Plays And Pageants From The Life Of The Negro

Here in a facsimile of the 1930 edition is Willis Richardson's collection of twelve plays and pageants that playwrights of the era wrote expressly for black audiences, mainly students and other young black people who staged them. Not available in any other source, this is the important work of nine significant dramatists who helped to lay the foundations of African American drama. Included are Thelma Myrtle Duncan's Sacrifice, Maud Cuney-Hare's Antar of Araby, John Matheus's Ti Yette, May Miller's Graven Images and Riding the Goat, Willis Richardson's The Black Horseman, The King's Dilemma, and The House of Sham, Inez M. Burke's Two Races, Dorothy C. Guinn's Out of the Dark, Frances Gunner's The Light of the Women, and Edward J. McCoo's Ethiopia at the Bar of Justice. This edition also contains Richardson's introduction from the 1930 edition, not included in later versions.

Here in a facsimile of the 1930 edition is Willis Richardson's collection of twelve plays and pageants that playwrights of the era wrote expressly for black audiences, mainly students and other young black people who staged them. Not available in any other source, this is the important work of nine significant dramatists who helped to lay the foundations of African American drama. Included are Thelma Myrtle Duncan's Sacrifice, Maud Cuney-Hare's Antar of Araby, John Matheus's Ti Yette, May Miller's Graven Images and Riding the Goat, Willis Richardson's The Black Horseman, The King's Dilemma, and The House of Sham, Inez M. Burke's Two Races, Dorothy C. Guinn's Out of the Dark, Frances Gunner's The Light of the Women, and Edward J. McCoo's Ethiopia at the Bar of Justice. This edition also contains Richardson's introduction from the 1930 edition, not included in later versions.

This is a new release of the original 1930 edition.

This Companion provides an original and authoritative surveyof twentieth-century American drama studies, written by some of thebest scholars and critics in the field. Balances consideration of canonical material with discussion ofworks by previously marginalized playwrights Includes studies of leading dramatists, such as TennesseeWilliams, Arthur Miller, Eugene O'Neill and Gertrude Stein Allows readers to make new links between particular plays andplaywrights Examines the movements that framed the century, such as theHarlem Renaissance, lesbian and gay drama, and the soloperformances of the 1980s and 1990s Situates American drama within larger discussions aboutAmerican ideas and culture

In The Development of Black Theater in America, Leslie Sanders examines the work of the American black theater’s five most productive playwrights: Willis Richardson, Randolph Edmonds, Langston Hughes, LeRoi Jones, and Ed Bullins. Sanders sees the history of black theater as the process of creating a “black stage reality” while at the same time transforming conventions borrowed from white European culture into forms appropriate to black artists and audiences. The author argues that only when these things were accomplished could the aim of black playwrights, often articulated as “the realistic portrayal of the Negro,” be fully realized. This study also examines the changing nature of the dialogue black playwrights have held with the dominant tradition and how that dialogue has shaped their imaginations. Sanders’ discussion of Richardson, Edmonds, Hughes, Jones, and Bullins provides a context for approaching the work of other black playwrights, such as James Baldwin, Lorraine Hansberry, and Owen Dodson. And her argument provides a concrete way of understanding how the context of a dominant culture influences the artistic imagination of writers not of that culture, who must come to terms with its influences and transform it into a vehicle of their own.

During the 1920s and 1930s, Willis Richardson (1889-1977) was highly respected as a leading African-American playwright and drama anthologist. His plays were performed by numerous black high school, college, and university drama groups and by theater companies in Chicago, New York, Washington D.C., Cleveland, Baltimore, and Atlanta. With the opening of The Chip Woman's Fortune (1923), he became the first African American to have a play produced on Broadway. Several of his 46 plays were published in assorted magazines, and in his essays, he urged black Americans to seek their dramatic material in their own lives and circumstances. In addition, he edited three anthologies of plays by African-Americans. But between 1940 and his death in 1977, Richardson came to realize that his plays were period pieces and that they no longer reflected the problems and situations of African-Americans. In the years before his death, he attempted vigorously yet unsuccessfully to preserve several of his plays through publication, if not production. But the man who has been called the father of African-American drama and who was considered the hope and promise of African-American drama died in obscurity. Richardson has even been neglected by the scholarly community. This critical biography, the first extensive consideration of his life and work, firmly reestablishes his pioneering role in American theater. The book begins with a detailed chronology, followed by a thoughtful biographical essay. The volume then examines the nature of African-American drama in the 1920s, the period during which Richardson was most productive, and it analyzes his approach to drama as a means of educating African-American audiences. It then explores the African-American community as the central theme in Richardson's plays, for Richardson typically looks at the consequences of refusals by blacks to help one another. The work additionally considers Richardson's history plays, his anthologies, his dramas intended for black children, and his essays. A concluding chapter summarizes his lasting influence; the book closes with a listing of his plays and an extensive bibliography.

Despite their significant contributions to the American theater, African American dramatists have received less critical attention than novelists and poets. This reference offers thorough critical assessments of the lives and works of African American playwrights from the 19th century to the present. The book alphabetically arranges entries on more than 60 dramatists, including James Baldwin, Arna Bontemps, Ossie Davis, Zora Neale Hurston, and Richard Wright. Each entry is written by an expert contributor and includes a biography, a discussion of major works and themes, a summary of the playwright's critical reception, and primary and secondary bibliographies. The volume closes with a selected, general bibliography. African American dramatists have made enormous contributions to the theater and their works are included in numerous editions and anthologies. Some of the most popular plays of the 20th century have been written by African Americans, and high school students and undergraduates study their works. But for all their popularity and influence, African American playwrights have received less critical attention than poets and novelists. This reference offers thorough critical assessments of more than 60 African American dramatists from the 19th century to the present.