AJA HOUSTON
Writer. Actor. Artist.
Bio
Aja is a nomadic writer, actor, and teaching artist from Everywhere, USA, due to her army brat adjacent childhood. She writes for theatre, television, and film, drawing on passion, politics, and magical realism to build off-kilter, uncanny worlds that tell nuanced, monolith-breaking Black stories centered on women.
Starting her career as an actress in London, Aja relocated to Los Angeles to focus on writing the imaginative stories free of stereotypes that she longed to act in. 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 complete library of plays can be read on New Play Exchange (NPX)
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Artistic Statement
MY INTENTION as an artist 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.
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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.
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IT IS IMPERATIVE FOR ME to be a part of shaping that future and encouraging the next generation of dramatists to do the same.
Riva Thornton flees from her immense grief in the real world into the magical world of the Black Grimm Forest, a safe escape from racial trauma. Riva falls into magical slumber that lasts three years. When a mysterious woman awakens Riva, she is drawn unwillingly into an adventure through the fairytales into reality.
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 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?
Riva Thornton flees from her immense grief in the real world into the magical world of the Black Grimm Forest, a safe escape from racial trauma. Riva falls into magical slumber that lasts three years. When a mysterious woman awakens Riva, she is drawn unwillingly into an adventure through the fairytales into reality.
The Work
The Latest
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"Missing Rhythms," a short film I wrote and starred in, directed by the fabulous Regina Hoyles, is currently on the festival circuit!
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Logline
In a mysterious, insane asylum full of missing Black women from all over the country, a woman must use rhythm to remember her true identity and fight being lost forever behind the ominous Blue Door.
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To learn more about the project and the extraordinary team behind it, click the link below.
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"Missing Rhythms," is the official selection for the Nevada Women's Film Festival 2025! It is nominated for Best Short Drama and Best Female Protagonist.
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It is screening on Saturday, June 21st at 3:45 pm at UNLV in Las Vegas, Nevada.
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For more information and to purchase tickets, click below.
"Missing Rhythms," is the official selection for the Sunflower Film Festival 2025!
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The screening is on Sunday, June 22nd in Paw Paw, Michigan.
​For more information and to purchase tickets, click below.
"Missing Rhythms," is the official selection for the BraveMaker Film Festival 2025!
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​For more information and to purchase tickets, click below.
