The Peculiar Patriot
MAINSTAGE PRODUCTION
May 2026
Inspired by her decades-long work with prison populations, including on the notorious Rikers Island, Liza Jessie Peterson’s timely and urgent one-person show unpacks the human impact of mass incarceration in America. Fearlessly funny, smart and provocative, The Peculiar Patriot traces the migration of systemic injustice from the plantation to the prison yard.
Betsy LaQuanda Ross is a self-proclaimed “peculiar patriot,” who makes regular visits to penitentiaries to boost the morale of her incarcerated friends and family. Betsy is both victim and victor of this country’s prison system and her story turns statistics into achingly relatable stories, drawn from the experience of more than 2.5 million people behind bars.
The play began development in 2003 with performances in more than 35 penitentiaries across the U.S. and was once again performed for inmates in January 2020 at Angola State Penitentiary. Hi-ARTS and National Black Theatre joined forces to produce the acclaimed world premiere in September 2017, working with more than 10 grass-roots organizations in criminal justice to help empower and inform the community. This touring production premiered at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, in association with National Black Theatre & Hi-ARTS, in April 2019. Peculiar Patriot will travel from Baltimore Center Stage in Fall 2025 to New York Theatre Workshop in Spring 2026.
The Peculiar Patriot team includes Andrew Cissna (Scenic and Lighting Design), Katherine Freer (Projection Design), LaToya Murray-Berry (Costume Design), Luqman Brown (Sound Design), Belynda M’Baye (Props Design) and James Blaszko (Tour Producer)
Co-Produced with
New York Theatre Workshop
In association with
Lena Waithe
Liza Jessie Peterson
Playwright/Performer
Liza Jessie Peterson is an artivist—actress, playwright, poet, author, and youth advocate—who has worked with incarcerated populations for over 20 years. Her acclaimed one-woman show, The Peculiar Patriot, was nominated for Drama Desk and Elliot Norton Awards, received a Lilly Award, and is featured in the Oscar-shortlisted documentary Angola Do You Hear Us? (Paramount+/Amazon). She performed the play in 35 prisons nationwide.
Liza authored ALL DAY: A Year of Love and Survival Teaching Incarcerated Kids at Rikers Island (Hachette), now being adapted for the stage by The Old Globe Theater. She appeared in Ava DuVernay’s The 13th (Netflix) and consulted on PBS’s Rikers (Bill Moyers).
A celebrated poet, she began at the Nuyorican Poets Café and appeared on HBO’s Def Poetry. Screen credits include Bamboozled, Love the Hard Way, A Luv Tale, Everything’s Gonna Be All White, and The Chi. She also created two short films: MERLINA and Black Love Manifesto.
More: www.lizajessiep.com.
Talvin Wilks
Director
Talvin Wilks is a playwright, director and dramaturg. His plays include Tod, the boy, Tod, The Trial of Uncle S&M, Bread of Heaven, An American Triptych, Jimmy and Lorraine: A Musing, and As I Remember It with Carmen de Lavallade. Directorial projects include the world premiere productions of UDU by Sekou Sundiata, The Love Space Demands by Ntozake Shange, the Obie Award/AUDELCO Award winning The Shaneequa Chronicles by Stephanie Berry, The Peculiar Patriot by Liza Jessie Peterson and co-writer/co-director for Ping Chong’s ongoing series of Undesirable Elements and Collidescope: Adventures in Pre- and Post-Racial America. Since 2014, some of his most acclaimed directorial work has been centered at Penumbra Theatre Company – The Ballad of Emmett Till and Benevolence by Ifa Bayeza, This Bitter Earth by Harrison David Rivers, The Owl Answers by Adrienne Kennedy and The White Card by Claudia Rankine. As a dramaturg he has collaborated on numerous award-winning projects with nationally renowned companies such as Bebe Miller Company, Urban Bush Women, Camille A. Brown and Dancers, and the stage adaptation of Ta-Nehisi Coates’ Between theWorld and Me at the Apollo Theatre. He is a 2020 recipient of the McKnight Theater Artist Fellowship.
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