The Ordained Smile of Saint Sadie Mae Jenkins

Reginald Edmund, is a resident playwright of Chicago Dramatists, and Managing Curating Producer of Black Lives, Black Words International Project. He was previously a 2009-2010, 2010-2011 Many Voices Fellow playwright. Originally from Houston, Texas, he served Artistic Director for the Silver House Theatre, as well as the founder and producer for the Silver House Playwrights Festival and the Houston Urban Theatre Series. Reggie was the inaugural recipient of the Kennedy Center Fellowship at Soul Mountain Retreat as well as the 2009 National Runner-up for the Lorraine Hansberry and Rosa Parks Playwriting Award, and most recently winner of an Edgerton Foundation New Play Award for his play SOUTHBRIDGE. He received his BFA in Theatre-Performance from Texas Southern University, and his MFA in playwriting at Ohio University under the guidance of Charles Smith. In 2009 He founded the Unit Collective and in 2010 he was named Winner of The Southern Writers Competition, and recognized by TCG as a 2011 Young Leader of Color. His plays, THE ORDAINED SMILE OF SADIE MAY JENKINS, SOUTHBRIDGE, JUNETEENTH STREET, and THE REDEMPTION OF ALLAH BLACK, all part of his nine-play series The City of the Bayou Collection, were developed at esteemed theaters including Ensemble Theatre of Houston, Silver House Theatre, Penumbra Theatre, the Playwrights' Center, Boston Playwrights' Theatre, Moving Arts, Karamu House, Pangea World Theater, the MacDowell Colony, Yaddo, Texas State University Black and Latino Theatre Conference, the Last Frontier Theater Conference, and the Kennedy Center. Most recently he traveled to Colombia to serve as the guest speaker at the Intercolegiado de Teatro de Buenaventura. He is currently Managing Curating Producer of Black Lives, Black Words International Project and a resident playwright for both Chicago Dramatists and Pegasus Theatre — Chicago.