Our Cast
Sharon Washington
Sharon Washington
Celebrating her new career journey as a writer and over 30 years as a working actress, Sharon received a TONY nomination in 2023 for co-writer of the Kander and Ebb musical New York, New York. She made her playwright debut at City Theatre with the world premiere of her solo show Feeding The Dragon (2016), which subsequently played at Hartford Stage (2018), and Off-Broadway at Primary Stages (2018). Nominations included Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Solo Performance, a Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Solo Show, and won an Audelco Award for Solo Performance. Sharon was Primary Stages 2017-18 Tow Foundation Playwright-in-Residence. Feeding The Dragon is also a best-selling Audible Original audio play published by Oberon Books.
Recent film appearances include the award-winning short film Birdwatching, co-starring Amanda Seyfried, as well as Joker, The Kitchen, and On The Basis of Sex. Her most recent television appearances include guest star roles on Bull, Power Book III: Raising Kanan, and For Life.
Sharon has extensive Broadway and Off-Broadway credits, including The Scottsboro Boys (Lyceum Theater), Dot (Vineyard Theater), Wild with Happy (Public Theater/NYSF), for which she received a Lucille Lortel nomination and an Audelco Award, and Richard III (Public Theater/NYSF, 1990 and 2022), Coriolanus, Cymbeline, Caucasian Chalk Circle (Public Theater/NYSF), and many regional theater credits.
Consuela “Connie” and George “King” Washington
Consuela “Connie” and George “King” Washington
“Always have something of your own. Even when you get married, always have your own bank account. You have to be able to take care of yourself.”
Born in New York City in 1917, Sharon’s mom Connie graduated from Harlem’s Wadleigh High School, the city’s first public all-girls high school, in 1934. She met her husband George on a blind date in 1939, and they married a year later. Her secretary skills took her to work at The Pentagon in Washington, D.C. during WWII. She and George moved back to New York City in 1946. During a three-year separation from George, she attended and graduated from the Zion Bible College in Barrington, Rhode Island, in 1955. In 1956 she returned to New York, starting a 25-year career as general secretary and then executive secretary at Soul Saving Station in Harlem. Sharon was born in the 19th year of her troubled marriage and began a new beginning for her parents’ relationship.
“If you gonna’ tell it, tell it right!”
Sharon’s Dad, George, was born in Charleston, South Carolina, in 1915, the oldest of Louise and Robert Washington’s nine children. He left school in the 8th grade to help support his family. In 1938 he moved to New York City for better work opportunities and was drafted into the U.S. Navy in 1943. George’s alcohol addiction began during the war, which led to many marital separations. Sharon’s surprise birth in 1959 began George’s long fight with addiction beyond his ten years as a New York Public Library custodian. He and Connie retired to Georgetown, South Carolina, in 1982, where George found sobriety, religion, and a newfound sense of purpose. He gave away his beloved daughter in marriage in 2002.
Colman Domingo
Colman Domingo
“When it’s time for your play to be done, there’s nothing that gets in its way. It’s energy saying it wants to be out there, and that’s what you’re doing.”
Actor, playwright, screenwriter, and founder of Edith Productions, Colman began his friendship and theater collaboration with Sharon when they were both cast in the musical The Scottsboro Boys in 2009. He remains a confidant and supporter of Sharon’s work both as an actor and now writer.
Oskar Eustis
“I feel like you’ve dropped so many clues about your parents, that there’s some kind of reckoning coming.”
Oskar is the artistic director of The Public Theater in New York City and has worked as a director, dramaturg, and artistic director for theaters around the country. His question, “What is the story?” after an early reading of Sharon’s play, propelled her to dig deeper as a writer.
Toni Lynn Dickinson
“Sharon was one of the first people I met when I went to Dalton. It was like, wow, another black girl! Cause there weren’t many of us there.”
Toni met Sharon in the 8th grade at The Dalton School, and they became fast friends. She and Sharon are part of a small group of black graduates of Dalton, who are affectionately known as “The Dalton Gang.”
Tracy Brigden
“Okay, it’s Sharon Washington, and she’s awesome, but it’s her first play, and I have all these major heavy hitters that have sent me plays. Am I really going to turn one of those down?”
Tracy is artistic director at City Theatre, Pittsburgh, which premiered Sharon’s play Feeding the Dragon in 2016.
Reginald Douglas
“Your mother’s solution was to be polite. Politeness opens doors. Yet your story is being opened up by you being free to not follow all the rules.”
The artistic producer who helped Sharon develop her play during City Theatre’s new play development program, “Momentum.”
Maria Mileaf
“I love that idea that you’re saying, that my story is not the story that you’ve seen in 85 movies of the week.”
The play’s director who challenged and guided Sharon as both a writer and actor in all three productions of Feeding the Dragon in Pittsburgh, Hartford, and New York City.