Levi Frazier, Jr.

Levi Frazier, Jr. is a published short story author, an award-winning playwright with over 50 plays, as well as a director, producer, screenwriter, actor, and educator. After 15 years as Associate Professor and Theatre Manager, he is Professor Emeritus in theatre at Southwest Tennessee Community College. He also taught at the University of Memphis and State Technical Institute at Memphis. Awards include the Alabama Shakespeare Festival’s Southern Writers Project Award; first place writing honors at the Association for Theatre of Higher Education National Conference; When It Rains selected by the Conference on World Affairs at the University of Colorado, Boulder and at the National Black Theatre Festival; screenwriting semifinalist for the American Film Institute’s Summer Situation Comedy Workshop, the Organization of Black Screenwriters Award, and the Writers Network Screenplay and Fiction Competition; finalist in America’s Best Writing Contest’s Sitcom Category. His work has been produced nationally in major theatrical markets such as New York, Chicago, Miami, Austin, Hollywood and Memphis. Notable productions include A Tribute to Richard Wright produced by invitation at the Sorbonne for the African-American and Europe International Festival in Paris France; Down On Beale Street, off-off Broadway, featuring actress extraordinaire, Anna Deavere Smith; Beale Street Back Again, for Tennessee’s Bicentennial; For Our Freedom and Yours in Lodz, Poland at an international symposium on Black Shakespearian actor, Ira Aldridge. In 2022 and 2023, Frazier’s W.C., Tennessee, The Blues, and Me was produced at the Mississippi Delta Tennessee Williams Literary Festival. Frazier is co-founder with his wife, Deborah, of Beale Street Repertory Company and Blues City Cultural Center, where he now serves as Artistic Director.