The Refocus Project

The Refocus Project aims to transform the American theatre canon.

The Refocus Project aims to transform the American theatre canon.

The works historically deemed “classics” were defined too narrowly and by too few. To have an equitable theatre, we believe we must take a new look at the past and elevate playwrights from underrepresented or historically overlooked communities in the American theatre.

As a theatre company with a legacy of producing revivals, we launched The Refocus Project to expand our perspective to encompass some of these plays and playwrights. We began in 2021, producing three seasons of readings of works from the Black American, Latinx, and Asian American and Pacific Islander communities. In 2024 we produced Samm-Art Williams’s Home on Broadway, a piece that had been our very first reading in this initiative.

The Refocus Project Spotlight Artists

Migdalia Cruz

William S. Yellow Robe, Jr. 

The Refocus Spotlight Artists is the next phase of Roundabout’s efforts to expand the American theatre canon. Building on the first three years of offering readings, this season Roundabout will concentrate on two artists, Migdalia Cruz and William S. Yellow Robe, Jr. This new approach will attempt to curate a deeper dive into the lives and careers of two artists of color whose names should be more familiar in American theatre history.

We will explore Cruz and Yellow Robe’s work through readings and panels and create an in-depth resource guides dedicated to the Spotlight Artists. These opportunities and resources will be shared with theatres, schools, and audiences both in NYC and nationwide, with the goal of encouraging more productions of their work and placement on theatre syllabi.

Year Three: Plays from the Asian American and Pacific Islander Community

Live Readings: May 22—June 26, 2023
Streamed: October 23—November 19

Year Two: Plays from the Latinx Community

Live Readings: June 13—27, 2022
Streamed: September 2022

Year One: Plays from the Black American Community

April 30 – May 24, 2021

Please contact [email protected] for further information on the available resources around these plays.

Ford Foundation Logo

Leadership support for The Refocus Project is generously provided by the Ford Foundation.
Additional funding provided by Eugene and Joann Bissell and the Lillian Lincoln Foundation.

The Refocus Project is made possible by Roundabout’s Forward Fund Champions. We acknowledge the generous friends who support our many efforts to create a vibrant theatre company that reflects the communities we serve: Elizabeth Armstrong, Kevin Brown, Barbara and Peter Bye, Ford Foundation, Gina Maria Leonetti, Beryl Snyder, Denise Littlefield Sobel, and Liz and Ken Whitney.

Migdalia Cruz

MIGDALIA CRUZ, the 2023 DGF Legacy Playwright, is a Bronx-born playwright, lyricist, translator, and librettist with over 60 works performed in 150 venues across 40 cities in 12 countries. Her awards include the NEA, McKnight, NYSCA, and TCG/Pew, and she was named the 2013 Helen Merrill Distinguished Playwright. Cruz’s mentor María Irene Fornés at INTAR and her residency at Latino Chicago nurtured her voice. She co-chairs the DGF Playwriting Fellows, mentors the Latinx Playwrights’ Circle, was listed on The Kilroys Web 2023, and taught at Princeton, NYU, IU, and as founding member of the Fornés Institute’s Playwriting Workshop. Migdalia is an alumna of New Dramatists, and a member of The Tent, a theater for “Vintage” playwrights. She was featured in: “Fifty Key Figures in Latinx and Latin American Theatre.” Her recent essays and interviews appeared in the publications: “Shakespeare And Latinidad,” “Diasporic Journeys: Interviews with Puerto Rican Writers in the United States,” “A History of Latinx Performing Arts in the U.S.,” “The Routledge Companion to Latiné Theatre and Performance,” and “Fornés In Context.” Her new anthology of plays “The Impossible Plays of Migdalia Cruz,” debuted October 2024, published by Tripwire Harlot Press.

William S. Yellow Robe, Jr.

WILLIAM S. YELLOW ROBE, JR. (Assiniboine/Sioux) was a playwright, actor, director & teacher. He was born on February 3, 1960, on the Fort Peck Indian Reservation in Poplar, Montana. While in school on the reservation, he was encouraged by a teacher of his to become a writer. In his own words, “I had a bad truancy problem. I couldn’t stay in school. I hated school. But I had a teacher, a white woman, named Dorothy Grow. One day I was cutting class, and I went to my grandma’s house to hide out. As soon as I went in, there drinking tea was Mrs. Grow. Mrs. Grow took me back to school and said I should try something different. She offered me the chance to write a play, and that’s how I got started.”

This early start turned into a calling which Yellow Robe followed to the University of Montana in Missoula. There he studied writing and performing arts. Over his lifetime, Yellow Robe wrote over 70 plays, poems, and monologues. He was produced all over the United States and Europe.

To Yellow Robe, writing was a responsibility and a means of education and communication. As he one said, “the reason I do theatre, especially playwriting,” is that it was “the most peaceful form of communication; and it’s also the most peaceful means of change without bloodshed.” Though his work Yellow Robe continues to make accessible the truths of racism and inequality, while also presenting moments of pure comedy and love.

Arguably, his most significant impact was on his students. Yellow Robe encouraged young artists to be themselves, write from the heart and reflect Native American culture. As stated by his student Rhiana Yazzie, “He imparted a love for the craft and art of theatre while embodying Indigenous values of relationship and community.” Yellow Robe Jr. taught Native American studies, literature, history, politics, and culture, in addition to playwriting, theater, poetry, and environmental science at tribal colleges, Ivy League schools, and universities all over the US, including the Institute of American Indian Arts , University of New Mexico, University of Montana, and University of Maine. William S. Yellow Robe, Jr. died in Bangor, Maine, on July 19, 2021, at 59.

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