Seven winners of the nation's most distinguished award for African American playwriting.

Three winners of the nation's most distinguished award for African American playwriting.

"Fine reading and a superb resource." -- Ms. "Highly recommended." -- Library Journal "Perkins has chosen the plays well, and her issue-oriented introduction places the women and their works in a literary and historical context." -- Choice "As well as being centered on the black experience, the plays in Black Female Playwrights are centered on the female experience." -- Voice Literary Supplement "Perkins' anthology is valuable for a number of reasons... Perkins' book (which includes a bibliography of plays and pageants by black women before 1950 as well as a selected bibliography of critical works) is a major help in providing access to [the world of black drama]." -- Theatre Journal The need to acknowledge these works was the impetus behind this volume. Perkins has selected nineteen plays from seven writers who were among the major dramatizers of the black experience during this early period. As forerunners to the activist black theater of the 1950s and 1960s, these plays represent a critical stage in the development of black drama in the United States.

A valuable contribution to African American literary and theatrical scholarship, this volume is a compilation of sixteen plays written during the Harlem Renaissance, brought together for the first time and set in a historical context.

The Old South lives on at the MacGregor Plantation - in the breeze, in the cotton fields... and in the crack of the whip. Nothing is as it seems, and yet everything is as it seems. Jeremy O. Harris's Slave Play rips apart history to shed new light on the nexus of race, gender and sexuality in twenty-first-century America. It opened at New York Theatre Workshop in November 2018, and transferred to Broadway the following year. This edition is published alongside the West End production in 2024. 'How to explain Harris? He is like Tennessee Williams, if Williams had been Prince. Or Truman Capote, if Capote had been Paradise Garage. He is a firebrand writer with whipcrack humour. He has two brilliant plays under his belt, Slave Play and Daddy. He is such a queer hero of our times that the New York neighbourhood he lives in has become fleetingly famous. One of Jeremy O. Harris's plays coming to London is a major event' Evening Standard

African American women have increasingly begun to see their plays performed from regional stages to Broadway. Yet many of these artists still struggle to gain attention. In this volume, Sandra Adell draws from the vital wellspring of works created by African American women in the twenty-first century to present ten plays by both prominent and up-and-coming writers. Taken together, the selections portray how these women engage with history as they delve into--and shake up--issues of gender and class to craft compelling stories of African American life. Gliding from gritty urbanism to rural landscapes, these works expand boundaries and boldly disrupt modes of theatrical representation. Selections: Blue Door, by Tanya Barfield; Levee James, by S. M. Shephard-Massat; Hoodoo Love, by Katori Hall; Carnaval, by Nikkole Salter; Single Black Female, by Lisa B. Thompson; Fabulation, or The Re-Education of Undine, by Lynn Nottage; BlackTop Sky, by Christina Anderson; Voyeurs de Venus, by Lydia Diamond; Fedra, by J. Nicole Brooks; and Uppa Creek: A Modern Anachronistic Parody in the Minstrel Tradition, by Keli Garrett.

It's About Forgiveness by Albi Gorn. A delightful comedy about a man who seeks out his wife in heaven to ask for forgiveness. When The Cherry Blossoms Bloom by Steven A. Shapiro. Two joggers who meet in a park breathe life into each other's lives. Do Us Part by Alan Lutwin. Sometimes forgetfulness can be the best tonic for soothing the stress of a long-term relationship. Love-This Game Is Real by Tremane Hickman. A poetic story about a girl and a guy anxiously waiting to play the game of love without getting played. Cause And Regret Loss Of Sanity by Frank Tamez. A woman at a Bus Stop contemplates regret and guilt while life interjects in this surreal world of love, loss and lust. Other plays include: About The Rabbits by Frank O'Donnell; Summer's Time by Michael Alvarez; Virgin Rock by Kevin Christopher Snipes; Loyal Companion by Joseph Wohlgemuth; The Upside Down Mirror by Emanuel Fleischmann; Protect The Crotch by Tim J. MacMillan; Madrid by Paul M. Buzinski; Requiem For A Life by Tony Macy-Perez; Fun On The Bayou by Vivian Neuwirth; Grave Concerns by Susan E. Sneeringer; Cut Short by Jonathan Zungre; The ABC Slump by Ernest Curcio; and many more!