The House of The Negro Insane

It’s 1935. The Taft State Hospital, created during the Jim Crow era for ‘insane and idiotic negroes’, is overcrowded and understaffed – a toxic mix of the downtrodden and the mentally ill. Attius – an inmate resigned to his fate – has carved himself a safe haven from the mayhem, taking pride in his woodwork, when the fierce and defiant young Effie invades his sanctuary and radically alters his future.

Terence Anthony on The House of The Negro Insane

“When I was young and my family lived in a white neighborhood, I often felt like we were crazy. We were the only family getting hassled by cops, receiving threatening phone calls, and having their car set on fire. Eventually I figured out that we weren’t the crazy ones, but the feeling still lingers. ‘The House of the Negro Insane’ is a story I need to tell, to uncover the history of how sanity and mental health have been weaponized to control black folk.”

Terence Anthony

Terence Anthony is a playwright, artist, and communications specialist based in Oakland, CA. He has been awarded writing fellowships to the Djerassi Resident Artist Program, the Santa Fe Art Institute, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and the Ragdale Foundation. Terence’s plays include Burners (nominated for four 2017 Ovation Awards), Euphrates (Max K. Lerner Playwriting Fellowship), Tombolo (Finalist for the O’Neill National Playwrights Conference) and Blood and Thunder (LA Weekly Award Winner for “Best Performance” – Candice Afia). Terence’s work has been seen at PlayPenn Conference in Philadelphia, the Chicago Dramatists in Chicago, the RADAR L.A. Festival in Los Angeles, the Great Plains Theatre Conference in Omaha, the Without Walls Festival in La Jolla, and the Last Frontier Theatre Conference in Valdez.