be on a screen sometime soon and I'm really excited about this kind of fresh update to a story that is so near and dear to so many people.

There has been so much conversation about some of our best modern playwrights transitioning into the film and television space. Talk to me about your process of sitting down to write depending on the different mediums you are working in. 

Absolutely. The medium in which you are writing will absolutely play a factor because it is just so different structurally — it’s different in how you approach the story. With film, for example there is a classic three act structure that you need to follow so you know by around a certain page mark, the story needs to go one way. Writing for TV is unique because by the time you sit down to write your episode, you’re ready to go because you've been talking about what is going into that episode for weeks. And then with plays, you are very free — there is really no structure. You can kind of create the play however you want to. Now I am still very much a structure queen but you have the flexibility. And then musicals are just a different monster. Being the book writer is an incredibly thankless job, you have to be really secure in yourself as a writer. If people love a musical no one notices anything about the book, and if people don’t love a musical you are always a scapegoat. It’s a tough job, but I’m up for the challenge! 

I'm curious if you were to give advice to a young aspiring playwright, based on your experience in the film and TV industry, is there something you would take from that realm that you want to kind of inject back into the American theatre?

I feel we are in a unique space right now, theatre post COVID and film and television post strikes. There is something about the risks that people take in film and tv that I wish so many more people would take in theatre. It is not a radical concept to open a completely original musical that's not based on other IP, and that's not a knock to anything! Musical theater is an inherently American art form. The American Songbook is ours — so being able to keep pouring more original work into a form and  medium we've created is so important and vital and necessary in order for it to sustain and maintain. And sometimes that's going to mean taking a risk on something that's new and original, especially on a big commercial stage.

You have certainly been out and about, I’ve seen you on red carpets and at parties! What theatre here in New York have you been loving?

I’ve been seeing everything and I’ve been loving it in this thrilling and somewhat chaotic time. I saw The Notebook and cried just like everybody said I would. Thrilled to catch The Outsiders at some point. LaChanze who was our producer Jaja’s is a producer on that so I know she has good taste! And the plays! There is so much amazing theatre happening; Paula Vogel is one of my playwriting heroes. It is such a thrill that my play about African hair braiders in Harlem gets to be a part of the kind of rich tapestry of stories that have been told this season. So grateful to have been a part of that history.