Who. What. Why.

Some people call it risk we call it regard for truth

Play Development Lab is the lab of choice for Black women playwrights. We develop plays people talk about and want to see. We do this work because playwrights' have a role in today's social revolution by telling stories that help us be less cog and more creator. We believe in stories that respect humanity, individuality and community. Stores that help us build something better.

The Play Development Lab offers play- development experience for Black women playwrights to advance process, craft & career.

PLay Development Lab Leadership

Denise J. Hart, an Emmy nominated award winning playwright, dramaturge and director has created an intensive play development opportunity for professional BIPOC women playwrights to develop their work through one-on-one meetings, table work and rehearsals with a cast of actors and developmental readings.

CLICK HERE to read about Professor Hart's previous play development program, Visiting Playwrights 2008-2017.

Denise is an award winning playwright and dramaturge. As a play development dramaturge she has partnered with the Lark Play Development Center/NYC to bring international Ivorian playwright Kofi Kwahule's work to the US, Black Girl You've been Gentrified by Nichole Thompson Adams, Nothing to Lose by Denise J. Hart and supported a number of emerging playwrights through partnership with the Playwrights Forum/WDC and through the Visiting Playwrights Series where she helped develop the work of Nikkole Salter, A. Peter Bailey, Peter Harris, and Elizabeth Bruce. She has shared her expertise on WDC's Fox 5 TV & WJLA/ABC News and with Ford's Theatre "Written Then, Spoken Now" on CSPAN, Studio Theatre, Shakespeare Theatre, The August Wilson Society, Arena Stage, Mosaic Theatre, Howard University and Hatiloo Theatre in Memphis TN.

Production dramaturge and audience dramaturge credits include: Rhyme Deferred, Black Nativity, Jitney (recipient of the 2019 Memphis Ostrander Award for Best Production), Flyin' West, Milk Like Sugar, Sweet Charity, Joe Turner's Come and Gone, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Day of Absence (Kennedy Center ACT Festival Outstanding Acting Ensemble Award), Zooman and the Sign, Malcom, Martin & Medgar, Breath Boom and the DC Queer Festivals' productions of Quick Stop at the Florist and Secret Mist of the Blue.

As a scholar dramaturge/presentation coach, for six years, Denise coached internationally recognized scholars, artists and activists for appearances on the Lone Star Emmy nominated Blackademics TV, which airs on PBS and reaches over 3 million households.

She served as the 2021 & 2022 Howard Entertainment Faculty Externship recipient at Amazon Studios where she worked in Drama Development and Limited Series Drama Development and contributed to some of America's favorite TV shows!