Anthologies of African American Writing

Best Black Plays: The Theodore Ward Prize for African American Playwriting

"Best Black Plays: The Theodore Ward Prize for African American Playwriting" . Ed. Church Smith. Foreword Woodie King, Jr. Evanston, IL: Northwestern UP, 2007. x+226 pp.

Foreword / Woodie King Jr -- Sundown names and night-gone things / Leslie Lee -- Ma Noah / Mark Clayton Southers -- Diva daughters DuPree / Kim Euell -- Afterword / Chuck Smith -- Contest guidelines -- First-place winners of the Theodore Ward Prize for African American Playwriting -- Scenes and monologues -- About the playwrights.

Publisher's description: "Within the relatively recent development of a tradition of African American playwriting, the Theodore Ward Prize has, over its twenty-year history, offered a rich reflection of the accomplishments of emerging and established black playwrights and their growing importance in shaping contemporary theater. This volume showcases three winners of the Theodore Ward Prize--plays that in their quality and subject matter aptly represent what is being written and produced by African American playwrights and theaters today. Carefully selected by a director and educator who has been affiliated with the contest for eighteen of its twenty years, these three works have themes that range from the sordid shenanigans of a Depression-era "South Side Burial Society" (Leslie Lee's Sundown Names and Night-Gone Things ) to a single mother's heartbreaking battle to save her children's souls (Mark Clayton Southers' Ma Noah ) to a poignant and achingly funny reunion of three sisters after their parents' death (Kim Euell's The Diva Daughters DuPree ). Their publication answers a growing demand for the work of African American playwrights even as it affords deep and varied insights into African American culture in our era."

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