Robert O'Hara

Robert O’Hara (born 1970) is an African American playwright and director.

Quotes

 * I did, not only because of that, but also because there was no value placed on education in my family. My mother just assumed I was smart, and I had glasses so I was called “four eyes,” and I was always reading a book, and so the outsider feeling came from the fact that I really loved school…
 * On feeling like an outsider both at his school and in his home life in “Artist Interview with Robert O'Hara” in Playwrights Horizon


 * Both of them come from birth. I was born black and gay. I was not socialized to be gay. I always knew I was different; I was always interested in something that a lot of kids were not into…
 * On feeling that his homosexuality was innate in “Q&A: Robert O'Hara” in TheaterJones (2016 Aug 12)


 * …White people playing people of color is not new; what is new is people of color are now [able to] own their own authenticity. White theater was created to reflect their audiences and white theater must deal with [changing audiences and perceptions]. … I think it’s about what the story requires, and what happens when you cast someone who could not be believable and who could not tell that story…
 * On his views on casting in “Q&A: Robert O'Hara” in TheaterJones (2016 Aug 12)


 * Sometimes you feel where it was trying to go down. There’s a residue feeling and so it lasts a little bit longer. Even after you stop choking, you still feel it inside your throat. There’s something about theatre where I want to not be able to get up, walk out and go: ‘Oh, that was nice,’ but really have to engage with it as I go home and think about it and work over what I felt about it. That’s the type of theatre I like.”
 * On using the analogy of choking to what he considers an ideal theatre experience in “Meet Robert O’Hara, the theatremaker who wants to make Broadway audiences choke” in The Stage (2019 Sep 30)