{"id":16136,"date":"2016-02-26T22:44:44","date_gmt":"2016-02-26T22:44:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.golive.clarku.edu\/news\/2016\/02\/26\/clark-commissions-new-work-by-award-winning-playwright-john-adekoje\/"},"modified":"2025-04-04T14:49:43","modified_gmt":"2025-04-04T18:49:43","slug":"clark-commissions-new-work-by-award-winning-playwright-john-adekoje","status":"publish","type":"story","link":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/2016\/02\/26\/clark-commissions-new-work-by-award-winning-playwright-john-adekoje\/","title":{"rendered":"Clark commissions new work by award-winning playwright John ADEkoje"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><html><body><\/p>\n John ADEkoje\n<p>Clark Arts is proud to present &ldquo;The American of Wisconsin and the Story of Two Lovers by a Bridge,&rdquo; a new play from Boston playwright &mdash; and Company One Theatre (founded by Clarkies) board member &mdash; John ADEkoje. The play centers around Gebnga, a Nigerian stand up comedian trying to find his way in Lacrosse, Wisconsin. Tackling themes of love, gentrification, identity, and race, &ldquo;The American of Wisconsin&rdquo; asks audience the primal question of who we are, and how we are affected by our surroundings.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;The American of Wisconsin&rdquo; is directed by Danny Balel &rsquo;08, who teaches theatre arts at Clark.<\/p>\n<p>Every other year, Clark commissions the work of a playwright of color for a play to be produced in the Little Center Theatre. This commission is made possible through Clark&rsquo;s Goldie Michelson Fund. Learn more about Goldie Michelson, M.A. &rsquo;36, here.<\/p>\n<p>John Oluwole ADEkoje is a graduate of Humboldt State University with a M.F.A. in dramatic writing and an M.A. in film production. He is national award winner of the Kennedy Center: ACTF-Lorraine Hansberry playwriting award for the play &#8220;Streethawker,&#8221; as well as the 2006 Roxbury Film Festival&rsquo;s Award for Emerging Local Filmmaker for the documentary &#8220;Street Soldiers,&#8221; which shown at Le Festival du Film Panafricain (Cannes) and Festival des Films du Monde (Montr&eacute;al).<\/p>\n<p>Most recently, ADEkoje was the winner of the National Tri Annual New Play Competition for Professional Writers and has received the Brother Thomas Fellowship Award for &#8220;Streethawker.&#8221; His short play &#8220;Love Jones&#8221; was produced at the Boston Fringe Festival &mdash; Company One, Boston Theatre Marathon, and was the winner of the Strawberry One Act Festival in Hollywood. Company One has also produced a full-length mounting of his play, 6 Rounds\/6 Lessons at the Boston Center For The Arts; he most recently made his acting debut in Company One&rsquo;s production of The Overwhelming by, J.T. Rogers. John is a Playwright-In-Residence at Company One, an Artist in Residence at UMASS Boston, and an Affiliate Artist at the Providence Black Repertory Company.<\/p>\n<p><\/body><\/html><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Clark Arts is proud to present &ldquo;The American of Wisconsin and the Story of Two Lovers by a Bridge,&rdquo; a new play from Boston playwright &mdash; and Company One Theatre (founded by Clarkies) board member &mdash; John ADEkoje. The play centers around Gebnga, a Nigerian stand up comedian trying to find his way in Lacrosse, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"story_color":"#525250","story_headerImg":-1,"section_label":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"displayed_author":[324],"featured":[],"topic":[184],"class_list":["post-16136","story","type-story","status-publish","hentry","category-uncategorized","displayed_author-clark-news-and-media-relations","topic-visual-and-performing-arts"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.2 (Yoast SEO v27.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Clark commissions new work by award-winning playwright John ADEkoje | ClarkU News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/2016\/02\/26\/clark-commissions-new-work-by-award-winning-playwright-john-adekoje\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Clark commissions new work by award-winning playwright John ADEkoje\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Clark Arts is proud to present &ldquo;The American of Wisconsin and the Story of Two Lovers by a Bridge,&rdquo; a new play from Boston playwright &mdash; and Company One Theatre (founded by Clarkies) board member &mdash; John ADEkoje. The play centers around Gebnga, a Nigerian stand up comedian trying to find his way in Lacrosse, [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/2016\/02\/26\/clark-commissions-new-work-by-award-winning-playwright-john-adekoje\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"ClarkU News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-04-04T18:49:43+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.clarku.edu\\\/news\\\/2016\\\/02\\\/26\\\/clark-commissions-new-work-by-award-winning-playwright-john-adekoje\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.clarku.edu\\\/news\\\/2016\\\/02\\\/26\\\/clark-commissions-new-work-by-award-winning-playwright-john-adekoje\\\/\",\"name\":\"Clark commissions new work by award-winning playwright John ADEkoje | ClarkU News\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.clarku.edu\\\/news\\\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2016-02-26T22:44:44+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-04-04T18:49:43+00:00\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.clarku.edu\\\/news\\\/2016\\\/02\\\/26\\\/clark-commissions-new-work-by-award-winning-playwright-john-adekoje\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.clarku.edu\\\/news\\\/wp-json\\\/wp\\\/v2\\\/story\\\/16136#breadcrumbs\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":0,\"name\":\"ClarkU\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.clarku.edu\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"ClarkU News\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.clarku.edu\\\/news\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Stories\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.clarku.edu\\\/news\\\/wp-json\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Stories\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.clarku.edu\\\/news\\\/wp-json\\\/wp\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":4,\"name\":\"Stories\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.clarku.edu\\\/news\\\/wp-json\\\/wp\\\/v2\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":5,\"name\":\"Stories\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.clarku.edu\\\/news\\\/wp-json\\\/wp\\\/v2\\\/story\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":6,\"name\":\"Stories\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.clarku.edu\\\/news\\\/wp-json\\\/wp\\\/v2\\\/story\\\/16136\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.clarku.edu\\\/news\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.clarku.edu\\\/news\\\/\",\"name\":\"ClarkU News\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.clarku.edu\\\/news\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Clark commissions new work by award-winning playwright John ADEkoje | ClarkU News","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/2016\/02\/26\/clark-commissions-new-work-by-award-winning-playwright-john-adekoje\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Clark commissions new work by award-winning playwright John ADEkoje","og_description":"Clark Arts is proud to present &ldquo;The American of Wisconsin and the Story of Two Lovers by a Bridge,&rdquo; a new play from Boston playwright &mdash; and Company One Theatre (founded by Clarkies) board member &mdash; John ADEkoje. The play centers around Gebnga, a Nigerian stand up comedian trying to find his way in Lacrosse, [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/2016\/02\/26\/clark-commissions-new-work-by-award-winning-playwright-john-adekoje\/","og_site_name":"ClarkU News","article_modified_time":"2025-04-04T18:49:43+00:00","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/2016\/02\/26\/clark-commissions-new-work-by-award-winning-playwright-john-adekoje\/","url":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/2016\/02\/26\/clark-commissions-new-work-by-award-winning-playwright-john-adekoje\/","name":"Clark commissions new work by award-winning playwright John ADEkoje | ClarkU News","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/#website"},"datePublished":"2016-02-26T22:44:44+00:00","dateModified":"2025-04-04T18:49:43+00:00","inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/2016\/02\/26\/clark-commissions-new-work-by-award-winning-playwright-john-adekoje\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/story\/16136#breadcrumbs","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":0,"name":"ClarkU","item":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"ClarkU News","item":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Stories","item":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/wp-json"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Stories","item":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":4,"name":"Stories","item":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":5,"name":"Stories","item":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/story"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":6,"name":"Stories","item":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/story\/16136"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/","name":"ClarkU News","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"}]}},"fimg_url":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/story\/16136","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/story"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/story"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/story\/16136\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16136"},{"taxonomy":"displayed_author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/displayed_author?post=16136"},{"taxonomy":"featured","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/featured?post=16136"},{"taxonomy":"topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/topic?post=16136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}