{"page":"\u003clink rel=\"stylesheet\" href=\"https://lessonplanet.com/assets/packs/css/resources-572d6a42.css\" /\u003e\n\u003clink rel=\"stylesheet\" href=\"https://lessonplanet.com/assets/packs/css/lp_boclips_stylesheets-f4d0de30.css\" media=\"all\" /\u003e\n\u003cdiv data-title='Actress, Playwright Danai Gurira talks her part in helping to tell more diverse stories in Hollywood' data-url='/boclips/videos/5c54ca99d8eafeecae19d483' data-video-url='/boclips/videos/5c54ca99d8eafeecae19d483' id='bo_player_modal'\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='boclips-resource-page modal-dialog panel-container'\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='react-notifications-root'\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-header'\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-type'\u003e\n\u003ci aria-hidden='true' class='fai fa-regular fa-circle-play'\u003e\u003c/i\u003e\nVideo\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003ch1 class='rp-title' id='video-title'\u003e\nActress, Playwright Danai Gurira talks her part in helping to tell more diverse stories in Hollywood\n\u003c/h1\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-actions'\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='mr-1'\u003e\n\u003ca class=\"btn btn-success\" data-posthog-event=\"Signup: LP Signup Activity\" data-posthog-location=\"body_link_boclips\" data-remote=\"true\" href=\"/subscription/new\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003eGet Free Access\u003c/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"\"\u003e for 10 Days\u003c/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e!\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-body'\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-info'\u003e\n\u003cdiv aria-label='Hide resource details' class='rp-hide-info' role='button' tabindex='0'\u003e\u0026times;\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003ci aria-label='Expand resource details' class='rp-expand-info fai fa-solid fa-up-right-and-down-left-from-center' role='button' tabindex='0'\u003e\u003c/i\u003e\n\u003ci aria-label='Compress resource details' class='rp-compress-info fai fa-solid fa-down-left-and-up-right-to-center' role='button' tabindex='0'\u003e\u003c/i\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-rating'\u003e\n\u003cspan class='resource-pool'\u003e\n\u003cspan class='pool-label'\u003ePublisher:\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003cspan class='pool-name'\u003e\n\u003cspan class='text'\u003e\u003ca data-publisher-id=\"30356011\" href=\"/search?publisher_ids%5B%5D=30356011\"\u003eCurated Video\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-description'\u003e\n\u003cspan class='short-description'\u003eHOW DANAI GURIRA IS HELPING TO FIX HOLLYWOOD'S DIVERSITY PROBLEMDanai Gurira may be best known as katana-wielding Michonne on TV's \"The Walking Dead,\" but she's also an award-winning playwright.Lupita Nyong'o now stars on Broadway in a...\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003cspan class='full-description hide'\u003eHOW DANAI GURIRA IS HELPING TO FIX HOLLYWOOD'S DIVERSITY PROBLEMDanai Gurira may be best known as katana-wielding Michonne on TV's \"The Walking Dead,\" but she's also an award-winning playwright.Lupita Nyong'o now stars on Broadway in a play written by Gurira called \"Eclipsed.\"\"That's been my artistic mandate from the get go was to create opportunities for women of color, women of African decent, to really let their light shine. To show their chops. Women of African descent have a lot to give, power and beautiful things.\"She says it gives her a thrill to help women show their potential.\"When you see the actresses that are in 'Eclipsed,' whose names you may not know, like Zainab Jah, like Pascale Armand, like Saycon Sengbloh, like Akosua Busia. These are amazing artists who are so underrated because people don't give them the opportunities that they so could just tear to shreds, and so it's just so thrilling to see that.\"Gurira adds, \"You create the narrative so that they can shine and it's not impossible to create the narratives. It's very, very possible and that is a big thing.\"\"Eclipsed\" is set during the end of Liberia's 14-year civil war, which ended in 2003. Nyong'o plays a 15-year-old known as The Girl who finds herself enslaved in a rebel compound.New York, 11 March 20161. Various exterior shots of John Golden Theatre with marquee sign for \"Eclipsed\" playNew York, 11 Feb. 20162. SOUNDBITE (English) Danai Gurira/Actress, Playwright - on how through her work as a playwright, she creates opportunities for diverse storytelling:\"Yeah, yeah. That's been my artistic mandate from the get go was to create opportunities for women of color, women of African descent, to really let their light shine. To show their chops. Women of African decent have a lot to give, power and beautiful things. We've seen that over and over again. We see that when we finally give them the opportunity. We saw that with Lupita Nyong'o, we saw that with Viola Davis, we see that when it happens. You're like, 'Uh, why haven't we known of this person before now, you know?\" And so, that's the goal, the mandate I always had was I need to create, if this is what I do, let me do it so that we can see this women do their thing and it brings me so much joy when I get to see that. When you see the actresses that are in 'Eclipsed,' whose names you may not know, like Zainab Jah, like Pascale Armand, like Saycon Sengbloh, like Akosua Busia. These are amazing artists who are so underrated because people don't give them the opportunities that they so could just tear to shreds, and so it's just so thrilling to see that. But that is, that is the point. You create the narrative so that they can shine and it's not impossible to create the narratives. It's very, very possible and that is a big thing. 'Eclipsed' was very special to me in that regard. My first play I did ('In the Continuum') - it was kind of like I had to because I created it in grad school and it was a two-hander, co-created with Nikkole Salter, and so we performed it together. And I was like, 'Listen, if I could find someone else to play this part, I would, because I have to do this 300 times.' Because, it did roll into a bit of a hit and so we were performing it, we performed it all over the globe and when we hit like around the 300, 400 mark we were like, 'We have got to hand this over. Someone else can do this now. We want that. We wanted to create opportunities for others but right after that when I created 'Eclipsed,' I was like, 'This is the one. This is where I'm gonna start stepping out and finding actresses who can shine.' I don't need to be the one who constantly does the work of the narrative I tell. There is so many stunning actresses out there and I get so thrilled, I get so thrilled when I see that actress walk in, that has not had her shot yet and she's amazing and she's ready and she's hungry and she needs the thing, the facilitating piece of narrative to allow her to fly, to allow her to show the world what she has to give. And so those, to me that's the most exciting part of it. So I don't understand why folks are hesitating in terms of giving opportunities to women of color or people of color stories. It's just, it's so gratifying to have those experiences and see that talent come out that's been waiting and it's hungry, you know? I really don't think people regret it when they actually do do it. I really don't think Steve McQueen regrets finding Lupita Nyong'o. You know what I mean like, I don't think there are regrets that go with taking those steps with making those choices, you know, to step away from what we've seen before and step into something that we need to see and we know we need to see. So, I just - it's been my artistic mandate, simply put, to bring opportunities to women of color and let them shine.\"New York, 1 Dec. 20153. Medium of Danai Gurira at a World AIDS Day event, pull out to wideNew York, 11 Feb. 20164. SOUNDBITE (English) Danai Gurira/Actress, Playwright \"And these sort of things just get to me. And so all I feel honestly about this diversity discussion is I just have more work to do. I just have got to keep doing what I'm trying to do because there's just - I've got to give more women opportunities and prove that this is a ridiculous conversation more and more. Let's just do it.\" Los Angeles, 22 Feb. 20155. Medium of Lupita Nyong'o6. Fashion pan of Lupita Nyong'o7. 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