TOO Episode 44: Conversation with Dramaturg Taylor Barfield

In this episode, Adam and Budi speak with Dramaturg Taylor Barfield

Taylor Barfield is a dramaturg, writer, and theater artist from Baltimore, MD. He currently serves as the Literary Manager for Two River Theater in Red Bank, NJ. Before that, he was the Associate Artistic Director at Collaboraction Theatre Company in Chicago, IL. Select freelance dramaturgy credits include Nothing to Lose (But Our Chains) (Second City/Woolly Mammoth), Electra (Court Theatre), Cymbeline (Yale Repertory Theatre), Barbecue (Strawdog), and Megastasis (Eclipse Theatre Company). Taylor also served as assistant director for the world premiere productions of Cadillac Crew (Yale Repertory Theatre), Man in the Ring (Court Theatre), and War (Yale Repertory Theatre), the Midwest premiere of Paradise Blue (Timeline Theatre), and the east coast premiere of Native Son (Yale Repertory Theatre). He received his M.F.A. in Dramaturgy and Dramatic Criticism from the Yale School of Drama and his B.A. in Molecular/Cellular Biology and English Literature from Johns Hopkins University. He is currently a D.F.A. candidate at the Yale School of Drama where his dissertation explores how contemporary African American playwrights re-imagine and re-stage black theater history. Taylor is also a member of the 2021 REALITY Leadership Institute. 

Mentioned in this episode:

August Osage County
Dunbar Baldwin Hughes Theater
Yahya Abdul Mateen II
Actors Equity Association
Mamadou Athie
FOLKS
Sarah Williams
August Wilson American Century Cycle (first performance order)
Jitney (set in the '70s)
Fences (set in the '50s)
Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (set in the '20s)
Joe Turner's Come and Gone (set in the 1910s)
The Piano Lesson (set in the '30s)
Two Trains Running (set in the '60s)
Seven Guitars (set in the '40s)
King Hedley II (set in the '80s)
Gem of the Ocean (set in the 1900s)
Radio Golf (set in the '90s)
Tori Sampson