McKenna Deen, our Digital Content and Communication Manager at ACT, talked with Zora Howard about the upcoming production of STEW at ACT as well as what Howard is doing in the theatre world. Learn more about STEW here.

Deen: What was your inspiration in writing STEW?

Howard: I started writing STEW in the wake of the 2014 murder of Tamir Rice, a 12-year old Black boy in Cleveland, Ohio, and the subsequent grand jury decision not to indict the police officers responsible for his death. I wanted to tell a story about the “survived by”; the Black women and girls expected to pick up living after that kind of violent interruption. I also wanted to tell a story about the particular day on which that violence might have occurred. Which likely was a day like any other day. How mundane, how uneventful that day might’ve been. Until it wasn’t.

Deen: Could you tell us about how you balance life as a playwright, filmmaker, and actor? What attracts you to each role?

Howard: All of my creative endeavors are story-driven. I am attracted to a project based on the story that those involved are trying to tell – whether it be my own original idea or a commission, collaboration, etc. Is it a good story?  And if I think it is a good story, which is mostly about personal taste, the next question I ask myself is is it a story I want to tell. And if that answer is yes, then hopefully the story itself will tell me how I can best tell it. Sometimes it is for the stage. Sometimes it is for the screen. Sometimes it is a poem. Or a picture book.

Deen: STEW has been acclaimed for its blend of comedy and drama. How did you navigate balancing these elements to create a compelling narrative?

Howard: My practice as a writer is centered around listening, observing; a gestation process that takes much more time than the writing itself. There is so much of the women of my family in STEW, and they just happen to be very funny folks. They were never trying to be funny, never trying to spin a joke. Their kind of humor had everything to do with their worldview, their deep understanding of and reckoning with the lives that they’d been handed. I grew up witnessing their special kind of humor, their effortless timing. When it comes to writing comedy, it is just about recording rhythms. Listening deeply for the rhythms, the peaks, the pauses, the tension, and trying my very best to put it down on paper.  And the drama is just the drama. The drama is just what happens and why.

Deen: As a playwright, what do you hope audiences will take away from STEW?

Howard: My only hope is that audiences are open to be moved. In which direction they are moved, that is mostly out of my control. Each audience member will carry something different into the space and so I invite audiences to allow STEW to meet them wherever they are.

Deen: What’s next for you?

Howard: Some new plays, some new screenplays. Hopefully, all good things with all good people.