Acclaimed Playwright at Medford's Royall House Saturday

MEDFORD, MA - A renowned playwright whose work shines a strong light on the intersection of race and class in America is featured at this weekend's Royall House fundraiser.

Kirsten Greenidge is the featured speaker at Sunday's event in Medford Square at 3 p.m.

Her Obie award-winning Milk Like Sugar, about the decisions teen girls of color make based on the support structures available to them, recently completed a Boston run, simultaneous with a premiere of Baltimore, about a racially charged incident on a college campus, according to a release. The Luck of the Irish, which premiered at Boston’s Huntington Theater in 2012, centers on a dispute between an African American family and the white couple who “ghost bought” a house on their behalf in the era of redlining.

Greenidge said she enjoys the challenge of placing underrepresented voices on stage. “I like to write about the have nots,” she says, “the outsiders.”

When she won the prestigious PEN Theater Award for a Playwright in Midcareer, the judges described her as “a rare writer who incisively takes on issues of race, culture, class and hierarchy, always attending to the moment-to-moment emotional journey and a rewarding story. Her plays are inclusive, complicated, bold and American. Actors love her people and language, directors love her stories and themes, and audiences lean in.”

She is currently working on three plays based in history, about teen-aged Sally Hemings in Thomas Jefferson’s Paris home, the friendship between Mary Todd Lincoln and seamstress Elizabeth Keckley, and—for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s American Revolutions cycle—Belinda Sutton’s petition for a pension from the estate of Isaac Royall Jr.

This annual benefit event on the museum grounds supports the continued preservation and interpretation of the Royall House and Slave Quarters. The event will include music, refreshments, and complimentary tours of the site.

Tickets for Giving Voice are $40 for Royall House and Slave Quarters members and $50 for non-members, and may be purchased at the event.