Jocelyn Bioh (‘Jaja’s African Hair Braiding’ playwright) explores the power ‘community and sisterhood’ in a Harlem salon [Exclusive Video Interview]

Sam Eckmann
·4 min read

“Character is kind of where I start from,” explains Jocelyn Bioh, “I feel like all of my work is character driven narratives.” She made her Broadway debut as a playwright this season with “Jaja’s African Hair Braiding” at Manhattan Theatre Club, a play bursting at the seams with unique characters. “Sometimes I don’t actually know where I’m going,” says Bioh of her process, “I just know what the character is, and I’ll just start writing and see what they say, see where it kind of leads me.” Watch the exclusive video interview above.

In the play, audiences are dropped into the titular Harlem braiding shop where they soon grow intimately familiar with the stylists and clientele. There’s Marie (Dominique Thorne), the owner’s young daughter with a bright future ahead of her. There’s Bea (Zenzi Williams), a veteran stylist who dominates much of the daily drama with a ballooning contempt against younger stylist Ndidi (Maechi Aharanwa) for stealing customers. And there are the customers (several of the most difficult ones played by Lakisha May in a rotation of wigs and mannerisms), who grow an intense bond with their stylist after many hours in their chair.

More from GoldDerby

WATCH Zenzi Williams video interview: ‘Jaja’s African Hair Braiding’

Bioh, a first generation Ghanian, had her hair braided from a young age and so was intimately familiar with these shops and their denizens. The microcosm of relationships contained in a single shop provided the perfect place for her to flex her character-driven writing. “The things they say, the things they’re passionate about, getting into each other’s business, all of that feels just really fun and fresh and a good place for a writer to play,” describes Bioh. “So I really just wrote what I kind of knew…and out came 17 different characters.”

Those characters spend the day in the salon expressing their deepest hopes, offering guidance to those experiencing difficulty at home, they laugh together, and fight together. Some of the most impactful revelations occur between stylist and client, even if the two have just met. “There’s a real vulnerability that you have with people that you’re trusting your body to,” explains Bioh, “And I think the play kind of speaks to that kind of vulnerability, that intimacy, that friendship that you can develop with someone.”

SEE 2024 Tony Awards could feature the most women directing nominees in history

Friendships are truly tested at the end of the play when Marie receives the news that her mother has been detained and threatened with deportation. It’s a shocking turn of events that upend the lives of everyone in the shop. “I wanted to just kind of speak to the power of what can happen in a day,” reflects Bioh. Marie wakes up believing that she is going to have a normal day at work, but one phone call throws her world into chaos.

As in life, there is no neat resolution for Marie at the end of the play. Instead, she is able to forge ahead thanks to the family she has forged in the salon. “These are all women who’ve come from various countries,” describes Bioh, “And for what it’s worth, they’ve found community and sisterhood in each other. Even if some of them don’t get along…that’s family.” As a child of immigrants herself, the playwright believes this play speaks to the strength that immigrant communities find for each other when the odds are stacked against them. “In the end, as we see, they’re there for each other,” says Bioh, “It doesn’t matter what is going on, they’re putting all of that aside and they’re there for each other.”

PREDICT the 2024 Tony Awards nominations through April 30

Make your predictions at Gold Derby now. Download our free and easy app for Apple/iPhone devices or Android (Google Play) to compete against legions of other fans plus our experts and editors for best prediction accuracy scores. See our latest prediction champs. Can you top our esteemed leaderboards next? Always remember to keep your predictions updated because they impact our latest racetrack odds, which terrify Hollywood chiefs and stars. Don’t miss the fun. Speak up and share your huffy opinions in our famous forums where 5,000 showbiz leaders lurk every day to track latest awards buzz. Everybody wants to know: What do you think? Who do you predict and why?

SIGN UP for Gold Derby’s free newsletter with latest prediction

Best of GoldDerby

Sign up for Gold Derby's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Click here to read the full article.