WRITING
 
What I write and why:

I write plays and tele-plays with multi-cultural casts, a comic tone, and often a supernatural twist. I want to reconcile ordinary life with all the stuff we can't explain. It ain't Raisin in the Sun.

Currently:

I'm working as a staff writer on USA's hit show COVERT AFFAIRS. Having a blast and learning so much!

Writing a short film for director Phil Kaufmann: Intelligence.
The film will shoot in late January.

Writing Highlights:

Recent Graduate of:

The CBS Writers Mentoring Program - 2010/2011

Selected Full Length Plays:

• Black / Out Stories (Citizen Playwright Freedom Train Productions 2010)
• The Escape Artist's Children (Winner New Professional Theatre Writer's Festival 2009)
• Urban Rabbit Chronicles (nominated for the Weissberger Award 2008)
• The Laundry Channel (Juilliard workshop 2004)
• Wheelchair Pornography (Spectral Sisters Productions 2003)
• Brink of Life (co-story and lyrics) (Dreamcatcher Repertory Theatre 2001)

Short pieces:

• Love War Death Life (The American Theater Company - As part of the Silver Project (25th Anniversary) (2010)
• This is Now (American Airlines Theatre - 24 Hour Plays on Broadway (2007)
• First Encounter (Falcon Theatre / L.A. - NBC diversity showcase (2007)
• Actual Cost (Juilliard /100th Anniversary 2006 - published by The Kenyon Review Online)
• Iggie Imagines Marriage (Dreamcatcher Repertory Theatre (2000) John Houseman Studio (1997)
• Abstract Purple (Baltimore Playwrights Festival 1994)
• Readings and workshops: New York Stage & Film, Summer Play Festival (NY), New York Theatre Workshop, Tribeca Theatre Festival.

Film:

• Betty on the Bed (short) (also director, producer and actor) (2006)
  
• Undefeatable (martial arts feature) for Polygram Video (co-written with Robert Vassar (1993)

Radio:

• 2 radio pilots: The Real Deal for Sesame Workshop / WHYY (co-written with Becky Ndosi) (2001)

Training:

• Juilliard playwriting program

Writing Awards:

• Winner: New Professional Theatre's Writers Festival (2009)
• Yaddo fellowship (2008)
• MacDowell Colony NEA fellowship (2007)
• Skidmore Residency for Artists of Color at Yaddo (2006)
• Le Compte du Nouy prize (Juilliard) (2003/2004)

Link to the Doollee playwrights database


"Harper... has a good feel for storytelling, structure and dialogue. He creates characters you care about..."

    - Baltimore Sun