African American Dramatists

African American Dramatists
Author: Emmanuel S. Nelson
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Total Pages: 542
Release: 2004-10-30
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 0313052891

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.

The Methuen Drama Book of Post-Black Plays

The Methuen Drama Book of Post-Black Plays
Author: Eisa Davis
Publisher: A&C Black
Total Pages: 672
Release: 2013-12-02
Genre: Drama
ISBN: 1408176564

'Post-black' refers to an emerging trend within black arts to find new and multiple expressions of blackness, unburdened by the social and cultural expectations of blackness of the past and moving beyond the conventional binary of black and white. Reflecting this multiplicity of perspectives, the plays in this collection explode the traditional ways of representing black families on the American stage, and create new means to consider the interplay of race, with questions of class, gender, and sexuality. They engage and critique current definitions of black and African-American identity, as well as previous limitations placed on what constitutes blackness and black theatre. Written by the emerging stars of American theatre such as Eisa Davis and Marcus Gardley, the plays explore themes as varied as family and individuality, alienation and gentrification, and reconciliation and belonging. They demonstrate a wide-range of formal and structural innovations for the American theatre, and reflect the important ways in which contemporary playwrights are expanding the American dramatic canon with new and diverse means of representation. Edited by two leading US scholars in black drama, Harry J. Elam Jr (Stanford) and Douglas A. Jones Jr (Princeton), this cutting edge anthology gathers together some of the most exciting new American plays, selected by a rigorous academic backbone and explored in depth by supporting critical material.

Contemporary Black American Playwrights and Their Plays

Contemporary Black American Playwrights and Their Plays
Author: Bernard L. Peterson Jr.
Publisher: Greenwood
Total Pages: 660
Release: 1988-05-17
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 9780313251900

This work provides a wealth of information on obscure and overlooked American playwrights as well as some famous ones; it will be a welcome addition for collections specializing in the theater arts. Reference Books Bulletin This directory and index, the first such volume devoted exclusively to contemporary black American dramatists, will have an important place in theatre collections. It captures and preserves an elusive part of artistic endeavor, giving access to literally thousands of dramatic works that would otherwise be lost to scholars and the public. Organized as an encyclopedia, it provides information on more than 600 noteworthy Black American playwrights whose plays have been written, produced, or published between 1950 and the present. The volume begins with an introductory essay surveying the history of contemporary black American drama. Playwrights, screenwriters, radio and television scriptwriters, and musical theatre collaborators are treated in individual entries that comprise the bulk of the book. The volume also supplies a bibliography of anthologies, books, and periodicals cited; mailing addresses for more than 200 of the playwrights; and title and subject indexes.

Contemporary Black American Playwrights and Their Plays

Contemporary Black American Playwrights and Their Plays
Author: Bernard L. Peterson Jr.
Publisher: Greenwood
Total Pages: 668
Release: 1988-05-17
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 9780313251900

This work provides a wealth of information on obscure and overlooked American playwrights as well as some famous ones; it will be a welcome addition for collections specializing in the theater arts. Reference Books Bulletin This directory and index, the first such volume devoted exclusively to contemporary black American dramatists, will have an important place in theatre collections. It captures and preserves an elusive part of artistic endeavor, giving access to literally thousands of dramatic works that would otherwise be lost to scholars and the public. Organized as an encyclopedia, it provides information on more than 600 noteworthy Black American playwrights whose plays have been written, produced, or published between 1950 and the present. The volume begins with an introductory essay surveying the history of contemporary black American drama. Playwrights, screenwriters, radio and television scriptwriters, and musical theatre collaborators are treated in individual entries that comprise the bulk of the book. The volume also supplies a bibliography of anthologies, books, and periodicals cited; mailing addresses for more than 200 of the playwrights; and title and subject indexes.

A Century of Musicals in Black and White

A Century of Musicals in Black and White
Author: Bernard L. Peterson Jr.
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Total Pages: 554
Release: 1993-10-25
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 0313064547

This comprehensive reference book provides succinct information on almost thirteen hundred musical stage works written and produced from the 1870s to the 1990s involving contributions by black librettists, lyricists, composers, musicians, producers, or performers or containing thematic materials relevant to the black experience. Organized alphabetically, they include tent and outdoor shows, vaudeville, operas and operettas, comedies, farces, spectacles, revues, cabaret and nightclub shows, children's musicals, skits, one-act musicals, one-person shows, and even a musical without songs. In addition to the hundreds of shows independently created, produced, and performed by black writers and theatrical artists, it presents hundreds more representing a collaboration of black and white talents. An appendix organizes the shows chronologically and highlights those that were most significant in the history of the black American musical stage. An extensive bibliography and indexes of names, songs, and subjects complete the work.

African American Women Playwrights

African American Women Playwrights
Author: Christy Gavin
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 256
Release: 2012-10-12
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 113652147X

This Guide includes the primary and secondary works and summaries of plays of 15 prominent African American women playwrights including Lorraine Hansberry, Ntozake Shange, Adrienne Kennedy, Alice Childress, Zora Neale Hurston, Georgia Douglas Johnson. During the last 10 to 15 years, critical consideration of contemporary as well as earlier black women playwrights has blossomed. Plays by black women are increasingly anthologized and two recently published anthologies devote themselves solely to black women dramatists. In light of the growing interest in scholarship concerning African American women playwrights, researchers and librarians need a bibliographical source that brings together the profiles interviews, critical material and primary sources of black female playwrights. This guide will provide a bibliographical essay reviewing the scholarship of black women playwrights as well as for each playwright: a biography, summaries of each play detailed annotations of secondary material, and list of primary sources.