Gloria Bond Clunie
Creative Drama, Director, Drama, Educator, Playwright, Actor, Youth Theatre, Theatre Founder
1950?-
Years:
Affiliations:
Evanston School District 65, Northwestern, Victory Gardens Theatre, Fleetwood-Jourdain Theater
Chicago, Evanston, Illinois
Locations:
Connections:
Winifred Ward
Gloria Bond Clunie is an award-winning playwright, director and educator. Ms. Clunie is a founding member of the Playwriting Ensemble at Chicago’s Regional Tony Award winning Victory Gardens Theater where her plays North Star, Living Green and Shoes premiered. She is also the founding Artistic Director of Evanston’s Fleetwood-Jourdain Theatre where she directed scores of productions including Ain't Misbehavin', Ceremonies in Dark Old Men, Home and Raisin. Her other plays include Sweet Water Taste, SMOKE, Sing, Malindy, Sing!, BLU, Buck Naked, DRIP, Patricia McKissack’s Mirandy and Brother Wind, Bankruptcy, Merry Kwanzaa, Mercy Rising and QUARK. She is published by Dramatic Publishing and in the anthologies Seven Black Plays, Reimagining A Raisin In the Sun and The Bully Plays.
Ms. Clunie has been recognized for her work in theatre and education by the NAACP, AKA, and DST Sororities, American Alliance for Theatre and Education, and the Vision Keepers. Awards include a Chicago Jeff, a Children’s Theater Foundation of America Orlin Corey Medallion, a Scott McPherson, a Dramatists Guild Fellowship, Theodore Ward African-American Playwriting Prizes, New York’s New Professional Theater Award, Chicago Black Theatre Alliance Awards, NEA and Illinois Arts Council Fellowships, and the Evanston Mayor’s Award for the Arts.
In 2018, she served as both playwright and director for My Wonderful Birthday Suit commissioned by Chicago Children’s Theatre and her adaptation of The Last Stop on Market Street (2016 Caldecott/ 2016 Newbery/ 2016 Coretta Scott King Book Awards)premiered at Children’s Theatre of Charlotte, then went on to Dallas Children’s Theatre and Bay Area Children’s Theatre in 2020 and will be produced at Milwaukee’s First Stage in 2022. Her comedy Sweet Water Taste enjoyed nightly standing ovations in 2019 at Atlanta’s Horizon Theatre Company and is part of the 2021-22 Orlando Shakespeare Season. Currently, fueled by her love of Chicago architecture, she is working on the musical SKY which was begun at California’s Djerassi Resident Artists Program; adapting The Hula-Hoopin’ Queen for a Childsplay/Imagination Stage joint commission; and excited about two world premieres in April 2022 – Tall Enough at DePaul University’s PlayWorks and her musical Giraffes Can’t Dance at Omaha’s Rose Theatre. (Bio from https://pwcenter.org/profile/gloria-clunie)
