Sonhara Eastman is a playwright and screenwriter from New York. She received her MFA in Dramatic Writing at NYU Tisch. Her plays are known for illuminating the black experience and include Pearl, The Club, and Black Girls Guide to Fertility. Sonhara’s plays have been workshopped at 7 Stages, The Classical Theatre of Harlem’s Playwrights Playground, Working Title Playwrights Ethel Woolson Lab at the Alliance Theatre (Black Box), The Goldberg Theatre at NYU, and the La MaMa Theater.

She was a finalist for the National Playwright’s Center Many Voices Fellowship and a semi-finalist for the Made in New York Writer’s Room Program. She has worked for numerous production companies such as E! Entertainment, MTV, ESPN, Lifetime, Lionsgate, and the Comcast Network. Sonhara is a member of the Writer’s Guild East and Dramatist Guild. She is currently developing several projects for the stage and screen.

pearl

PEARL is set in North Carolina at the start of the twentieth century when a young bi-racial woman realizes both her sex and race are against her as she tries to save the land left to her mother by the white father she’s never met.

The Club

At an African-American social club in Brooklyn in the 1970’s, Chief, a well-loved bar owner and his brother Roland, fight to keep their doors open as reverse migration causes the once thriving locale to morph into a ghetto. Despite the changing conditions and Roland’s desire to follow a new path, Chief and the locals fight to save their collective space.

Black girls guide to fertility

Black Girls Guide to Fertility is about four expressive women named Anger, Envy, Shame and Hope who are gifted an opportunity to confront their enemy, Fertility. Here, they share and re-live their deepest secrets to shine a light on a lonely journey that should be filled with support. I consider this work an anthology infused with poetry, comedy, dance and of course drama.

it's alright kid

short film

Writer: Sonhara Eastman, (Story by) Samuel Grandchamp
Status: World premiere planned for Spring 2018
Production Company: Swiss Films

Confined in his room, a boy, helpless, witnesses his parents’ struggles.

Capes to Courage

short film

Writer: Sonhara Eastman
Status: Pre-production
Production Company: Unabashed Productions

A young boy uses his imagination to deal with childhood trauma but eventually gains the courage to save himself as an adult and recapture his youth.

webisode

A former romance novelist is on the rise again after self-publishing a book of journals expressing her difficulty with fertility, which has led to a passionate following among black woman.