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"BRILLIANT! ENDLESSLY FASCINATING! Acutely observant, laugh-out-loud funny, and complicated as only real human stories can be. Cause to shout for joy!" The Boston Globe
"TOP-NOTCH AND MEMORABLE! A complex. funny, moving play from big-brained playwright Lydia R. Diamond." Boston Herald
"AN ASTOUNDING ACHIEVEMENT! All My Sons for a new generation. Director Kenny Leon and a cast that's a joy from top to bottom make Diamond's script sing." TAB Newspaper
"Stick Fly is a great dramatic experience. A MUST SEE!" Berkshire Fine Arts

Sparks fly and long-hidden secrets tumble into the open when the LeVay brothers bring their new girlfriends home to Martha's Vineyard's world of privilege. This smart, moving, and funny portrait of a complex African-American family from acclaimed Huntington Playwriting Fellow Lydia R. Diamond (Voyeurs de Venus) is an of-the-moment look at sibling rivalry and the weight of parental expectations.

Presented in collaboration with Arena Stage. 

Video

Jump to: Photos

  • Stick Fly at the Huntington Theatre Company

    Come behind the scenes of Stick Fly at the Huntington with playwright Lydia R. Diamond, director Kenny Leon, and the actors from the production.

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  • Lydia Diamond on WGBH Basic Black

    (Originally broadcast on February 18, 2010 on WGBH Basic Black) A conversation on the relevance of Black History Month and a look at class divisions within the African American community. Regular panelists Callie Crossley (WGBH Radio's The Callie Crossley Show) and Latoyia Edwards (New England Cable News) are joined by guest panelists this week: Beverly Morgan Welch, Executive Director of the Museum of African American History, and Stick Fly playwright Lydia R. Diamond.

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  • A Scene from Stick Fly

    A scene from Stick Fly by Lydia R. Diamond and directed by Kenny Leon. Featuring Billy Eugene Jones, Amber Iman, Jason Dirden, and Nikkole Salter.

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Photos

Articles

  • Lydia R. Diamond: Complex Thought, Complex Pleasure

    Cambridge-based playwright Lydia R. Diamond's plays have been compared to those of August Wilson, Lynn Nottage, Wendy Wasserstein, and even Eugene O'Neill — four skilled and important writers whose style, content, and background actually have very little in common.

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  • Kenny Leon: Leading the Artistic Front

    Actor. Director. Producer. Motivational speaker. Kenny Leon has done it all. His work spans classical theater, modern drama, musicals, revues, and film, and his list of accomplishments is equally exhaustive.

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  • Continuing the Tradition: African-Americans on Martha's Vineyard

    Spending their summers on Martha's Vineyard, Stick Fly's LeVay family shares in the long tradition of Ethel Waters, Martin Luther King, Jr., Spike Lee, President Barack Obama, and thousands of other middle and upper-class African-Americans who have found a unique community on the secluded island.

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  • Spotlight on Scenic Designer David Gallo

    Scenic Designer David Gallo has a Tony Award (The Drowsy Chaperone), an exhibition of his work in the Smithsonian Institute's permanent collection, and he still drafts his designs with a pencil and paper rather than a computer. Recently he took some time to talk to Artistic Associate M. Bevin O'Gara about his work on Stick Fly.

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  • Entomology, Insects, and Stick Fly

    In Stick Fly, Taylor is an entomologist, a scientist who studies insects. The title of the play is taken from the technique she uses to observe the movement of flies, gluing them to sticks because their motions are too fast even for cameras.

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  • To Be Young, Educated, and Black

    Not long ago, to be a person of color with a college degree in the United States was to be an anomaly. In 1993, more blacks were on probation, in prison, or on parole than were engaged in higher education. Today, however, the tables have turned: more than 3.8 million blacks hold at least a four-year college degree, and there continue to be advancements in shrinking the education achievement gap.

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  • Stick Fly Lingo

    Interested in the language and references used in Stick Fly?
    Check out these buzzwords in our handy dictionary.

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  • Fetching More Than Water: Jack and Jill of America

    In Lydia R. Diamond's play Stick Fly, she references Jack Jill of America, Inc., one of the oldest and largest black service and philanthropy organizations in the United States that is dedicated to improving the lives and opportunities of all children.

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  • Collaborators in Conversation: Lydia R. Diamond and Craig Lucas

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  • Collaborators in Conversation: Lydia R. Diamond and Kenny Leon

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Press Reviews

Jump to: Features
"BRILLIANT! ENDLESSLY FASCINATING! Acutely observant, laugh-out-loud funny, and complicated as only real human stories can be. Cause to shout for joy!" — The Boston Globe
"TOP-NOTCH AND MEMORABLE! A complex. funny, moving play from big-brained playwright Lydia R. Diamond." — Boston Herald
"AN ASTOUNDING ACHIEVEMENT! All My Sons for a new generation. Director Kenny Leon and a cast that's a joy from top to bottom make Diamond's script sing." — TAB Newspaper
"Stick Fly is a great dramatic experience. A MUST SEE!" — Berkshire Fine Arts
"FUNNY AND PROVOCATIVE!" — The Washington Examiner
"Stick Fly leaps with flinty dialogue and a plot laced with hidden secrets and shocking revelations. A refreshingly vital story about relationships and richly complex characters. Although race and class are pivotal issues here, the drama is human." — Variety
"Stick Fly is an exhilarating evening in the theater. You get the feeling playwright Lydia Diamond is going to end up her generation's Lorraine Hansberry or August Wilson. Her stuff is — well, exhilarating." — The Princeton Packet
More Reviews

Features

  • Lydia R. Diamond on On Point

    From On Point, February 26, 2010: A conversation about Stick Fly and more with playwright Lydia R. Diamond and members of the cast.

  • Lydia R. Diamond on Basic Black

    From WGBH, February 18, 2010: A conversation on the relevance of Black History Month and a look at class divisions within the African American community.

  • In Boston, a New Focus on the Local

    From The New York Times, February 16, 2010: "Before Peter DuBois even began his duties here in 2008 as artistic director of the Huntington Theater Company, the city's largest, he had dinner with one of the area's most prominent young playwrights, Lydia R. Diamond, to discuss ways of fostering relationships between the Huntington and local writers. . . ."

  • Pride and Privilege — And Prejudice — On Stage

    From NPR, January 19, 2010: "In U.S. dramas, African-Americans are often limited to portraying impoverished characters, like slaves or street thugs. So Lydia Diamond wrote a play about the opposite: An extremely wealthy black family vacationing on Martha's Vineyard. . . ."

  • An Interview with Lydia Diamond

    From The McCarter Theatre, September 5, 2007: "Playwright Lydia Diamond's work has been performed across the United States and in the U.K. Recently commissioned by McCarter Theatre Center and by Steppenwolf Theatre, Lydia has won numerous awards for her work, including Stick Fly and Voyeurs de Venus. . . ."

  • African Americans on Martha's Vineyard

    From The McCarter Theatre, September, 2007: "Martha's Vineyard. An island off the coast of Cape Cod—first, fishing village and whaling port, now, a summer resort playground. The Kennedys and the Clintons vacation here. So do Spike Lee, Vernon Jordan and Henry Louis Gates. . . ."

  • The Sharp Eye of Lydia Diamond

    From Performink Online, March 31, 2006: "'Complicated black folks with contemporary problems.' That's the way one character in Lydia Diamond's new play, Stick Fly, sarcastically describes the first novel penned by another. But the one-liner, minus the sarcasm, is a propos for describing Diamond's own growing body of work. . . ."

Artists

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