Anthologies of African American Writing

New Black Playwrights: An Anthology

New Black Playwrights

"New Black Playwrights: An Anthology" . Ed. William Couch, Jr. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State UP, 1968. xxiii+258 pp.

Revised as "New Black Playwrights: Six Plays". Ed. William Couch. New York: Avon, 1970. 288 pp.

Contents (1968 ed.): Ed Bullins, "Goin' a Buffalo" – Lonne Elder III, "Ceremonies in Dark Old Men" – Adirenne Kennedy, "A Rat's Mass" – William Wellington Mackey, "Family Meeting" – Douglas Turner Ward, "Day of Absence" – Douglas Turner Ward, "Happy Ending".

• Abramson, Doris E. "The Massachusetts Review" 10.3 (1969): 604-08. JSTOR.

• Lindberg, John. "Thematic Black Anthologies." "North American Review" 225.1 (Spring 1970): 69-73. JSTOR.
"'New Black Playwrights' . . . ranges a gamut from simplistic propaganda to more successful adaptations of experimental techniques" (71). Lindberg finds most of the plays to be less than successful, but praises Adrienne Kennedy's "A Rat's Mass" and Ed Bullins's "Goin' a Buffalo": "Literary excellence like that of Adrienne Kennedy and Ed Bullins arises from the free play of imagination over experience" (71).

• Perry, Thelma D. "Negro History Bulletin" 32.3 (1969): 22.

• Skeffer, Isaiah. "Black Theatre in America." "The Nation" (25 Aug. 1969): 151.

• Welburn, Ron. "The Drama Review" 2.4 (1969): 702ff.

• Harrison, P. C. (1968)

Rowell 1972: 61] [Hatch 1991: 185] [Kinnamon 1997: 475]

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