In a League of Her Own
Lydia R. Diamond’s play Toni Stone shines as the Northwestern alumna’s latest endeavor.
While sitting on Chicago’s Goodman Theatre stage, award-winning playwright Lydia R. Diamond ’92 offered an unexpected confession.
“I thought I would be famous and be on soap operas,” Diamond shared during an audience talkback with School of Communication Dean E. Patrick Johnson. “That was my goal when I came to Northwestern University from my small high school in Waco, Texas.”
Diamond and Johnson’s conversation followed a matinee performance of Toni Stone, the prolific playwright’s newest theatrical work, which recently enjoyed a four-week run at the Goodman.
Initially a theatre major upon her arrival in Evanston, Diamond found herself gravitating toward performance studies classes in the School of Speech (now the School of Communication), including courses covering ethnography and adaptation. Then, in her junior year, she took a playwriting class with former Northwestern professor Charles Smith, Diamond’s first course with a Black theater teacher.
Though Diamond had immersed herself in the study of acting, she hadn’t given much attention to the behind-the-scenes literary forces molding stories for performance. Smith, however, introduced Diamond to that world and invited her to enter into it.
“The performance studies department was where I felt affirmed for the first time. It empowered me to find and tell my own stories,” Diamond said.
That formative experience led Diamond to eventually forgo an acting career and instead commit to becoming what she felt called to be—a playwright. She graduated with a major in performance studies, cementing her decision.
Over the last three decades, Diamond has penned works exploring issues of race, class, and gender for audiences across the United States. In Voyeurs de Venus, Diamond shared the story of Saartje Baartman, a 19th century woman captured from her southern African home and exploited on the streets of London and Paris. Diamond’s Stick Fly landed on Broadway in 2011—with singer Alicia Keys as the producer, no less—exploring a gathering at an affluent Black family’s home in Martha’s Vineyard. Diamond also transformed the autobiography Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl into the play Harriet Jacobs and adapted Toni Morrison’s acclaimed novel The Bluest Eye for the stage.
In her new play, Diamond highlights the true story of second-base player Toni Stone, the first woman to play professionally in baseball’s Negro Leagues. After reading author Martha Ackmann’s Curveball: The Remarkable Story of Toni Stone, Diamond felt called to bring her compelling tale to the stage.
“I thought it was insane I didn’t know who [Stone] was,” Diamond said. “I felt I understood something about her story . . . that thing of being the only one and pushing hard in a focused way.”
Balancing an exploration of sexism and racism with surprising comedic one-liners and energetic interplay among characters, Diamond’s play celebrates Stone’s trailblazing experience. As a result, Toni Stone earned critical praise.
Diamond credits the foundation of her playwriting roots to Northwestern, where she says she learned the act of writing for an ensemble, the powerful impact of research, and the wide potential to share overlooked stories.
“At Northwestern, a real aesthetic burrowed its way into me and defined the way I think about art,” Diamond said.