Playwright career
Originally interested in writing novels after being inspired by Toni Morrison, she then decided to be a playwright when "she was more interested in dialogue". [1] After working as an actor at the Black Arts Center in the Fifth Ward, [2] she made her playwright debut with Sister, Sister in 1978; [1] it is about a couple who create a "love square" when they each become interested in polygamy. [2]
Walker, who briefly did research on the Houston riot of 1917 after learning about it from her relatives, wrote Camp Logan to raise awareness of the incident. [2] [3] It premiered in 1987 at Kuumba House, before being performed at The Ensemble Theatre and outside the state, including in California and New York state. [2] Curator Steve Davis called the play "a great example of how literature can serve as a way to recover banished history" and noted that it "had a role in sparking an awareness of what happened". [2]
Another work from Walker, Distant Voices (1997), is about Black figures arising from a local cemetery [a] in Texas. [2] [4] In 2015, she wrote another play named Greenwood: An American Dream Destroyed, focused on the Tulsa race massacre. [2]
In the 1990s, she and actor Charles S. Dutton started a new production of Sister, Sister in Los Angeles, under the new name Once in a Wifetime. [2] Other works include musicals like Harlem after Hours, Over Forty, and Praise the Lord, and Raise the Roof!; a mystery play called Reunion in Bartersville; and a romantic comedy named Sassy Mamas, which has been widely performed and received several accolades since its 2007 premiere at the Billie Holiday Theatre. [1] [2] [5] She is founder of Mountaintop Productions, which became operational in 1990. [1]
In 2023, Texas A&M University Press published an anthology of Walker's plays called Sassy Mamas and Other Plays. [6]
Themes and accolades
Walker's theatrical work was inspired by the Black themes of Lorraine Hansberry and Neil Simon. [1] She once called both Camp Logan and Greenwood: An American Dream Destroyed "quintessential racial confrontation stories". [2] Andrew Dansby described her as "a provocative, entertaining and innovative presence in Houston’s theater scene for decades". [2] Sandra Mayo said that she "has enriched American theater and ennobled African-American theater", citing her research, subject matter, and writing. [2]
Walker was awarded a 2022 Texas Institute of Letters lifetime achievement award. [2] In 2023, she was awarded a Guggenheim Fellow in Drama and Performance Art. [7] She has also won a NAACP Theatre Award, as well as awards from AUDELCO and the International Black Theatre Festival. [5]
