Jocelyn Bioh’s ‘Jaja’s African Hair Braiding’ To Make 2023 World Premiere On Broadway

deadline.com:

Jaja’s African Hair Braiding, a new play written by Jocelyn Bioh and directed by Whitney White, will make its Broadway debut in a world premiere production by the Manhattan Theatre Club next fall.The play will be the first production of MTC’s 2023-2024 Broadway season at the Samuel J.

Friedman Theatre.Performance dates, casting, and creative team will be announced at a later date.The announcement was made today by Lynne Meadow, MTC Artistic Director, and Barry Grove, MTC Executive Producer.

The play is set at a hair braiding salon in Harlem where, as MTC describes, “every day, a lively and eclectic group of West African immigrant hair braiders are creating masterpieces on the heads of neighborhood women.“During one sweltering summer day, love will blossom, dreams will flourish and secrets will be revealed.

The uncertainty of their circumstances simmers below the surface of their lives and when it boils over, it forces this tight-knit community to confront what it means to be an outsider on the edge of the place they call home.”Bioh is a Ghanaian-American playwright whose credits include School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play and the Public Theater’s Merry Wives, and director White is an Obie winner for Our Dear Dead Drug Lord.Jaja’s African Hair Braiding joins the previously announced New York premiere of Poor Yella Rednecks, written by Qui Nguyen and directed by May Adrales, in MTC’s 2023-2024 season.