Who is D. Jolly?
Snapshot/ TL;DR Version
Donald Jolly writes bold, heartfelt character-driven dramas/dramedies about LGBTQ+ Black people. A 1st-gen college grad, D. holds degrees from Dartmouth and USC. After all that fancy schoolin’, D. spent more than a decade working in the theatre (he said, poorly attempting a mid-Atlantic accent). Jolly’s unique voice was shaped by his youth as a queer child of divorce in inner-city DC; a child raised in the world of the Black Church and respectability politics but saved by the soul-stirring style and talent of Tina Turner, the yellowing pages of outdated World Book Encyclopedias, and Dorothy and her friends easin' on down the road in the merry old land of Oz.
*insert Angela Basset What’s Love Got to Do With It Nam-myoho-renge-kyo gif*
Longer Version
Donald L. Jolly, Jr. was born and raised in the District of Columbia (in the Chocolate City days), and is a graduate of the DC Public School system. Jolly is the author of the historical drama bonded (nominated for Los Angeles Stage Alliance Ovation, GLAAD Media, and NAACP Theatre Awards and winner of the Arch and Bruce Brown Playwright Award for LGBT Historical Plays). In association with the Watts Village Theatre Company, Jolly wrote Riot/Rebellion, an immersive ensemble-driven docudrama that was staged in 2013 and again in 2015 in commemoration of the 50th Anniversary of the ’65 Watts Uprising (GO! LA Weekly). In 2018, Jolly’s play Baby Eyes had its World premiere at the Atwater Village Theatre. Jolly’s work has been developed at Horizon Theatre Company in Atlanta, CalArts, Celebration Theatre, Company of Angels, The Vagrancy, EST/LA, The Warehouse Theatre, and Playwrights’ Arena. D. Jolly is also member of the Dramatists Guild of America, an Associate Artist with Playwrights’ Arena, an alum of Center Theatre Group’s L.A. Writers Workshop, a member of the Geffen Playhouse Writers’ Room, and a member of the inaugural class of the Writers' Access Support Staff Training Program at The Writers Guild Foundation. Jolly’s first pilot, Queens of Chocolate City, a love letter to his hometown, was runner-up in the Script Pipeline 2021 TV Writing Contest. Jolly is proud a first-generation college graduate with an A.B. in English modified with African & African-American Studies from Dartmouth College and an M.F.A. in Dramatic Writing from the University of Southern California - School of Dramatic Arts.
As an L.A.-based writer/storyteller, Jolly creates stories for the stage and screen to soothe the heart, punch the gut, tickle the senses, fire the loins, and open the mind. Through drama sprinkled with comedy, Jolly seeks to enlighten and inspire—with a particular interest in telling stories that highlight LGBTQ+ BIPOC experiences (emphasis on Black with a capital B).
Currently seeking representation…
Unless we view things with our hearts, we can see nothing. But if we look at the world with a love of life, it will reveal its beauty to us.
- Daisaku Ikeda
Take a look around and let me know what you think.