Shay Youngblood
Playwright Bio
Early Life & Upbringing
Shay Youngblood was born in Columbus, Georgia in 1959 and raised in a community of strong women. Youngblood became an orphan at the age of two following the death of her mother and was raised by her “Big Mamas” in the projects in Georgia. She always loved reading and had a recurring dream of living in a library as a child, along with a dream that she could fly. Youngblood received a BA in Mass Communication from Clark Atlanta University and joined the Peace Corps following college in 1981, where she served in the Eastern Caribbean. While she has traveled all over the world and explored many different careers (archivist, photographer, librarian, au pair), she remains truthful to and impacted by her southern roots.
“I’ve left the South many times, but it’s never left me”
- Shay Youngblood
Career
Shay Youngblood fell into writing by accident as a child when she was watching TV and became angry at the fact that Howard Hughes was buying an entire floor in a Las Vegas hotel when children in her neighborhood couldn’t afford shoes. She wrote about what she felt and she felt better and this helped her see the power of words. Her first collection of stories, The Big Mama Stories, were a love letter to the women that raised her. Youngblood wrote the collection during her time in France and sent the collection of stories to a theater company in Atlanta who helped her adapt the 20 character play to something more manageable for a theatrical setting. Following the premiere of Shakin’ the Mess Outta Misery in 1988, Youngblood went on to receive her MFA in creative writing from Brown University. In addition to being a playwright, Youngblood travels the country teaching playwriting and creative writing at institutions including: University of Mississippi, Texas A&M and NYU. She has received honors including the Pushcart prize for fiction, Lorrain Hansberry Playwriting Award, an Edward Albee Honor and multiple honors from the NAACP. Beyond all of her accomplishments, Youngblood writes to represent and honor her community and to tell stories that are consistently underrepresented.
“I began writing seriously out of a desire to give the community who raised me a voice”
- Shay Youngblood
Shakin’ the Mess Outta Misery
Synopsis
Youngblood, S. (1994). Shakin’ the Mess Outta Misery. Woodstock: Dramatic Publishing.
Shakin’ the Mess Outta Misery is based on Shay Youngblood’s The Big Mama Stories and recounts the childhood memories and stories of a young girl being raised by a group of strong black women in a small southern town. The play takes place in many time periods from the 1920s up until present day, as it highlights stories from each of Daughter's Big Mamas. This serves as Youngblood’s first playwriting venture and tackles themes of racism, sexism and homophobia as the Big Mamas prepare Daughter for womanhood and her first ceremonial trip to the river.
In the Classroom...
From an educational lens this play provides an entry point to discussions and exercises regarding oppression in a variety of forms, but particularly racism. From a technical playwriting perspective, Youngblood’s play serves as a model of adaptation and employs devices such as memory and flashbacks in her writing. In an applied setting this work can be used to inspire devised works tackling oppression, family structure and cultural traditions. In addition, the play has a small cast of eight females who each play two roles and does not require an intricate set. And artistically, this work exemplifies authentic storytelling and feels as Youngblood brings to life her most personal childhood memories and wraps the audience in a quilt held together by the strength and perseverance of her Big Mamas.
Sample Activity
Activity: Exploring the Ritual of Memory
Audience: Middle school drama elective of 7th & 8th grade students
Purpose: Students will be able to explore the use of memory by participating in a ritual within the classroom and embodying elements of the plot of Shakin’ the Mess Outta Misery.
Previous Knowledge: This activity is meant to explore the contents of Shakin’ the Mess Outta Misery and the use of ritual and memory throughout the play. Students need to read excerpts or the entire play prior to engaging in this activity. It is also important that students are aware of and in agreement on a classroom code of ethics and have practiced engaging in ensemble work.
Procedure:
· Sitting in a circle students first brainstorm the different memories and stories that are told in Shakin’ the Mess Outta Misery
· Small notecards and pencils are distributed around the circle
· Students then write two key words representing a specific memory from the play or an emotion related to one of those memories
· After all students have key words the instructor establishes a group rhythm that students tap on the floor or clap with their hands (the instructor can also utilize a tambourine or a drum for this rhythm)
· Each student says their two words in rhythm and then the entire class repeats the “chorus” “Shakin’ the Mess Outta Misery”
o EX: “Love (beat) Pain (beat)
Shakin’ the Mess Outta Misery
Family (beat) Home (beat)
Shakin’ the Mess Outta Misery”
· This cycle can be repeated changes rhythms and students can also change spots in the circle to alter the order of the words in the ritualistic song
· Students then are asked to embody each of their terms as they say them
· Students then take time to reflect in a drama journal about the experience of group ritual and the impact of memories
o What did it feel like participating in this ritual and contributing your own words?
o Did this reveal anything to you about the play or why Shay Youngblood utilizes memory?
Discussion Questions
The below questions can be modified for a younger audience, but are intended for a high school aged or older group of students. - How is this play relevant, were there any connections you made between this play and current events?
- Why does Shay Youngblood use memory, rather than telling a linear narrative from the perspective of the daughter or one of the Big Mamas?
- Is there a connection to collective consciousness/memory and the stories retold by the Big Mamas?
- How does the “going to the river” ritual portray menstruation? How does this compare to “period shaming” that occurs around the world?
- What are your thoughts on the “untraditional” family structure depicted in the play?
- Was there a Big Mama that stood out, or whose storyline you wanted to explore more?
Annotated Plays
Flying Blind
Synopsis
Youngblood, S. (2013). Flying Blind. Scotts Valley: Create Space Publishing.
Flying Blind Takes place in a truck stop in Texas in present day and follows the journey of a 70 something woman, Floral, who dreams of riding across the country in her vintage Buick. While waiting for her son to take her to an assisted living home, Floral meets a sixteen year old girl, Cherry, who becomes her driver. The two begin a journey across the country and back in time through Floral’s storytelling. This play employs blindness as a metaphor for “turning a blind eye” to brutality, oppression, suffering and pain in service of survival. While the characters in the play are focused on their own struggles and pain, they ultimately help each other more than they help themselves.
In the Classroom...
From an educational perspective the recollections and current struggles of the character serve as an entry point into issues of systemic and cultural oppression, abuse, as well as the impact of a metaphor as a framing device for the entire play. In addition, this play incorporates specific images throughout and could serve as an introduction to technical theater devices in scenic and lighting design. The images also serve as differentiation, giving students a visual option for storytelling that could be an outlet for struggling readers or writers. In an applied setting this piece could be adapted to tackle a number of issues, including ageism and racism, as well as what it means to be blind and live with disability. The play includes four main characters and various smaller roles throughout, as well as specific music and images or projections throughout. From an artistic perspective this play maintains the authentic southern style of Youngblood’s previous work, Shakin’ the Mess Outta Misery, and again ventures into the past through memories and the storytelling of an elder. While similar, this work feels more focused due to the small confines of the Buick, and the unifying metaphor of blindness that contributes a suspenseful synthesizer of themes and plot for the audience.
Amazing Grace
Synopsis
Youngblood,S. (1995). Amazing Grace. Woodstock: Dramatic Publishing.
Based on the picture book by Mary Hoffman, this Theatre for Young Audiences piece follows the journey of Grace who loves to tell stories and act them out with her Nana and Ma. Nana shares many stories with Grace, including Anansi stories from Africa, emphasizing the connection between storytelling and heritage. In Grace’s world simple trips to the store become secret missions to get supplies for the troops and challenging her classmates when they tell her she can’t be Peter Pan due to her gender and race. This charming play emphasizes the power of imagination and storytelling to breed confidence and challenge inequity and cultural limitations.
In the Classroom...
From an educational lens this TYA piece presents themes of cultural representation, family structure and heritage, as well as sexism and racism in an accessible format for young students and audiences. Furthermore, Grace’s journey serves as an empowering message of perseverance and the power of believing in one’s self. In an applied setting this is a piece of TYA that includes roles for ten or more children, as well as six female adults. In addition, the characters call for actors from a myriad of cultural and ethnic backgrounds and in this way models the inclusiveness and representation that Grace advocates for in the play. The piece requires minimal sets and costumes and would work well in a community, educational or professional setting. Artistically, this piece maintains the authenticity that is emblematic of Youngblood’s work, but succeeds in bringing a playful lightness to Grace’s world that is appropriate and accessible for young audiences.
Comprehensive List of Plays
Full Length Plays (premiere dates)
Shakin' The Mess Outta Misery (1988)
Black Power Barbie in Hotel de Dream (1992)
Square Blues (1992)
Flying Blind (2013* publication date)
Add Architecture, Stir Memory: Japan (2015)
One Act Plays
Communism Killed My Dog (1991)
Talking Bones (1992)
Theatre for Young Audiences
Amazing Grace (1995)
Novels
Soul Kiss (1997)
Black Girl in Paris (2000)
Winter Prophet (2013)
Black Power Barbie (2013)
Collections of Stories
Big Mama Stories (1989)
Hotel Stories (2008)
Additional Resources
Shay Youngblood's Website: http://www.shayyoungblood.com
Shay Youngbood's Blog: http://shayyoungblood.com/blog/
Bibliography
Hulbert, D. (1988, December 2). Atlanta playwright shakin’ out mess of mothering memories.
The Atlanta Journal. Retrieved from http://www.newslibrary.com/sites/ajc/
Jones, J. (2002). Conjuring as radical re/membering in the works of Shay Youngblood. Black Theatre:
Ritual performance in the African diaspora, 227-235. Retrieved from
https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt14bs6rh.17
Kape, M. (1994, August 11). Shay Youngblood hears voices. Southern Voice, 7(25), 49.
Lawrence, J. (2014). Queer tastes: An exploration of food and sexuality in southern lesbian literature.
Theses and dissertations. Retrieved from http://scholarworks.uark.edu/etd
Morris, C. (2009). Intoduction: “Travelin’ thru” the queer south. Southern Communication Journal,
74(3), 233-242. Retrieved from https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10417940903060963
Riggins, D. (1997, September 2). Delicious, forbidden: An interview with Shay Youngblood. Lamda
Book Report, 6, 6-7.
Rogers, L. (2016).Beyond the binary: Rev. D. in Suzan-Lori Parks’ “in the blood” and the big mamas in
Shay Youngblood’s shakin’ the mess outtta misery. Interdisciplinary Humanities, 33(2), 56-64.
Retrieved from http://eds.a.ebscohost.com.proxy.library.nyu
Shay youngblood. (2016). Retrieved from https://aalbc.com/authors/author.php?
Stillwater, D. (1988). Review: Shakin’ the mess outta misery by Shay Youngblood. Southern Voice, 1(21), 7.
Women of color women of words: Shay youngblood. (2013). Retrieved from
https://archive.is/20010129053200/http://www.scils.rutgers.edu/~cybers/youngblood2.ht ml
Youngblood, S. (n.d.). About: Shay Youngblood. Retrieved from http://shayyoungblood.com/about.php
Web page created by Roxy Reynolds (2018)