Presented by Outside In Theatre & SPARK THEATRICAL/Laurie Bernhard
Suburban Black Girl
April 19 – May 13, 2025
Outside In ArtBox
Created & Performed by Zakiya Urbi Young
Directed by Jacole Kitchen
Stage Management by Arielle Hightower
Scenic by Jonathan Gilmer
Lighting by Douglas Gabrielle
Projections by Blake McCarty
Sound by Melanie Falcón
Costumes by Jen Caprio
Zakiya Young is the poster child for racial reconciliation—a master of code-switching. She moves seamlessly between worlds, whether it’s a White sorority, a Black and Latine church with a White pastor, or Broadway’s shifting casting landscape. But when a new political regime begins criminalizing “otherness”, will she remain safe in her carefully curated existence? Or will current events shatter the illusion of assimilation, forcing her to confront the truth?
Clips from the reading at La Jolla Playhouse’s 2023 DNA New Work Series.
“Zakiya Young is an extraordinary performer. She is a superb singer, an actress of enormous depth and a keen observer of cultural dynamics. Her new play is a journey of truth, wisdom, and love. It is a rare healing event in a wounded world."
— Robert Egan
Former Producing Artistic Director
Ojai Playwrights Conference
"Having Suburban Black Girl in La Jolla Playhouse’s 2023 DNA New Work Series was an absolute highlight of our festival. Zakiya’s powerhouse performance – chronicling how she mastered the art of being the ‘non-threatening’ Black girl in order to survive in white suburbia – is alternately funny and bruising, with a giant heart and sharp elbows. It’s also raw and honest in a way we don’t see enough of in American theatre."
— Gabriel Greene (he/him)
Director of Artistic Development
La Jolla Playhouse
Director’s Note
From the moment Zakiya sent me an early draft of the script of Suburban Black Girl, it was evident that not only was this a story that needed to be told, but that it was a story that I wanted to have a hand in telling. Although it is a deeply personal account of Zakiya’s individual journey, so many aspects of the play mirrored my own experience and that of so many others.
Suburban Black Girl is for everyone who finds themselves navigating the nuances of suburban America. For anyone who has complicated relationships with friends of a different race, with their family, their church family or even with their own identity. And for anyone who has had their heart shattered and is working to put the pieces of themselves back together again.
With the myriad of characters that Zakiya depicts in the play, Suburban Black Girl is poignant, funny, honest and raw, and it also welcomes its audience into a conversation that we don’t often get to have in mixed company.
It has been an honor and a joy to be on this journey of discovery with Zakiya, and am thrilled for others to experience it with us.
— Jacole Kitchen
Playwright’s Note
Suburban Black Girl was conceived in 2020. Black Lives Matter dominated our screens, and we could not look away because of the COVID lockdowns. The naïveté that many of my white friends expressed on social media was infuriating. My blood boiled as I read “I didn’t know it was that bad,” or “this isn’t the country I know,” or “what can I do to help?”
After I calmed down, my mind flooded with memories of all the times I stayed silent about the racism I experienced because assimilation and acceptance took priority over my own comfort and safety. That realization prompted me to post an impassioned video on social media. It went viral — and it’s the video that starts the show.
Robert Egan, former Artistic Director of Ojai Playwrights’ Conference, saw my post and reached out: “I think this is a one woman show.” Imposter syndrome set in immediately. But his encouragement helped me realize I was being given a powerful opportunity – to facilitate understanding by sharing a perspective rarely seen in the American theatre with those who want to understand and those who think they already know.
This show was born out of love for myself and love for my friends. I don’t claim to have the answers. But I can write my story, inhabit 23 different characters, ask some questions and maybe help one “token black person” feel seen. Who knows? You might even find similarities in our struggles.
I encourage you to stay open as you go on an eye-opening, funny, awkward, painful and powerful journey with me, your local SUBURBAN BLACK GIRL.
— Zakiya Urbi Young