Draft:Paul Outlaw

Outlaw relocated to West Berlin in 1983, becoming an active figure in the city’s international and independent performance communities during the final years of the Cold War. During this tenure, Outlaw was a founding member of the Berlin Playactors, the city's first English-language theater company.^[2] He performed with the group at prominent European venues including the Quartier Latin and the British Council in Berlin, as well as the Melkweg and Vondelpark in Amsterdam.^[2]

In 1993, Outlaw gained international recognition for his lead role in the short film Schwarzfahrer (Black Rider). Directed by Pepe Danquart, the film won the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film at the 66th Academy Awards. Outlaw’s performance was noted in the Tagesspiegel for its nuanced portrayal of a passenger facing verbal abuse on a Berlin tram.^[2] His work in this period established a foundation for his later explorations of expatriate identity, a central theme of his project Wall Berliner, Wahlberliner, which is currently in development.

Returning to the United States, Outlaw developed a body of solo and collaborative performance works. His 2003 play, Berserker, was selected for inclusion in the anthology Blacktino Queer Performance (2016), published by Duke University Press.^[1] Editors E. Patrick Johnson and Ramón H. Rivera-Servera identified the work as a significant example of the intersectional performance of race and sexuality. Scholars have described the work as a "meditation upon interracial desire and disappearing blackness."^[1]

Other notable works include:

• The Late, Late Show (2013): A three-act "vampire play" with music depicting the life of a 300-year-old protagonist born in Antebellum North Carolina.^[3]
• BBC (Big Black Cockroach) (2024): A satirical solo work exploring the imperilment of the Black body. The work premiered at REDCAT in Los Angeles and was described by Artillery Magazine as a "profound proclamation" of identity.^[4]

In 2016, Outlaw played the 19th-century Shakespearean actor Ira Aldridge in the West Coast premiere of Lolita Chakrabarti's Red Velvet. Writing for the Los Angeles Times, critic David C. Nichols noted that Outlaw's performance brought a "regal, resonant authority" to the historical role.^[5] He also appeared as a featured singer in the 2018 Boston Court Pasadena production of A Streetcar Named Desire, which LA Times critic Charles McNulty named one of the year's best productions; McNulty described Outlaw's performance in the role as that of a "radical hip-hop torch singer."^[6]

Outlaw has frequently collaborated with contemporary musicians. In 2016, he provided guest vocals for the experimental hip-hop group clipping. on their Hugo Award-nominated album Splendor & Misery.^[7] He also starred in the music video for the single "True Believer," directed by Carlos López Estrada.

Outlaw is a founding and active member of the Los Angeles LGBTQ+ Arts Alliance (in partnership with the One Institute), a coalition dedicated to the advancement of queer culture and history.^[8]

In 2012, Outlaw was awarded a City of Los Angeles (COLA) Individual Artist Fellowship. In 2021, he was a featured subject in the One Institute’s Pride Publics exhibition, a multi-site public art installation celebrating LGBTQ+ artists and activists.^[9]

His professional development has been supported by numerous residencies and fellowships. Since 2020, he has been awarded three residencies at the Ucross Foundation and four writing residencies sponsored by Los Angeles Performance Practice and the Speranza Foundation. He is a multi-year recipient of the Lincoln City Fellowship.^[10] In 2023, he received a $30,000 Performing Arts Recovery Grant from the Los Angeles County Department of Arts and Culture.^[11]

• Official website