Farah Lawal Harris is an accomplished Artistic Director, playwright, producer, director, actress, teaching artist, and dramaturg.

Farah is currently the Artistic Director of Young Playwrights’ Theater (YPT) in Washington, DC.

UP NEXT: The From-Home Fest

October 26, 2024 - November 3, 2024 (Streaming)

Silence is Violence:
The Future of the Field

As part of the Silence is Violence social justice series Farah developed at Young Playwrights’ Theater in 2015.

Farah was the teaching artist, dramaturg, director, and producer of this three-part web series developed and filmed during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. In partnership with the Howard University Department of Theatre Arts, Young Playwrights’ Theater (YPT) presents a devised three-part web series about the experiences of Black theater artists contending with racism, tokenism, and ethics in American theater.

Actor Ty’Ree Davis in rehearsal for his one-man play,
Riot: The Beat of Freddie Gray. (Photo Credit: Cody Bahn)

Riot: The Beat of Freddie Gray
by Ty’Ree Hope Davis

Presented as part of the Young Playwrights in Progress script development program that Farah created at Young Playwrights’ Theater in 2020.

October 12, 2024

Farah was the dramaturg, director, and producer of a workshop performance of a powerful one-man show about the death of Freddie Gray by the hands of the Baltimore City Police Department. Farah guided the playwright with character development and multiple revisions. She directed him in rehearsals and presented this performance to a public audience on Saturday, October 12, 2024 at Busboys & Poets in Takoma, DC.

Farah’s one-on-one conversation with Thembi Duncan, the director of Silence is Violence: Wish Me Well.

Silence is Violence: Wish Me Well
Directed by Thembi Duncan

As part of the Silence is Violence social justice series Farah developed at Young Playwrights’ Theater in 2015.

June 21, 2024 - June 22, 2024

Farah commissioned seven young playwrights to create this script and served as the dramaturg and producer of this performance at Prince George’s Community College Center for the performing arts. Silence is Violence: Wish Me Well features performances and poetry exploring wellness. Through a partnership with Voices Unbarred, seven playwrights interviewed Voices Unbarred Community Advocates to gain new inspiration to what being “well” can mean for those from a variety of different backgrounds, perspectives, and situations in life. Voices Unbarred centers the voices of people impacted by incarceration and collaborates with theatre practitioners and policy organizations to creatively reimagine the prison system and advocate for change.