a.k. payne (they&she) is a playwright, artist-theorist, and theatermaker with roots in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania by way of the U.S. South & the Black Atlantic.
upcoming
upcoming
love i awethu further
a world premiere
directed by Tamilla Woodard
Wooly Mammoth Theater Company
Washington, DC.
Developmental Readings
(reach out on my Contact Page for More Info!) (this smoky city)
Our Sunlite’s Grove
December 12, 2026; Pittsburgh, PA
(City Theater Company’s Momentum Festival)
“you will speak as you speak/ you will walk like you have a right to it./ you will have a right to it./ you will breathe easy…”
—SMITH
“so this is for us being pushed out and dying too young with brief extraordinary lives and images worthy of a hundred thousand poems.”
“if you combust, ain’t nothing left for me to lose, so you can’t combust, okay?”
—Sade
