Bio
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Jeanne Madison, a member of the Dramatist Guild, is the 2022-23 Nord Family Foundation Playwright Fellow at Cleveland Public Theater (CPT), which includes a mentorship with prolific playwright, Eric Coble. Through Test Flight at CPT, a new play development program, she co-produced her play “Showin’ Up Black” in workshop at CPT where it sold out every night.
Her play, “Eyes of the Bridge”, which presents another side of the story of sexual relationships between white women and black men, and offers a reckoning for the bloodshed that resulted from one such liaison, was one of only twenty new plays selected for the A-List of the Garland Thompson, Sr Readers Theater at the National Black Theater Festival where the play’s staged reading enjoyed a standing room only crowd.
Other plays have had staged readings at the Ensemble Theatre of Cleveland where she is a member of the Stagewrights Unit, and her short play “Black Coffee” was licensed to Karamu Theater of Cleveland as part of their diversity, equity, and inclusion corporate training program. “Fortune Cookie”, a ten-minute play was produced at Station Hope, a celebration of the ideals of freedom and acceptance embodied in the Underground Railroad.
Jeanne is also an award-winning actress, and the recipient of Cleveland Scene Theatre Awards for Best Actress in a Comedy for her portrayal of Wilhemina in “Sassy Mamas” by Celeste Bedford Walker, and for the Cleveland Shakespeare Festival production of “Taming of the Shrew”, for excellence in non-traditional casting, where she played Baptista.
Jeanne holds a BA, cum laude, with a Theater Arts Minor, and an MBA from Case Western Reserve University. She recently completed Scene Study and Playwrighting Master Classes at The Cleveland Play House. After many years in the corporate, and non-profit sectors, during which she lived in Chicago, New York City, and Washington DC, Jeanne makes her home in Cleveland, Ohio where she finds inspiration for her writing.
Her play, “Eyes of the Bridge”, which presents another side of the story of sexual relationships between white women and black men, and offers a reckoning for the bloodshed that resulted from one such liaison, was one of only twenty new plays selected for the A-List of the Garland Thompson, Sr Readers Theater at the National Black Theater Festival where the play’s staged reading enjoyed a standing room only crowd.
Other plays have had staged readings at the Ensemble Theatre of Cleveland where she is a member of the Stagewrights Unit, and her short play “Black Coffee” was licensed to Karamu Theater of Cleveland as part of their diversity, equity, and inclusion corporate training program. “Fortune Cookie”, a ten-minute play was produced at Station Hope, a celebration of the ideals of freedom and acceptance embodied in the Underground Railroad.
Jeanne is also an award-winning actress, and the recipient of Cleveland Scene Theatre Awards for Best Actress in a Comedy for her portrayal of Wilhemina in “Sassy Mamas” by Celeste Bedford Walker, and for the Cleveland Shakespeare Festival production of “Taming of the Shrew”, for excellence in non-traditional casting, where she played Baptista.
Jeanne holds a BA, cum laude, with a Theater Arts Minor, and an MBA from Case Western Reserve University. She recently completed Scene Study and Playwrighting Master Classes at The Cleveland Play House. After many years in the corporate, and non-profit sectors, during which she lived in Chicago, New York City, and Washington DC, Jeanne makes her home in Cleveland, Ohio where she finds inspiration for her writing.