James Scruggs, is an ‘out’, Black gay man who has unapologetically reached a ‘certain age’ where one is often deemed ‘done’ or no longer relevant.
To that he says …
NOT SO!
He is the recipient of multiple grants and awards; most recently, in April he was awarded the prestigious 2024 Guggenheim Fellowship. In January 2023 he was awarded the Adding Justice Through The Arts Award from the New York State Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. This award, given to him was due to his continuing commitment to create theatrical work that radically explores race, racism, injustice and inequity. It offered him much-needed access to, and collaboration with, several criminal defense lawyers, who have already proved to be invaluable in the creation of his new upcoming work, Off the Record: Acts of Restorative Justice. It was awarded the National Performance Network Creation and Development Fund Grant to aid in the creation of this interactive work with music, song, text and dance. This piece has TWO components; an interactive theatrical piece, already commissioned by, and soon to premiere at Arts Emerson, in Boston, The Center at West Park, in NYC, and Art2Action, in Tampa in 2024/2025. ALSO, in pursuit of striving to actually elicit change he will produce criminal record sealing prep clinics in the above cities. Folk with active criminal records can safely engage with these clinics and be directed to lawyers who will expunge or seal their criminal records free of charge.
In December, 2022 he was the recipient of a MAP Grant (for the third time) in support of The American Truth and Reconciliation Commission. This play is the very first commission ever given to a playwright from the Perelman Arts Center, which officially opened in September 2023 is situated in the World Trade Center complex. The American experiment itself is on trial. Being commissioned by The Perelman Arts Center is especially fulfilling as James was the director of technical services at Windows on the World in the WTC. He was on vacation on 9/11 due back to work on 9/12. His theatrical career began post 9/11 when he decided to walk away from six figure corporate jobs, and pursue writing and performing in experimental theatrical productions.
In addition to writing and performing, James is also a talented producer. In 2017 he wrote, created, and produced his sprawling, fully functional, radically interactive, theatrical Ethno-Theme park experience, 3/Fifths SupremacyLand. In addition to great reviews, this work was awarded a 2016 Creative Capital Award, and a 2015 MAP Grant. Timeout NY stated “3/Fifths's shocking first half and moving conclusion make it unforgettable. It's no coincidence that SupremacyLand's majordomo repeatedly refers to returning to a time "when America was great." What was important to him was to serve up a smorgasbord of historical atrocities perpetrated upon African Americans in one room, indicative of the PTSD that literally still ‘curses’ though our veins. There is comfort in knowing the source of ones discomfort.
James stated that being a dark-skinned Black man, he often felt like he was walking around wearing Black face… and BEING dark skinned AT people. Trapped in a Traveling Minstrel Show, a deconstructed blackface minstrel show arrived in Boston in November of 2017. The Bay State Banner said “Writer James Scruggs wrenches the audience out of their comfort zone and into the hilarious, haunting and tragic center of the lives of two black men, framed through a minstrel show. Right from the start the show shocks. The second half, after an unexpected twist, devolves into a courtroom scene. The audience is asked to judge contemporary court cases like the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri”.
It received a prestigious Elliot Norton Award in Boston for Outstanding Production Fringe Theater.
His theatrical career began with the creation and performance of Disposable Men, 2005; commissioned by HERE Arts Center, NYC. It was a solo piece he performed. It explored the uncanny similarity that Black men and Hollywood monsters share; an unfounded fear of, and the common perpetration of over killing them. The NY Times stated in 2005 “James Scruggs, who wrote and performs this collection of character pieces, has done something very difficult: he has written an angry play about racism that is also slyly funny. But be warned: the laughs will usually catch in your throat.”
James has a long, rich, and rewarding history of creating theatrical work that is interactive, decidedly not didactic, and involves audiences in ways that elicit emotional responses.
James Scruggs has a BFA in Film from School of Visual Arts.
To that he says …
NOT SO!
He is the recipient of multiple grants and awards; most recently, in April he was awarded the prestigious 2024 Guggenheim Fellowship. In January 2023 he was awarded the Adding Justice Through The Arts Award from the New York State Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. This award, given to him was due to his continuing commitment to create theatrical work that radically explores race, racism, injustice and inequity. It offered him much-needed access to, and collaboration with, several criminal defense lawyers, who have already proved to be invaluable in the creation of his new upcoming work, Off the Record: Acts of Restorative Justice. It was awarded the National Performance Network Creation and Development Fund Grant to aid in the creation of this interactive work with music, song, text and dance. This piece has TWO components; an interactive theatrical piece, already commissioned by, and soon to premiere at Arts Emerson, in Boston, The Center at West Park, in NYC, and Art2Action, in Tampa in 2024/2025. ALSO, in pursuit of striving to actually elicit change he will produce criminal record sealing prep clinics in the above cities. Folk with active criminal records can safely engage with these clinics and be directed to lawyers who will expunge or seal their criminal records free of charge.
In December, 2022 he was the recipient of a MAP Grant (for the third time) in support of The American Truth and Reconciliation Commission. This play is the very first commission ever given to a playwright from the Perelman Arts Center, which officially opened in September 2023 is situated in the World Trade Center complex. The American experiment itself is on trial. Being commissioned by The Perelman Arts Center is especially fulfilling as James was the director of technical services at Windows on the World in the WTC. He was on vacation on 9/11 due back to work on 9/12. His theatrical career began post 9/11 when he decided to walk away from six figure corporate jobs, and pursue writing and performing in experimental theatrical productions.
In addition to writing and performing, James is also a talented producer. In 2017 he wrote, created, and produced his sprawling, fully functional, radically interactive, theatrical Ethno-Theme park experience, 3/Fifths SupremacyLand. In addition to great reviews, this work was awarded a 2016 Creative Capital Award, and a 2015 MAP Grant. Timeout NY stated “3/Fifths's shocking first half and moving conclusion make it unforgettable. It's no coincidence that SupremacyLand's majordomo repeatedly refers to returning to a time "when America was great." What was important to him was to serve up a smorgasbord of historical atrocities perpetrated upon African Americans in one room, indicative of the PTSD that literally still ‘curses’ though our veins. There is comfort in knowing the source of ones discomfort.
James stated that being a dark-skinned Black man, he often felt like he was walking around wearing Black face… and BEING dark skinned AT people. Trapped in a Traveling Minstrel Show, a deconstructed blackface minstrel show arrived in Boston in November of 2017. The Bay State Banner said “Writer James Scruggs wrenches the audience out of their comfort zone and into the hilarious, haunting and tragic center of the lives of two black men, framed through a minstrel show. Right from the start the show shocks. The second half, after an unexpected twist, devolves into a courtroom scene. The audience is asked to judge contemporary court cases like the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri”.
It received a prestigious Elliot Norton Award in Boston for Outstanding Production Fringe Theater.
His theatrical career began with the creation and performance of Disposable Men, 2005; commissioned by HERE Arts Center, NYC. It was a solo piece he performed. It explored the uncanny similarity that Black men and Hollywood monsters share; an unfounded fear of, and the common perpetration of over killing them. The NY Times stated in 2005 “James Scruggs, who wrote and performs this collection of character pieces, has done something very difficult: he has written an angry play about racism that is also slyly funny. But be warned: the laughs will usually catch in your throat.”
James has a long, rich, and rewarding history of creating theatrical work that is interactive, decidedly not didactic, and involves audiences in ways that elicit emotional responses.
James Scruggs has a BFA in Film from School of Visual Arts.