Biography of Tanya Barfield

In 2006 Tanya Barfield-heretofore one of hundreds of struggling playwrights-emerged as a force to be reckoned with. Her play Blue Door, which was commissioned by Playwrights Horizons, received its world premiere in 2006 by the South Coast Repertory Theatre and received productions at the Seattle Repertory Theatre and Berkeley Rep. during the 2007 season. Blue Door is a haunting look at a Black professor who has so assimilated himself into the white world, that he has lost his blackness. When his white wife leaves him, he is jolted into reality through a dream where he is visited by various ancestors of the past who question his assimilation. The title Blue Door comes from a belief in several third world countries that a door painted blue will ward off evil spirits. Barfield, a native of Portland, Oregon, had dreams of becoming an actor, graduating from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts in 1991. She also earned a degree in playwriting from Juilliard. Discouraged by the parts she was offered, she turned to playwriting and has steadily climbed up through the theatre industry to the point of name recognition. Her plays have been work-shopped at the New York Stage and Film, the Sundance Theatre Laboratory, and the Seattle Repertory Theatre's Women's Playwright Festival. Her plays have been presented at the New York Theatre Workshop, Arena Stage, and the Royal Court Theatre in London, England. The following is a list of plays written by Barfield.