Xandra Nur Clark
Xandra Nur Clark (they/she) is a playwright, actor, journalist, and community-builder. Their work—which often fuses theater and journalism—seeks to raise comfort levels around difference and urge public conversation forward around the “taboo.” Their work asks audiences to confront themselves—not through a punch in the gut, but through a gentle yet persistent invitation into active dialogue. Xandra aims to cultivate intimate community that honors and respects difference by revealing what is relatable about the “other” and what is ultimately mysterious about the self.
Xandra’s work has been featured at HERE Arts Center, La MaMa, Dixon Place, The Tank, The Flea, Weeksville Heritage Center, Five Myles, Judson Church, Queer Abstract, Caveat, Brooklyn College, and on multiple NPR affiliate stations. Their play Polylogues, exploring real people’s experiences with nonmonogamy, was on the 2020 Kilroys List and was produced in 2021 by Colt Coeur at HERE Arts Center. Their play Everything You’re Told won the 2021 Chesley/Bumbalo Playwriting Award. Their project Returning Home: Voices from the Front, about veterans from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, won the General Oliver P. Smith Award for Local Reporting. Xandra has had residencies at MASS MoCA, Blue Mountain Center, the Helene Wurlitzer Foundation, and Roundabout Theatre Company/Berkshire Theatre Group; and has received grants from NYSCA/Brooklyn Arts Council, Brooklyn Community Foundation, the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, and Stanford Arts. They are a member of the 2022-23 Civilians R&D Group, a 2018-19 Queer|Art Fellow, and a singer with folk choir Ukrainian Village Voices. They are also an avid volunteer as a New York State Department of Health-certified Rape Crisis Counselor for the Anti-Violence Project’s LGBTQ hotline. BA Theater, MA Journalism: Stanford University.