Talvin Wilks is a playwright, director, and dramaturg. His plays include Tod, the boy, Tod; The Trial of Uncle S&M; Bread of Heaven; An American Triptych; Jimmy and Lorraine: A Musing; and As I Remember It with Carmen de Lavallade.
Directorial projects include the world or regional premiere productions of UDU by Sekou Sundiata, The Love Space Demands by Ntozake Shange, the Obie Award/AUDELCO Award-winning The Shaneequa Chronicles by Stephanie Berry, This Bitter Earth by Harrison David Rivers, The White Card by Claudia Rankine, The Peculiar Patriot by Liza Jessie Peterson, and The Ballad of Emmett Till and Benevolence by Ifa Bayeza.
He is a co-writer/co-director/dramaturg for Ping Chong’s ongoing series of Undesirable Elements and Collidescope: Adventures in Pre- and Post-Racial America. He has also served as dramaturg for six collaborations with the Bebe Miller Company, Going to the Wall, the Bessie Award-winning Verge, Necessary Beauty, A History, The Making Room, and Landing/Place for which he received a 2006 Bessie Award.
Other dramaturgical collaborations include work with Camille A. Brown and Dancers (Mr. TOL E. RAnCE, BLACK GIRL: Linguistic Play, and ink), Urban Bush Women (Hep Hep Sweet Sweet, Walking with ‘Trane, and SCAT!), and the stage adaptation of Ta-Nehisi Coates’ Between the World and Me at the Apollo Theatre.
He is currently an Assistant Professor in the Theatre Arts and Dance Department, University of Minnesota/Twin Cities.
| Credit Type | Production | Season |
|---|---|---|
| Director | The River Crosses Rivers: Short Plays by Women of Color | 2009-10 Season |