Your browser is unsupported

We recommend using the latest version of IE11, Edge, Chrome, Firefox or Safari.

Lydia R. Diamond

School of Theatre and Music  |  Theatre

Lydia R. Diamond is an award-winning playwright whose works include: Toni Stone, Smart People (premiered at Huntington), Stick Fly (Broadway), Voyeurs de Venus, Harriet Jacobs, The Bluest Eye, The Gift Horse, The Inside, and Stage Black.  Her work has been performed at companies including: American Conservatory Theatre Company, The Huntington Theatre, Goodman Theatre, Congo Square, Steppenwolf Theatre Co., The Alliance Theatre, Arena Stage, Company One, Writers Theatre, McCarter Theatre Center, New Victory at the Duke (Off-Broadway), The Guthrie Theater, Roundabout Theatre Co. (Off-Broadway), Kansas City Repertory Theatre, Milwaukee Repertory Theater, Second Stage Theater (Off-Broadway), Hartford Stage, Long Wharf Theatre, True Colors, Milwaukee Rep, MPAACT, Arden Theatre Co., Encores at City Center (New York), Intiman Theatre, and PlayMakers Repertory Company. Diamond will direct Toni Stone, at the The Huntington Theatre in 2024.  Diamond has been a  W. E. B. DuBois Institute Non-Resident Fellow at Harvard, a Sundance Playwright Lab Creative Advisor, a Radcliffe Institute Fellow, a Sally B. Goodman Fellow, and a National Endowment for the Arts/TCG playwright in residence. Awards include: Horton Foote Playwriting Award, Joseph Jefferson Award, IRNE Award Nomination, Elliot Norton Award Nomination, Audelco Nomination, Kilroy’s List, Susan Smith Blackburn Prize Finalist, LA Critics Circle Award, and National Art’s Club Kesselring Prize for Playwriting.  She was a Consulting Producer and writer for Showtime’s 4th season of The Affair and nominated for a Writer’s Guild Award for best Drama Episode.

Lydia R. Diamond

Lydia R. Diamond

 

She has also written for NBC, HBO, HBOMAX, and Hulu. Diamond has an Honorary MFA from A.C.T., and an Honorary Doctorate from Pine Manor College. She sits on the Dramatists Guild Legal Defense Fund Board and The Dramatist Guild Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Access Committee. Diamond was on faculty at Boston University for eleven years and now is an Associate Professor of Playwriting at University of Illinois at Chicago.

Book Cover: Toni Stone, An Original Play by Lydia R. Diamond

Toni Stone

Northwestern University Press

Toni Stone is an encyclopedia of baseball stats. She’s got a great arm. And she doesn’t understand why she can’t play with the boys. About the first woman to go pro in the Negro League and featuring a bullpen of players crossing age, race and gender to portray all supporting roles, Toni Stone is a vibrant new play about staying in the game, playing hard, playing smart and playing your own way.