Uploaded May 2026 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
Martin E. Segal Theatre Center
Monday 18 May 2026
Penda Diouf (Senegal and France) is an author, playwright, actress, and librettist born in France. Her very first play, Poussières, was presented by the Comédie-Française in 2010. Since then her work has been translated into German, English, Armenian, Czech, and Finnish. She has received various awards for her plays in France and Germany and has held residencies at the Royal Court in London, the Institut Français in Tunis, the Villa Albertine in New York, and the Théâtre National in Strasbourg. Diouf’s work deals with questions of identity, invisible histories, and ecological issues. Together with Anthony Thibault, she is also co-founder of the Jeunes textes en liberté. Penda Diouf lives in Lille.
“In speaking of these deep, lingering wounds that colonialism and racism have inflicted, and how she speaks of them, Diouf does the only thing that can perhaps help, at least a little, to heal trauma: she brings them out of the repressed, the concealed, the forgotten into our consciousness, and she does it in such a poetic and empathetic way that when we listen to her, even white people, descendants of the European colonial powers, are deeply touched and moved to reflect on the causes of these wounds and to relate to them.” –Société des Auteurs et Compositeurs Dramatiques (SACD), the French society of dramatic authors and composers
About HowlRound TV
HowlRound TV is a global, commons-based, peer-produced, open-access livestreaming and video archive project stewarded by the nonprofit HowlRound. HowlRound TV is a free and shared resource for live conversations and performances relevant to the world’s performing arts and cultural fields. Its mission is to break geographic isolation, promote resource sharing, and develop our knowledge commons collectively. Anyone can participate in this community of peer organizations revolutionizing the flow of information, knowledge, and access in our field by becoming a producer and co-producing with us. Learn more by going to our contribute content page.
Martin E. Segal Theatre Center
Monday 18 May 2026
Penda Diouf (Senegal and France) is an author, playwright, actress, and librettist born in France. Her very first play, Poussières, was presented by the Comédie-Française in 2010. Since then her work has been translated into German, English, Armenian, Czech, and Finnish. She has received various awards for her plays in France and Germany and has held residencies at the Royal Court in London, the Institut Français in Tunis, the Villa Albertine in New York, and the Théâtre National in Strasbourg. Diouf’s work deals with questions of identity, invisible histories, and ecological issues. Together with Anthony Thibault, she is also co-founder of the Jeunes textes en liberté. Penda Diouf lives in Lille.
“In speaking of these deep, lingering wounds that colonialism and racism have inflicted, and how she speaks of them, Diouf does the only thing that can perhaps help, at least a little, to heal trauma: she brings them out of the repressed, the concealed, the forgotten into our consciousness, and she does it in such a poetic and empathetic way that when we listen to her, even white people, descendants of the European colonial powers, are deeply touched and moved to reflect on the causes of these wounds and to relate to them.” –Société des Auteurs et Compositeurs Dramatiques (SACD), the French society of dramatic authors and composers
About HowlRound TV
HowlRound TV is a global, commons-based, peer-produced, open-access livestreaming and video archive project stewarded by the nonprofit HowlRound. HowlRound TV is a free and shared resource for live conversations and performances relevant to the world’s performing arts and cultural fields. Its mission is to break geographic isolation, promote resource sharing, and develop our knowledge commons collectively. Anyone can participate in this community of peer organizations revolutionizing the flow of information, knowledge, and access in our field by becoming a producer and co-producing with us. Learn more by going to our contribute content page.
