Gunplays: Five Plays on Inner City Violence and Guns

Gunplays is a series of five plays by William Electric Black addressing inner city violence and guns. The idea of these plays is to generate understanding of the social forces behind this scourge that our society has so far been helpless to resist.

William Electric Black, aka Ian Ellis James, is a seven-time Emmy Award-winning writer for his work on Sesame Street from 1992-2002. Theater for the New City gave him his start in theater, presenting his earliest work, Billy Stars and Kid Jupiter, in 1980. Now, TNC proudly continues its tradition of supporting and developing Black’s unusual and energetic theatrical work. He has received a Bronze Apple (National Educational Video Award) for directing and several Best Play Awards. Black has also written, produced and directed a series of plays and musicals for La MaMa, where he runs the Poetry Electric series. He is currently a faculty member of the Department of Dramatic Writing/Open Arts at NYU’s Tisch School