Anthologies of African American Writing

Black Theatre USA: Plays by African Americans 1847 to Today

"Black Theatre USA: Plays by African Americans 1847 to Today". 2 vols. New York: Free Press, 1996. xix+916 pp. (Vol. 1, "The Early Period, 1847-1938", xiii+415 pp. ; Vol. 2, "The Recent Period, 1935-Today", xiv+507 pp.)

Orig. ed. published as "Black Theater, U.S.A.: Forty-five Plays by Black Americans, 1847-1974"

Contents (1996 ed., by volume): 
Vol. 1: The Black doctor / Ira Aldridge (1847) -- The brown overcoat / Victor Séjour (1858) -- The escape, or, A leap for freedom / William Wells Brown (1958) -- In Dahomey / Paul Laurence Dunbar and Jesse A. Shipp (1902) -- Star of Ethiopia / W.E.B. du Bois (1912) -- Why we are at war / United States Food Administration (1918) -- Appearances / Garland Anderson (1925) -- Rachel / Angelina Grimké (1916) -- Nine eyes have seen / Alice Dunbar-Nelson (1918) -- Aftermath / Mary Burrill (1919) -- They that sit in darkness / Mary Burrill (1919) -- For unborn children / Myrtle Smith Livingston (1926) -- The church fight / Ruth Gaines-Shelton (1925) -- Undertow / Eulalie Spence (1929) -- The purple flower / Marita Odette (Occomy) Bonner (1928) -- The deacon's awakening / Willis Richardson (1920) -- Balo / Jean Toomer (1922) -- A Sunday morning in the South / Georgia Douglas Johnson (1925) -- 'Cruiter / John Matheus (1926) -- Old Man Pete / Randolph Edmonds (1934) -- Job hunters / H.F.V. Edward (1931) -- Don't you want to be free? / Langston Hughes (1937) -- Big white fog / Theodore Ward (1938) -- The first one / Zora Neale Hurston (1927) -- Graven images / May Miller (1929) -- Natural man / Theodore Browne (1937) -- A soldier's play / Charles Fuller (1981) -- Liberty deferred / John D. Silvera and Abram Hill (1938)
Vol. 2: Social Protest: Mulatto / Langston Hughes (1935) -- Native Son / Richard Wright and Paul Green (1941) -- Family Life: Take a Giant Step / Louis Peterson (1953) -- A Raisin in the Sun / Lorraine Hansberry (1959) -- Ceremonies in Dark Old Men / Lonne Elder III (1965) -- The Tumult and the Shouting / Thomas Pawley (1969) --; Comedy and Satire: Limitations of Life / Langston Hughes (1938) -- On Strivers Row / Abram Hill (1939) -- Day of Absence / Douglas Turner Ward (1965) --; Church and God: The Amen Corner / James Baldwin (1954) -- The Confession Stone / Owen Dodson (1960) --; Modern Women Writing on Women: Funnyhouse of a Negro / Adrienne Kennedy (1962) -- Wine in the Wilderness / Alice Childress (1969) -- For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide / Ntozake Shange (1976) -- Sally's Rape / Robbie McCauley (1989) --; Black Theatre for Black People: Dutchman / Amiri Baraka (LeRoi Jones) (1964) -- Goin' a Buffalo / Ed Bullins (1966) -- Prayer Meeting: Or, The First Militant Preacher / Ben Caldwell (1967) -- Contribution / Ted Shine (1969) -- BLK Love Song #1 / Kalamu ya Salaam (1969) --; New Plays, New Ideas, New Forms: The Colored Museum / George C. Wolfe (1988) -- The Mojo and the Sayso / Aishah Rahman (1989) -- Fires in the Mirror / Anna Deavere Smith (1992)

Re 1996 edition: "This revised and expanded Black Theatre U.S.A. broadens its collection to fifty-one outstanding plays, enhancing its status as the most authoritative anthology of African American drama with 22 new selections. Building on the well-respected first edition published in 1974, this edition features previously unpublished works including In Dahomey, Liberty Deferred, and Star of Ethiopia, and the Department of Interior's infamous 1918 food pageant. Contemporary plays by women have been added - Robbie McCauley's Sally's Rape, Anna Deavere Smith's Fires in the Mirror, and Aishah Rahman's The Mojo and the Sayso, as well as the modern classics - Ntozake Shange's Colored Girls ..., Adrienne Kennedy's Funnyhouse of a Negro, and Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun. The range of this collection extends from 1847 to 1992, including the great names in the African American pantheon of writers - Paul Laurence Dunbar, W.E.B. Du Bois, Angelina Grimke, Zora Neale Hurston, Langston Hughes, Richard Wright, and James Baldwin. The chronology begins with William Wells Brown's The Escape: or, a Leap for Freedom, based on his own life as an escaped slave. Two expatriot authors, Ira Aldridge and Victor Sejour, provide glimpses of life in Europe, while at home, playwrights struggled with the issues of birth control, miscegenation, lynching, and migration. . The book embraces both commercial successes such as George C. Wolfe's The Colored Museum, and Charles Fuller's A Soldier's Play, as well as lesser-known masterpieces - Ben Caldwell's The First Militant Preacher, Owen Dodson's The Confession Stone, and Ted Shine's Contribution. The stylistic range, too, runs the gamut of genre from the realism of Ted Ward, Lonne Elder III, and Ed Bullins to the surrealism of Marita Bonner and Aishah Rahman. Comedy is present in Abram Hill's On Strivers Row and Douglas Turner Ward's Day of Absence which mock the racism of both Blacks and Whites" (publisher's description; WorldCat).

A0196b