Vickie G. Hampton

We must own our stories, develop our own characters, and devise our own plots, twists and inciting incidents, because if we don’t, we become dominated and identified by stories others tell about us— stories where we are presidents or pariahs, divas or maids — and not much else. And we are so much more. Black stories matter.

Playwright

“Sarah and Sally”

One-act play that imagines an encounter in 1770s Paris between two of history’s most exploited black women.
 
Synopsis
Sarah, an African woman, makes a living by performing in front of white audiences throughout Europe. They are amazed by her many talents and mesmerized by her prominent derriere.  She’s banks on their curiosity, saving every franc she makes to buy a home of her own.

Sally is a half-white girl from America who waits hand and foot on two daughters of a prominent U.S. statesman. But in Paris, she enjoys a day of freedom every Saturday. It’s a day she savors because, back home, she was a slave seven days a week.

The two women are keenly aware of their differences. One is curvaceous, the other slight. One is brash, the other demur. And one is shockingly irreverent, while the other is guilelessly religious.

During their last meet up, both women’s semblance of freedom is dealt a fatal blow. In a poignant moment of connection, Sarah and Sally come to terms with the fact that the heavy chain of oppression has them both equally in its iron grip. It doesn’t favor nor distinguish between light or dark skin, tightly coiled or wavy hair, or African or American birthright.
As they go their separate ways, they find strength in their newfound bond and shared dream of a home where there is “no white man standing behind us with a whip or a bunch of sticks and twigs, using our bodies for his pleasure, his profit or just whatever he got a mind to do.”
 
February 2024            
Full production during the Rochester Bronze Collective Festival
Rochester, New York
 
August 2022               
Professional reading at the National Black Theatre Festival
Winston-Salem, North Carolina

“The Learning Curve”

Two-act, full-length play about the communication and culture clashes that occur when a black teacher leaves his job at a predominately black, inner-city school to work for a private, predominately white school.
 
Two-act, full-length play about the communication and culture clashes that occur when a black teacher leaves his job at a predominately black, inner-city school to work for a private, predominately white school.
 
Synopsis
Exhausted from inner-city teaching, Benny Craft is leaving Urban High for a higher paying position at Privilege High, the pristine, private, predominately white school on the other side of town. Lee Larroquet, principal at Privilege High, has been looking for a teacher who has the experience and passion to build up the school’s flagging science curriculum. Bringing in the school’s first black male teacher is an added bonus.

Benny struggles to maintain his identity on unfamiliar territory, Lee insists on maintaining the status quo. The two clash in ideologies, perspectives and cultures. Can they navigate a learning curve that has thrown them both for an unexpected loop?
 
August 2023                 
One of two plays selected from a pool of North Carolina playwrights for two weeks of workshopping, readings and reviews by the North Carolina Playwrights Lab
Raleigh, North Carolina
 
February 2022            
Professional stage reading as part of PassinArt: A Theatre Company’s 40th anniversary celebration
Portland, Oregon
 
August 2020               
Monologue from play performed during Black Lives, Black Words Open Mic Talent Showcase, Face Off Theatre
Kalamazoo, Michigan
 
July 2019                    
Professional reading at the National Black Theatre Festival
Winston-Salem, North Carolina
           

“I’m Not Buying It”

Ten-minute play that takes an intimate look at retail racial profiling.
 
Synopsis
It’s the first day on the job for a white cashier at a high-end jewelry store. When his first customer is a black male, he embarks on a journey of self discovery regarding his assumptions and attitudes on race.  

“I’m Not Buying It” was written in response to the race reckoning that is reverberating around this nation and the globe. As everyone harps on dismantling systemic racism, this play sheds light on the fact that this grand goal must start on a granular level: with each individual. It is individuals who perpetuate racism in all its many forms.

Shopping is an everyday experience for most us, so the play is set in a space that shows how pervasive racism and “otherism” are in our everyday lives. The fact that the characters are defined only by their race is intentional on two fronts: to indicate how often people are reduced to just their skin color and to indicate that racism is blind to other aspects of a person, including his age, level of education and socio-economic status.

July 2023                   
Produced during the Columbus Black Theatre Festival
Columbus, Ohio
 
June 2021                   
Produced as an immersive experience by 7Stages Theatre as part of its Human Lights Festival, A Curious Encounter
Atlanta, Georgia
 
July 2020                    
Produced as a virtual play for Face Off Theatre Company
Kalamazoo, Michigan

“I Am Grace”

Two-act, full-length play that takes viewers on an exploratory and emotional journey as the Lloyd family deals with a trauma that has caused even their strong faith to collapse.
 
Synopsis
The Lloyd family is dealing with the aftermath of a vicious attack on their daughter. With no financial, political or legal recourse, the family turns to their strong faith—but it fails them too, collapsing beneath the weight of their profound devastation. A mother laments the lack of justice for her daughter. A father grapples with his powerlessness. A hot-tempered son plots vengeance. And a young pastor questions his calling. In the center of the storm is Grace, trying to find a way out of the confusion and pain.
 
May 2021                  
Full production by Face Off Theatre Company
Kalamazoo, Michigan
 
December 2019         
Reading by Face Off Theatre Company at the Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership
Kalamazoo, Michigan
 
July 2017                    
Professional reading at the National Black Theatre Festival
Winston-Salem, North Carolina

The Innkeeper’s Wife

A play in two acts that retells the traditional nativity story from the perspective of women.
 
Synopsis
Set in a time when men claimed dominion over all the earth (including women), Beth, overworked and undervalued, questions whether she, or indeed any woman, has a purpose other than meekly obeying every man’s command. Then one fateful day, when her husband turns away a young pregnant woman and her husband from his full inn, Beth breaks all the rules, defying the social norms that tightly constrict her, to help the desperate couple. On a harrowing journey of humiliation, violence and danger, she emerges as the unlikely hero when she finds herself in the middle of a miracle of biblical proportions. 
 
December 2024        
Reading as finalist in the 2024 STAGED program series by Odyssey Stage Theatre Company
Raleigh, North Carolina