PMA Alum Gloria Majule’s play Possessed has been selected for The Eugene O’Neill Theater Center’s 2026 National Playwrights Conference, marking the first time a play by an African woman has been selected for this conference. Every year, innovative, unproduced works are selected from a pool of 1,400+ submissions by The Eugene O’Neill Theater Center to be developed with the support of a professional company of actors, designers, dramaturgs, and directors.
“I am overjoyed to have the opportunity as a Tanzanian playwright to workshop my play Possessed in such an incredible new work development conference,” said Majule. “It means a lot to me. The O'Neill is very competitive and has fostered so many great voices in the past that it is an honor and a privilege to be selected. It is also such a validation of my work and the stories I am trying to tell, stories that challenge African stereotypes and are written for the Black gaze.”
In Possessed, when Furaha returns home to Tanzania on medical leave from grad school in the US, she’s thrilled to be reunited with her big brother Angaza. Unfortunately for her, Angaza believes that her chronic depression is, in fact, a demon possession. But it’s okay! Angaza has a plan—one that has them undertaking the road trip of a lifetime from Dar Es Salaam to Singida.
Additionally, Majule’s play Uhuru will be having a world premiere at Houston’s Alley Theater in October. In Uhuru, Mshale, a tour guide, leads a Tanzanian-only climb of Mount Kilimanjaro. He is joined by Sprite, a Tanzanian-American who sets out to decolonize ‘his mountain,’ and Henry and Frannie, two missionaries who also call Tanzania home. This dramedy follows the unlikely foursome as they make the journey together to the roof of Africa.
“I wanted to write Uhuru because I was fascinated by Kilimanjaro and the significance it had for locals, verses for people in the outside world," said Majule. “I was excited about creating a world that took place on the mountain and exploring these different views and perspectives. I wanted to explore what freedom meant in a post-colonial Tanzania, and what mindsets and barriers limit this freedom.”
Read more about Possessed and the National Playwrights Conference.
Read more about the world premiere of Uhuru.
Read more about Gloria Majule.
