AJA HOUSTON
Writer. Creator. Artist.
Bio
Aja writes for theatre, television, and film with passion, politics, and magical realism to build off-kilter, uncanny worlds to tell nuanced, humanizing Black stories led by Black women.
Although born in Las Vegas, Aja fancies herself from Everywhere, USA, due to her army brat adjacent childhood. Starting her career as a theatre actress in London, New York City, and San Francisco, she moved to Los Angeles to shift her focus to playwriting. Aja received her MFA in Dramatic Writing from the University of Southern California.
Aja’s an alumnus of The Kennedy Center’s inaugural Black Playwrights Group, a member of the Antaeus Theatre Company Playwrights Lab, the Ammunition Theatre Company, and The Road Theatre Under Construction Playwrights Group, where she has developed numerous plays. Some include Journey to Alice, an Eugene O'Neill Theatre Conference Semi-Finalist, and Floating on Credit, published in The Dionysian Literary Magazine. Her full library of plays can be read on New Play Exchange (NPX)
Artistic Statement
MY INTENTION as a playwright is for my work to be the kindling for a transformative, healing light that humanizes women of color.
James Baldwin wrote, "The precise role of the artist…is to illuminate that darkness…to make the world a more human dwelling place."
As a Black American woman, I have desperately sought a dwelling place within the theatre canon that included multi-faceted representations of me throughout my life.
AS AN ARTIST, IT IS MY CHARGE to carve out and demand lighted spaces where Black people throughout the diaspora will be counted without limitations.
I employ magical realism in my work to bend the prescribed ideas of what is possible, what one can be, and BOLDLY CREATE INFINITE POSSIBILITIES.
My plays are heightened character-driven thematic explorations of heritage, identity, self-love, faith, and the reverberations of the psychological scarring of descendants of Black American slaves.
Although my stories are told from my cultural perspective, they are FOR EVERYONE, FROM EVERYWHERE. I believe this is necessary to ensure theatre's future that reflects the diverse world in which we live.
IT IS IMPERATIVE FOR ME to be a part of shaping that future and encouraging the next generation of dramatists to do the same.
Three sisters are the only people left not to be taken by a sinister, formless entity, "The Calling." Always living in terror as they fight for their lives, the unexpected return of a long-lost friend gives them hope. Will they learn if that hope is false before The Calling returns to take its next victim? CLICK TO READ ON NEW PLAY EXCHANGE
While flying cross country with her mother to a wedding, recently divorced Lynè has encounters with the unexpected and inexplicable, most significantly, Alice, her dead grandmother. These encounters threaten Lynè’s struggle to hold her world together. CLICK TO READ ON NEW PLAY EXCHANGE
The Jones sisters enter the superdome of pageants, Ms. B. Beautiful for the cash prize that will keep a roof over their heads. The Superwomen theme calls for them to don their alter-egos The Super Black Women. The surprise arrival of their mother, the Oprah of pageants, pressures the sisters to prove their mettle, upholding the honor of their family legacy. Can they complete their mission? After all, superwomen and beauty queens both want world peace right?
Three sisters are the only people left not to be taken by a sinister, formless entity, "The Calling." Always living in terror as they fight for their lives, the unexpected return of a long-lost friend gives them hope. Will they learn if that hope is false before The Calling returns to take its next victim? CLICK TO READ ON NEW PLAY EXCHANGE
The Work
Contact Me
Upcoming Events
Tue, May 17Location is TBDWhen Proctor passes into the afterlife, she finds herself a captive of “The Middle” — a place where Black souls killed for the sin of being “Spooks” are held until they earn their redemption.
Sun, Apr 03Waco Theater CenterA dark, fantastical fable of two fierce sisters who must fight against an evil force to save their lives and legacy, which the world doesn't deem worthy of being saved.
Sat, Apr 02Antaeus Theatre CompanyA grieving Riva journeys into the magical world of the Black Grimm Forest, where Black people come for sanctuary, so she can escape from the life that she no longer wants to live.