Patricia_J._Gibson

Patricia J. Gibson

Patricia J. Gibson

Playwright and educator (1952-2002)

Patricia Joann Gibson (1952-2022), also known as P.J. Gibson, was an African American playwright and teacher.

Quick Facts Born, Died ...

Biography

Patricia Joann Gibson was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1952.[1] She grew up in Trenton, New Jersey.[2] She started writing at the age of 9.[3]

She earned a BA in drama, religion, and English from Keuka College. She earned a MFA from Brandeis University in 1975, where she received a Schubert Fellowship.[2]

Gibson studied under J.P. Miller. Other mentors included Don Peterson and Israel Horovitz.[2] Lorraine Hansberry was a major influence on Gibson's work. Gibson saw To Be Young Gifted and Black in 1969, and started writing plays.[2]

Works

She has written 35 full-length plays[3] and television scripts for Oprah Winfrey and Bill Cosby.[4]

Her play Miss Ann Don't Cry No More (1980) earned a National Endowment of the Arts grant. The play was performed as a reading at the Frank Silvera Writer's Workshop, and eventually fully produced at the Frederick Douglass Creative Arts Center.[2]

Her play Long Time Since Yesterday earned multiple AUDELCO awards in 1985, including Best Play.[3] It has had over 60 productions since its premiere.[4]

Gibson was playwright-in-residence at Rutgers University, the University of California at Berkeley, and a lengthy stay at the College of New Rochelle[1] Gibson was an Artistic Director of the Rites and Reason Theatre at Brown University.[5]

Gibson taught as an assistant professor of English at John Jay College of Criminal Justice City University of New York.[2] She started on April 19, 1988 in the Seek Department, and in 1990 moved to the English department.[5]

She was part of the Woodie King Jr.'s New Federal Theatre playwriting faculty.[6]

Death

Gibson died on May 6, 2022.[5]

John Jay College established a P.J. Gibson Memorial Scholarship for Creative Writers in her name.[4]

Published works

Plays

  • Shameful in Your Eyes (1971)
  • The Black Woman (1971, as a one-act play; 1972, as a three-act play)
  • companion one-act plays Void Passage and Konvergence (1973)
  • The Ninth Story Window (1974)
  • Spida Bug (1975)
  • The Zappers and the Shopping Bag Lady (1979)
  • The Androgyny (1979)
  • Ain't Love Grand? (1980)
  • Miss Ann Don't Cry No More (1980)
  • Brown Silk and Magenta Sunsets (1981)
  • My Mark, My Name (1981)
  • Angel (1981)
  • The Unveiling of Abigail (1982)
  • Clean Sheets Can't Soil (1983)
  • Long Time Since Yesterday (1985/1992)
  • Deep Roots (1998)
  • trilogy Private Hells, Sketches in Reality (1981), which included You Must Die Before My Eyes as I Have Before Yours, “But I Feed the Pigeons” / “Well, I Watch the Sun,” and Can You Tell Me Who They Is?

Book Anthology

  • Destiny's Daughters: 9 Voices of P.J. Gibson[7]

Unproduced works

  • Strippa
  • Swing/Slide
  • Majorna and the Man Thief
  • A Man
  • Masculine and Glass Fist
  • Marie
  • In Search of Me (also titled Trial)

Recognition

  • AUDELCO awards, Audience Development Committee
  • Shubert Fellowship
  • National Endowment of the Arts playwriting grant
  • PSC-CUNY research award grant
  • Artist in Residence at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor[1]
  • Schubert fellowship with which she earned her M.F.A. at Brandeis University
  • Bushfire Theatre of Performing Arts Seventh Annual "Walk of Fame"
  • proclamation from the city of Trenton, New Jersey and Key to the City from Indianapolis, Indiana[8]

References

  1. [1]
    Encyclopedia of African-American Writing. Grey House Publishing. 2018.
  2. [2]
    The Concise Oxford Companion to African American Literature. Oxford Reference.
  3. [3]
    Cristi, A.A. "New Federal Theatre In Association With ASP Presents A Staged-Reading Of P.J. Gibson's LONG TIME SINCE YESTERDAY". Broadway World.
  4. [4]
    "P.J. Gibson Memorial Scholarship for Creative Writers". John Jay College of Criminal Justice.
  5. [5]
    "Passing of Professor Patricia (PJ) Gibson – Department of English" (PDF).
  6. [6]
    "P. J. Gibson". Patricia J. Gibson. New Federal Theatre.
  7. [7]
    "Destiny's daughters : 9 voices of P.J. Gibson". Worldcat.
  8. [8]
    "PJ Gibson's "Diana Sands Project" Reading 5/20 (Harlem)". African American Playwrights Exchange.
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