🫶 Meet the cast of …BUT YOU COULD’VE HELD MY HAND
Featuring Wade Allain-Marcus, Paul James, Courtney Sauls*, and Krenée A. Tolson
From a stolen slice of wedding cake at age 10 to the complexities of adulthood, four Black friends navigate the joyful and jagged evolution of their relationships. Told with heart, humor, and a hint of magic, this decade-spanning story highlights ups and downs of life, falling in and out of love, and everything in between. …BUT YOU COULD’VE HELD MY HAND is a non-linear swirl of past and present, pulsing with 90s R&B, prom night confessions, awkward first kisses, and more. This bold and theatrical celebration is a tender, poetic exploration of identity, connection, and the spaces people carve out for one another.
*IAMA Ensemble Member
“Looks like we made it. Look how far we’ve come, my baby.”
6 plays in two years. Who would’ve thunk. Extremely grateful to have had this opportunity.
More words. More stories. More life.
Playwright @jucobyjohnson on his in-process translation of Romeo and Juliet: “It’s really important to me that Shakespeare and these plays and these stories really be for everybody.” ✨ @ojaiplays
Videography by @macksfilms
#shakespeare #accessibility #storytelling #romeoandjuliet #playonshakespeare
Get to know the plays and playwrights of the Pacific Playwrights Festival! In the second epsiode of our playwright interviews we chat with JuCoby Johnson about his play “Three-headed Monster.”
See the staged reading of “Three-headed Monster,” directed by H. Adam Harris on Friday, May 1 at 4 p.m.
🫶 Last up in Season 18 is “…but you could’ve held my hand,” a tender poetic exploration of identity, connection, and the spaces people carve out for one another written by JuCoby Johnson and directed by H. Adam Harris. This workshop production runs June 4 to June 15 at Atwater Village Theatre. Tickets available now at #LinkInBio
THIS JUST IN x 2! 🗞️ We’re partnering with @ojaiplays as we expand our ecosystem of translations. So excited to work with Ojai Playwrights Conference and with these incredible playwrights, and stay tuned for additional commissions in the works… ✨ #shakespeare #translation #artsaccessibility
A NEW COLLABORATION BEGINS! ✍️ We’ve partnered with the Ojai Playwrights Conference in commissioning FOUR rigorous translations of Shakespeare’s plays into contemporary modern-verse English that reflect our diverse, dynamic and ever-changing world...
We are thrilled to announce:
Julia Izumi (she/her) will translate The Winter’s Tale
JuCoby Johnson (he/him) will translate Romeo & Juliet
MJ Kaufman (he/they) will translate Henry IV, Part 1
Anne Washburn (she/her) will translate Richard III
We’re so excited to work with these incredible artists in carrying Shakespeare forward for our current world and for generations to come. ✨ Stay tuned...
@ojaiplays@mjkaufmanster@jucobyjohnson@jujuizu #shakespeare
Pacific Playwrights Festival Highlight: "Three-headed Monster" by JuCoby Johnson
After serving time for a crime he didn’t commit, 21-year-old Kyrie returns to the Bronx and his two best friends. A once-inseparable trio is reunited at last. But in the cramped apartment, Kyrie begins to fear there’s no room left for him in a friendship—and world—that grew up while he was gone.
See the staged reading, directed by H. Adam Harris, on Friday, May 1, at 4 p.m.
ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHT
JuCoby Johnson (he/him) is a New York-based playwright, actor, and screenwriter originally from Jacksonville, Florida. Johnson is a second-year playwright in The Juilliard School's Lila Acheson Wallace American Playwrights Program. As an actor, he has performed at the Guthrie Theater, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, the Jungle Theater, Theater Latté Da, Theater Mu, Ten Thousand Things Theater, and many more. His plays have been developed and produced at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center, Ojai Playwrights Conference, The Playwrights' Center, The Old Globe, South Coast Repertory, Round House Theatre, Page 73, Echo Theater, IAMA Theatre Company, Jungle Theater, Playing On Air, and The International Black Theatre Festival. His screenwriting credits include “The Runarounds” (Amazon). Johnson is the recipient of McKnight and Jerome Hill Artist Fellowships, is a member of 2026 Page 73 Writers Group, was a member of the 2022 Sony Pictures Television Diverse Writers Program, and was part of the inaugural artist cohort at the Jungle Theater in Minneapolis.
