bio
Alan Sharpe recently became inaugural recipient of the Alan Sharpe Award, an honor initiated by the Center for Black Equity and DC Black Pride to recognize cultural contributions to the LGBT+ Community, Sharpe began creating LGBTQ-themed projects in 1970, as a freshman film student at Boston University. An on-campus theater company which he co-founded while there, eventually evolved into African-American Collective Theater (ACT) after his move to Washington, DC in 1976.
In the early 90’s, African-American Collective Theater revised its original mission from Black theater in general, to focus solely on LGBTQ themes and subject matter. During the subsequent three decades, as an HIV+ artist, he has written and directed over 120 plays, short films, and a web series -- all showcasing the mosaic of LGBTQ life and culture in the Black community.
In addition to ACT, Sharpe is proud to be a charter member of the Brave Soul Collective (BSC) -- for which he has also written an ongoing series of plays, as well as a member of the African-American Playwrights’ Exchange (APEX), Urban Playwrights United (UPU), the NPX New Play Exchange, and the Dramatists’ Guild. His short play, “Bedtime Story” was featured in Houston’s 2019 “Fade-to-Black” Play Festival.
He is recipient of a 2018-19 Artist’s Fellowship in Theater from the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, and one of six artists selected to participate in the 2019 “Playwrights’ Arena” program at Arena Stage.