MFA, Playwriting, University of California San Diego
BA, American History, Brown University
Elmo Terry-Morgan is a resident director and playwright at the National Black Theatre of Harlem, NY and is the long-time writer and director of the AUDELCO Awards (Recognition Awards for Excellence in Black Theatre, New York City). He is a member of AUDELCO, the Black Theatre Network, the National Alliance for Musical Theatre, and the Dramatists Guild.
He is the author of the award-winning plays The Fruits of Miss Morning, Song of Sheba, and Ophelia's Cotillion, among others. His plays have won 19 AUDELCO Awards including four personal ones: Outstanding Playwright and Director for The Fruits of Miss Morning, and Outstanding Director and Musical Creator (with composer / partner Clarice LaVerne Thompson) for Song of Sheba. Sheba was telecast on NHK-TV Japan and also toured Tokyo and Osaka. His adaptation of Gordon Nelson's The Legacy (directed by Terry-Morgan) was aired as a CBS-TV prime-time special in New York and Los Angeles and received a Creative Excellence for Black Audiences citation. Ophelia's Cotillion was presented at the Festival of New Musicals in New York City sponsored by the National Alliance for Musical Theatre.
His review of Bring in 'Da Noise, Bring in 'Da Funk was published in the landmark Contemporary Black Theatre edition of the African-American Review, winter edition 1997; and he is guest editor for the "Black Theatre Network News" magazine. As artistic director of Rites and Reason Theatre, he is the primary dramaturg for the development of new plays in Rites and Reason's trademark research-to-performance method (RPM). Student, emerging, and veteran playwrights have worked in this process. Notable among them are: Adrienne Kennedy, P.J. Gibson, J.E. Franklin, Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, Rosa Guy, and Ntozake Shange.
Professor Terry-Morgan teaches Introduction to Playwriting, Voices Beneath the Veil: African-American Plays from 1858 to the Present, African-American Folk Traditions and Cultural Expressions, Black Lavender: Black Gay and Lesbian Themed Plays, and Introduction to Afro-American Studies. He also directs Independent Concentrations, Independent Studies, and Honors Theses. He is recipient of the 1997-98 Academic Advising Award presented by the Undergraduate Council of Students at Brown University.
