She Danced with a Redfish: A Play in Two Acts

From New Orleans’s vast mythology springs this play featuring Marie Laveau, a young free woman of color, as she is transformed from a Catholic bride to an active participant in African spiritual traditions in the pre-Civil War French Quarter. When the Saint-Domingue priestess Sanité Dédé performs a midnight ritual cleansing in Marie’s cottage, the unexpected return of Marie’s husband, Jacques Paris, disrupts the ceremony, ultimately leading to her awakening to African mysticism. The magic of the Vieux Carré is brought to life in this tale of love, betrayal, and empowerment. She Danced with a Redfish pays tribute to the African traditions that shaped New Orleans and still reverberate in and beyond Congo Square.

About the Author

Carolyn Nur Wistrand is an award-winning playwright and educator. Her plays have been staged in New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Savannah, Atlanta, Flint, Omaha, Detroit, and New Orleans. A recipient of the MACC/NEA Award, a NEH Summer Fellowship, and winner of the Mario-Fratti-Fred Newman International Playwriting Competition, she is a professor of English and Drama at Dillard University in New Orleans.

Praise for She Danced with a Redfish

“She Danced with a Redfish is the product of a deep, audacious imagination, frequently shocking but irresistibly enchanting. . . . The dialogue is crisp, poignant, and quotably epigrammatic.” —Niyi Osundare, emeritus distinguished professor of English, University of New Orleans, author of Green: Sighs of Our Ailing Planet

“At a time when a woman’s right to self-determination is once again historically under attack, She Danced with a Redfish is a sexy, funny, spine-tingling, and mystical journey of finding one’s power, destiny, and self-love.” —Patricia R. Floyd, Equity, SAG, Audelco-winning actor and director, New York City

“Finally, an honest, artistic portrait of Marie Laveau, New Orleans’s notorious hairstylist/healer, that gives her the props she deserves.” —Dr. Nancy Dixon, editor, New Orleans’s official tricentennial anthology, New Orleans & The World, and Voices and Visions: Essays on New Orleans’s Literary History

“Like all famous heroines, ancient or modern, Marie Laveau found her own strength, and now through She Danced with a Redfish she has a place on the twenty-first-century stage.” —Dr. Michele Valerie Ronnick, Wayne State University, The Works of William Sanders Scarborough: Black Classicist and Race Leader

"She Danced with a Redfish is a remarkable contribution in imaginative creativity to keep alive the legacy of Marie Laveau. The play addresses significant issues in the history of slavery and colonialism and manifests how a dramatist engages with their legacies in the context of nationalism, identity, and belonging.” —Ernest N. Emenyonu, PhD, emeritus professor of Africana Studies, University of Michigan-Flint, editor, African Literature Today

© 2025 University of Louisiana at Lafayette Press

Paperback, 108 pages | 6" x 9" | ISBN: 9781959569183