Photo credit: Abi Sutcliffe Photography

Rachel Lynett

Rachel Lynett is a queer Afro-Latinx playwright who writes dark comedies about complex, complicated women of color. Her recent playwriting credits include commissions with Barrington Stage Theatre Company (HOLY GROUND), Florida Studio Theatre (CARRY ME and AS YOU ARE), and Theatre Lab (LAST NIGHT). Other credits include LAST NIGHT presented as a reading with Theatre Lab (2020); HERE BE DRAGONS presented as a reading with Capital Rep (2019); YOU WERE MINE presented as a reading at the Kennedy Center Page to Stage Festival presented by Theatre Prometheus (2019); HE DID IT presented as a reading with Equity Library Theatre, Chicago (2018) and presented as a workshop production with University of Central Florida's Pegasus PlayLab; REFUGE as part of Z Space's Problematic Play Festival (2018); GOOD BAD PEOPLE as part of Talk Back Theatre's Reading Series (2018), part of American Stage Theatre Company's 21st Century New Voices New Play Festival (2018), part of Jackalope Theatre's CIRCLE UP series (2017) and as a reading as part of Unicorn Theatre Plays In Progress (2018); WELL-INTENTIONED WHITE PEOPLE as the Michigan premiere with Matrix Theatre (2018), the world premiere with Barrington Stage Theatre Company (2018), the Downstage Left Residency with StageLeft (2017), part of Orlando Shakespeare New Play Festival (2017), and receiving honorable mention for the 2017 Kilroys for her play (2017). Her play, ABORTION ROAD TRIP received a workshop production produced by Theatre Prometheus as part of Capital Fringe where it won Best Comedy (2017) and then was later presented by Theatre Prometheus, as a part of the 2017 Kennedy Center Page to Stage Festival. Rachel Lynett is also the 2018 Recipient of the Arkansas Arts Council Individual Artist Fellowship and one of the 2020 recipients for the Artist 360 grant.

Artist Statement

I write plays about complicated, complex women of color. These women are neither saints or villains; they’re eternally both. These women are intelligent, blistered, and, most importantly, real. As these women navigate through the American landscape with a series of different issues, they all also struggle with the complicated idea of what it means to be a woman today and the layered complexity that adds to their various dilemmas. I use my plays to invite the audience into my world using humor and creating a recognizable world. We sit together, we drink together, and we live in these spaces together. My work challenges what about these spaces we can accept and what absolutely much change so that "the room where it happens" can be increasingly more inclusive.