Emerging Black Playwright Staged Reading Series: Juked written by Mildred Inez Lewis

Juked will premiere for the first time in front of an audience as part of the Emerging Black Playwright Staged Reading Series. Juked is a retelling of Sophocles’ tragedy Electra. This version is set in 1950s Asheville and the “kingdom” is a chain of drink houses (private homes offering illegal alcohol) owned by the well-off, African-American Memnon family. Juked examines the relationship between Electra, her mother, and her sister, and asks what happens after tragedy. How do we recover? Juked is directed by Mikayla Wilson, and features Stephanie Hickling Beckman, Bjorn Goller, Righteous Luster, Alex Mbuthia, Donna Marie McMillan, Rodney Smith, and Sharvis Smith.

Meet The Playwright

Mildred Inez Lewis writes and directs for theatre, film and the digital space. Recent honors include an AGE Legacy Playwright (ALP) grant (2023), the Samuel French OOB Festival finals (2022), Grand Jury Award from Fusion (2022), the 2021 L.B. Williams award, and Humanitas’ PLAY LA (2018).

A member of the Dramatists Guild, she writes for Antaeus Theatre Company, Ensemble Studio Theatre-LA Playwrights Unit, PlayGround-LA and Towne Street Theatre. She is an associate artist with Rogue Artists Ensemble.

Upcoming productions in 2023 include JUKED a commissioned adaptation of Sophocles’ ELECTRA for A Different Myth (Asheville, NC). Mildred will also create work for Ohlone College students. 2022 productions included THE MUSEUM ANNEX for Central Works (Berkeley, CA), /kom’plisit/ (staged reading) at Moving Arts (Los Angeles), BONWIT TELLER’S REVENGE for The Workshop Theatre (NYC), and Purity, UnPledged for the Playground Experiment’s Faces of America.

Her plays have been published by Applause Books, Broadway Play Publishing. LazyBee (UK), Breathe Fire literary magazine and elsewhere.