Faculty Spotlight: Tanya Barfield

This interview originally appeared in the Fall 2020 Drama Alumni Newsletter.

The Drama Division is thrilled to welcome Tanya Barfield, who joins us this year as co-director of the Lila Acheson Wallace American Playwrights Program with David Lindsay-Abaire. Tanya is no stranger to Juilliard, having been a student in the Playwrights Program and the Drama Division’s literary manager. Tanya’s plays have been produced Off-Broadway and around the country, and her 2014 play Bright Half Life was performed as part of Juilliard’s 2019-20 season. She has received numerous accolades, including a Lilly Award and a PEN/Laura Pels International Foundation for Theater Award. Most recently, she received an Emmy nomination for outstanding writing for a limited series or movie for the “Shirley” episode of the FX series Mrs. America, which chronicles the conclusion of Shirley Chisholm’s historic run for president in July 1972.

This fall, Tanya’s 2007 play Blue Door will be presented as part of Juilliard Drama’s Fourth-Year Zoom Festival. A reckoning with our country’s racial past, Blue Door examines identity in the face of oppression through a Black perspective.

The following interview has been condensed and lightly edited for clarity.

Returning to Juilliard as Co-Director of the Playwrights Program

It’s amazing to be returning to Juilliard as co-director. I’ve been able to live different stages of my life through Juilliard as a student, literary manager, and now co-director. I’ve truly grown up with Juilliard, and, in the same way, the program has changed and matured, too. I understand how rare it is to have that opportunity, and I’m quite fortunate to be in this position. 

In many ways, as co-director, I’m trying to bring what I learned both as a student and as an administrator to my experience. David [Lindsay-Abaire, co-director] was also an alum of the program. My and David’s predecessors, Chris [Durang] and Marsha [Norman] felt that it was important to have alums sit in those seats because we know what it is that makes the Juilliard Playwrights Program unique. To me, it's that the program is not only interested in the art of writing but also the care of the soul of a writer. Being a writer is not always the easiest profession, and being a playwright certainly poses unique challenges. The Juilliard Playwrights Program asks: What does it mean for this to be your calling and not just your vocation? And when you are called to write, how do you care for yourself within that calling? 

The Playwrights Program’s Adaptation to the Virtual Realm

In the Playwrights Program, we’re fortunate because playwriting is a literary form, so it’s really about the words on the page. When we meet as a group, we read the plays aloud (as if we were actors—which, of course, most of us are not). But our goal is to hear the play, since plays are ultimately meant to be spoken. This dialogue lends itself fairly well to Zoom. It’s not the same as meeting in person by any stretch. It doesn’t offer the same sense of community, or the opportunities to walk in the halls together or have those conversations that happen before or after class. But we have found a way to be with each other over Zoom.  

The Creation of Blue Door

I wrote the play pre-Obama administration as an examination of inherited trauma and how you transcend from and heal from that. What is the way to reconcile that truth within yourself? It’s a look at how the personal is political. 

Blue Door’s Message in the Current Moment

The characters in Blue Door are three-dimensional to the degree that you see their foibles as much as you see their innate, buried heroism. My goal is for viewers—of any background—to find a part of themselves in Blue Door’s characters. I want people to think: This is a man I know. This is someone I identify with. This is someone I can rejoice with. This is someone I want to watch be healed. This is someone whose journey I will go on because I care about him.

Writing Shirley Chisholm for the Series Mrs. America

I felt a lot of responsibility, certainly, as did the other writers and the creator of the series Mrs. America, Dahvi Waller. When we discussed Shirley’s arc over the entire season (not just my episode), we were aware that this was the first time Shirley’s story was being dramatized for the screen in any way outside of a documentary. We were all aware that Shirley was going to enter many people’s consciousness for the first time. 

On a personal level, I felt like the opportunity to really focus on Shirley Chisholm was meaningful to me as a Black woman. Of course, Shirley has something to offer all of us in terms of what it means to be courageous, what it means to be empathetic, what it means to utilize your intelligence in a laser-focused way, what it means to be relentlessly optimistic and fearless. You don't have to be Black to look at her with admiration and say, wow, I want to know more about this person. There's something in her that speaks to everyone.
 
Photo: Tanya Barfield by Bjorg Magnea