Antoinette Chinonye Nwandu

Antoinette (“Toni”) Chinonye Nwandu is a New York-based writer for stage & screen. In the summer of 2017, weeks after Trump’s election, Nwandu's play Pass Over had its World Premiere at Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago. A filmed version of that Jeff Award-winning Steppenwolf production—directed by Spike Lee— premiered at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival and at SXSW, and is currently streaming on Amazon Prime. In 2018, Pass Over made its New York debut at LCT3/Lincoln, complete with a new ending. Nwandu has said that if the 2017 ending hits the audience like a sledgehammer, then the 2018 ending is more of a shiv. In 2021, Pass Over ushered in the re-opening of Broadway after the pandemic closure. For this version of the play, Nwandu changed the ending again, this time reversing the lead character's ultimate fate. Nwandu commented that, “after the pandemic, and especially the murder of George Floyd, the idea of sitting through rehearsal after rehearsal of my play the way it ended filled me with dread. I changed the play for myself, first, and then for my audience. We don't need to see anymore dead & dying Black men.”