Theatrical powerhouse Jocelyn Bioh talks with us about Jaja’s

On the Origin Story of Jaja’s…

Braids are a big part of my life. I’m from New York. I grew up in Washington Heights, and I went to the hair braiding shop since I had hair long enough to braid.

When I became a professional writer, I realized how right it was for a play setting. I knew [the story] would center somewhat around immigration; we were in a much different administration at that time. There was a lot of conversation about immigrants, and who immigrants were and why they were coming to our country, if you will. I wanted to have a response to that.

What was the development process of Jaja’s?

I was offered a commission by Williamstown [in 2018], to write a play. The Artistic Director at the time said that I could write whatever I wanted…and I thought: I want to write a play about braids and a hair braiding shop. I went away and wrote the initial draft of Jaja’s within a couple of months. We were on the development track to do it at Williamstown, then a little thing called COVID happened. A lot of things shifted, and after a very, truly, long story, the play ended up at MTC. I asked them to consider it for their Broadway house because I actually felt the play, what it required (the cast size), it felt on the scale of a Broadway production. The trajectory of the play in terms of it being written to when it was produced was about four years, but in terms of the development of it, it felt pretty fast for me because I never had an opportunity to have many readings — one reading on Zoom, another reading in person (for MTC), and then MTC scheduled it.

And then we had this moment in the development process where I had the opportunity to involve Nikiya Mathis, our Wigs Designer (see Making Theatre, p30). I had to involve her in the development process because I had to understand if what I was writing and how I was writing it was going to even be possible to do. Can we jump three hours in time from scene to scene and for these braids to still be able to be done? How can we do that in the wig design? I found myself for the first time collaborating with a designer as I was developing the show, which was really unique.

I was learning on my feet with this particular play, but I was up for the task.

How did you feel about making your Broadway debut?

I don’t mess around. I think people don’t know that about me until they’re in a setting with me and understand that I’m working just as hard as everybody else.

I didn’t feel super intimidated by Broadway. I think it just made me feel, ‘Okay, well, they’ve committed to doing it on this big platform, and now the work ethic that I’ve built over nearly the last decade will be on full display.’ It made everybody sit up straighter, I think. There was no, ‘Can I just try it out, and then we’ll clean it up when we move to Broadway.’

No, we’re doing it live. We’re doing it live. It made everyone show up with their A-game — not that I think they wouldn’t have in any other capacity.

There was a lot of history that was involved with the play, too. It was the first play by a Black playwright that was premiering ‘cold’ on Broadway since 1991. And we had so many Broadway debuts: it was my Broadway debut as a playwright; Whitney’s Broadway debut as a director; and most of the cast had never been on Broadway before. So, it all felt extremely historic.

Why is Harlem an important setting for you?

Most of my work centers Black people and Black diasporic realms. Settings are very important for me because they contextualize for the audience and, maybe, help them understand — we’re centering work and the people that we’ve never really seen on stage before, and settings help audiences familiarize what is known to them.

Harlem was important for two reasons: it was one of the few times — outside of my adaptation of Merry Wives — that I set a play that was in America; and two, I wanted [Jaja’s ...] to feel like it was the epicenter of something culturally specific. People have an idea of the different cultures that exist in a Harlem hair braiding shop, especially if all the people look the same or are of the same diasporic cultural connections; and people have an idea of what Harlem looks like, but now, it has a new face. To expand on that: people always talk about America being a melting pot of different cultures; and, I would say, Harlem is a melting pot of different African cultures. It’s unique that these hair braiding shops have people that are not just from one country. I’ve been to every hair braiding shop under the sun. There are some that have all women from Senegal; there are some that have women from various parts of Nigeria; but the shops that I mostly frequent tend to be eclectic with people from various African countries.

Showing that version of New York is really important. We’ve seen New York in so many ways, especially in film and TV. We rarely really see Harlem, and certainly not this shop. When I was doing research of other comparative narratives, anything that existed in even film or TV, I found there’s nothing. There’s nothing. There are little one-off 10-minute documentaries, here and there, about getting your hair braided or an immigrant experience or Harlem, but there’s nothing that centers what I’m crafting in the play, which made the world building need to be succinct and perfect.

I’m also from New York, so I felt a real responsibility that if I’m going to show Harlem, I want it to be the most Harlem Harlem that ever Harlem’ed.

On working with Director Whitney White…

Whitney is a new collaborator that I…this won’t…will not be our last collaboration. We are already discussing at least two other projects that we will be working on together. She keeps me pulled, even reluctantly, into the theatre. What is very special about Whitney is that she’s…the best way I can describe it is: a wholesale collaborator.

When we’re looking at what we’re working on, she’s thinking about how the design of it is going to look, how the set is going to look, how the costumes are going to feel, what the music is going to be — all infused in it. At the same time, she’s really making sure that I’m getting what I need and having the conversations that I need with her — so dramaturgically, what needs to be happening in the play is there. She understands that it’s not just one person who makes all of this happen.

In her email signoffs or after a big meeting, she will literally say, “Thank you all for your work. I know what you’re doing is really hard but thank you all for your work.”

That’s a great way to sum up the kind of collaborator she is.