Ann E. Eskridge

Biography

Ann E. Eskridge has a passion for African American history and culture. She has explored subjects like the Underground Railroad, all-black towns in Oklahoma, New Orleans’ free people of color, and the Gullah community on the Sea Islands. She writes cross genre.

One screenplay became a PBS Wonderworks movie, Brother Future, which won several awards. Her book and play, The Sanctuary, Cobblehill, 1994, was optioned by Producer Bill Blinn (Fame), and Sundance. Two monologues from the play are included in Childsplay; an anthology of children’s play monologues. The Sanctuary was also the basis for a children’s grief and bereavement program in Detroit. She is developing two musicals: Satin Doll, a re-interpretation of Pygmalion from a black perspective and The Nicest Little Negro Town West of the Mississippi, about the founding of a fictional all-black town in Oklahoma. Her play with music: If Pekin is a Duck, Why am I in Chicago?, is about the first black musical theater in the country: The Pekin.

She helped found Extra Mile Playwrights Theatre, a playwriting group dedicated to creating exciting urban theater.