Regina Taylor
REGINA TAYLOR'S newest play, Magnolia, is part of the Goodman's 2008/2009 season, directed by Anna D. Shapiro (Tony Award Winner for August: Osage County). Her play, The Dreams of Sarah Breedlove premiered at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival and was produced at the Goodman in June 2006 with Ms. Taylor directing. Drowning Crow, her adaptation of Chekhovʼs The Seagull was produced on Broadway at Manhattan Theater Clubʼs Biltmore Theater. Ms. Taylor wrote the award winning Crowns, which was first produced at the McCarter Theatre and at Second Stage in New York and has gone on to become the most done musical in America; Ms. Taylor also directed the production to critical acclaim.
Ms. Taylorʼs other plays include Oo-Bla-Dee, which premiered at the Goodman and which won the 2000 American Theatre Critics/Steinberg New Play Award; Escape From Paradise, a one-woman show; Watermelon Rinds; Inside the Belly of the Beast; Mudtracks; Love Poem #97; and she curated Urban Zulu Mambo, an evening of plays by Adrienne Kennedy, Ntozake Shange, Suzzane Lori Parks and Kia Corthran.
Ms. Taylorʼs acting credits include roles on Broadway, off-Broadway and in numerous regional theatres. Her film credits include Clockers, Losing Isaiah, Lean on Me, A Family Thing, Courage Under Fire, with Denzel Washington and The Negotiator with Samuel L. Jackson. For her role as Lilly Harper on the television series Iʼll Fly Away, Ms. Taylor won an NAACP Image Award, was nominated for an Emmy Award and received the Golden Globe Award for Best Leading Dramatic Actress. She appeared as Cora in Cora Unashamed in PBSʼs Masterpiece Theater American Collection. She was seen on CBSʼs The Education of Max Bickford as Judith Bryant. Her additional television credits include the CBS series FEDS, Law & Order, Crisis at Central High, The Howard Beach Story, Children of the Dust with Sidney Poitier, and Strange Justice, a Showtime original film in which she portrayed Anita Hill (Peabody Award, Gracie Award). This season she will play Molly on CBSʼ The Unit written and produced by David Mamet and Shawn Ryan (2008 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actress in a Drama). She received an honorary doctorate from DePaul University.