Azure D. Osborne-Lee (he/they)

Azure D. Osborne-Lee is a multi-award-winning Black queer & trans theatre maker from south of the Mason-Dixon Line. He holds an MA in Advanced Theatre Practice (2011) from Royal Central School of Speech & Drama as well as an MA in Women’s & Gender Studies (2008) and a BA in English & Spanish from The University of Texas at Austin (2005). He teaches at New York University, The New School, and Quinnipiac University.

Recipient of Waterwell New Works Lab’s 2021 Commission, Kilroys List 2020 playwright, recipient of Parity Productions’ 2018 Annual Commission, Winner of Downtown Urban Arts Festival’s 2018 Best Play Award, and the 2015 Mario Fratti-Fred Newman Political Play Contest.

Azure’s full-length play Crooked Parts was published in The Methuen Drama Book of Trans Plays. His full-length play Mirrors received its world premiere, produced by Parity Productions, at Next Door at New York Theatre Workshop in spring 2020. Unfortunately, this production closed early due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Azure’s newest play Red Rainbow, commissioned by Waterwell, received a production at Mount Holyoke College in spring 2022 and will receive a production at Tufts University in spring 2023.

Azure is the founder of Roots and River Productions, and was a member of the inaugural Trans Theater Lab cohort. Azure’s work has been produced and/or developed by Trans Lab @ The Public and WP, Parity Productions, PRIDE Plays, The Tank, The Flea Theater, BAX|Brooklyn Arts Exchange, BAM, JACK, Rising Circle Theater Collective, The Fire This Time Festival, Horse Trade Theater Group, The Castillo Theatre, The New Ohio Theatre, National Black Theatre, Freedom Train Productions, Downtown Urban Arts Festival, Lambda Literary Foundation, The Helix Queer Performance Network, and regionally.

Finalist for Theatre Viscera’s Queer Playwright’s Contest, VanguardRep’s 2019 Summer Production, BAX|Brooklyn Arts Exchange’s 2018 Artist in Residence, National Black Theatre’s I AM SOUL Playwrights Residency, and Soho Rep’s Writer/Director Lab; Semi-finalist for the 2022 National Playwrights Conference, 2019 Burman New Play Award, Ars Nova’s Play Group and New York Theatre Workshop’s Emerging Artists Fellowship.

Follow Azure’s work at azureosbornelee.com