2022 Playwriting Respondent
John Dayo-Aliya
Dayo-Aliya is an Akron Arts Alive and Knight Arts Challenge Award-winning playwright, actor, and musician. He is also the recipient of the 2020/2021 Nord Family Playwright Fellow and is developing a new play Our Lady of Common Sorrows at Cleveland Public Theatre.
Dayo-Aliya studied Theatre Arts at Kent State University and Pan-African Studies at the University of Akron. He is Artistic Director of the nationally-recognized theatre company, Ma’Sue Productions. With Ma’Sue, Dayo-Aliya has produced eight plays in the past nine years that have received numerous accolades and press in local media such as The Devil Strip, Akron Beacon Journal, The Plain Dealer, Akronlife Magazine, and many other locally and regionally published media outlets. His work has been produced at Balch Street Theatre, Cleveland Public Theatre, and Akron Civic Theatre. His work explores various aspects of the Black experience and is specifically interested in Black modern lives and the questions arising out of the challenge of holding on to faith, love, community, and familial ties while living against a backdrop of structural racism. He creates work that provokes audiences to call out to their higher humanity in order to face social and cultural issues with intelligence, clarity, and empathy.