MAPP
After a bomb explodes in 1957 Cleveland, a phalanx of police officers, following an anonymous tip, bursts into the home of Dollree Mapp, a fiercely independent and wholly ahead-of-her time “Negro businesswoman.” Dollree’s demand to see a search warrant sets in motion an extraordinary — and improbable — chain of events resulting in her arrest and prosecution under Ohio’s draconian obscenity laws and, in a further twist, a landmark U.S. Supreme Court case bearing her name — which ends up having nothing to do with obscenity at all. Fusing elements of comedy, docudrama, and fourth-wall breaking meta-theatre, MAPP mines the inherent theatricality of Dollree’s stranger-than-fiction odyssey through the legal system, the indefatigable spirit of the forgotten“Rosa Parks of the Fourth Amendment,” and the power of moral seriousness to emerge from absurd events.
Angela J. Davis is the author of AGATHE (2024 World Premiere – London, Playground Theatre), Griswold (Bridge Street Theatre – 2024-25 season; also showcased in NYC with Annette Bening and in London with Martha Plimpton), Clara and Serra and the Talking Bear (commissioned and produced as radio theatre, Antaeus, 2020), The Spanish Prayer Book (World Premiere: The Road Theatre Company 2019), among other plays.
Recent work presented/forthcoming at The Playground Theatre (London), Playhouse Creatures (NYC), Pacific Resident Theatre, Bridge Street Theatre (Hudson Valley, NY), Orlando Shakespeare Festival, The Road Theatre Company, Playhouse on the Square, The Landing Theatre, Antaeus Theatre Company, and elsewhere.
Her many playwriting honors include: Marsha A. Croyle Award for Achievement in Playwriting, Playhouse Creatures (NYC) J.R. Rodriguez Winner (twice), Landing Theatre New American Voices Award, Henley Rose Award, Jane Chambers Award top-four finalist, Eugene O’Neill semi-finalist (five times), FutureFest Official Selection (twice).
More at: angelajdavis.com
At the Road Theatre, Ann has directed three critically acclaimed plays by Steve Yockey: Sleeping Giant (2025), Mercury (2024),and Reykjavík (2021), which was a filmed live play production, honored with laurels at several international film festivals (Sweden, Paris and Buenos Aires). Also at The Road she also directed Hell Mouth, Scintilla, Through the Eye of a Needle and numerous readings for The Word, Under Construction and Summer Playwrights Festival.
At Theatre 40 she directed Beatnik Girl, The Half-Light, Incident at Our Lady of Perpetual Help, Silent Sky, Good People, As Good As Gold, Bus Stop, Holy Days, Driving Miss Daisy, and Another Part of the Forest. In Los Angeles, Ann also directed the world premieres of The Civil Twilight by Shem Bitterman, The Favorite by Joe Correll, and Forever Bound by Steve Apostolina, as well as the classic Misery with actress Julie Dove. As part of Center Theatre Group’s 2022 LA Writers’ Workshop at the Kirk Douglas Theatre, she directed the reading of Jami Brandli’s play, The Magician’s Sister.
“MAPP”
Dollree – Cherish Monique Duke*
Actor One – Christina Carlisi*
Actor Two – Stephen Tobolowsky*
Actor Three – Andre G. Brown*
*Road Company Member