THE AMEN CORNER by James Baldwin
Directed by Runako Jahi
9/13/12 – 10/21/12
CEREMONIES IN DARK OLD MEN by Lonne Elder, III
Directed by Vaun Monroe
11/8/12 – 12/16/12
WINE IN THE WILDERNESS and FLORENCE by Alice Childress
Directed by Mignon McPherson Stewart
1/10/13 – 3/3/13
Directed by Ilesa Duncan
3/21/13 – 5/12/13
Directed by Artisia Green
6/6/13 – 7/28/13
James Arthur Baldwin (August 2, 1924 – December 1, 1987) was an American novelist, essayist, playwright, poet, and social critic.
Baldwin's essays, such as the collection Notes of a Native Son (1955), explore palpable yet unspoken intricacies of racial, sexual, and class distinctions in Western societies, most notably in mid-20th-century America, vis-à-vis their inevitable if unnameable tensions with personal identity, assumptions, uncertainties, yearning, and questing.[1] Some Baldwin essays are book-length, for instance The Fire Next Time (1963), No Name in the Street (1972), and The Devil Finds Work (1976).
His novels and plays fictionalize fundamental personal questions and dilemmas amid complex social and psychological pressures thwarting the equitable integration of not only blacks yet also of male homosexuals—depicting as well some internalized impediments to such individuals' quest for acceptance—namely in his second novel, Giovanni's Room (1956), written well before the equality of homosexuals was widely espoused in America.[2] Baldwin's best-known novel is his first, Go Tell It on the Mountain (1953).
Baldwin's essays, such as the collection Notes of a Native Son (1955), explore palpable yet unspoken intricacies of racial, sexual, and class distinctions in Western societies, most notably in mid-20th-century America, vis-à-vis their inevitable if unnameable tensions with personal identity, assumptions, uncertainties, yearning, and questing.[1] Some Baldwin essays are book-length, for instance The Fire Next Time (1963), No Name in the Street (1972), and The Devil Finds Work (1976).
His novels and plays fictionalize fundamental personal questions and dilemmas amid complex social and psychological pressures thwarting the equitable integration of not only blacks yet also of male homosexuals—depicting as well some internalized impediments to such individuals' quest for acceptance—namely in his second novel, Giovanni's Room (1956), written well before the equality of homosexuals was widely espoused in America.[2] Baldwin's best-known novel is his first, Go Tell It on the Mountain (1953).
Lonne Elder III (December 26, 1927 – June 11, 1996) was an American actor, playwright and screenwriter. In 1973, he along with Suzanne de Passe became the first African Americans to be nominated for the Academy Award for writing. [1] Elder was nominated for Sounder, while De Passe was nominated for the film Lady Sings the Blues.
Elder was born in Americus, Georgia but raised in Jersey City, New Jersey. He began his career as a Broadway actor but soon found his skills in playwriting. His first and most well known play, Ceremonies in Dark Old Men, won him a Drama Desk Award for Most Promising Playwright. The play, which was about a Harlem barber and his family, was produced by the Negro Ensemble Company in 1969, [2] and this encouraged him to study filmmaking at Yale. He did not complete the course in filmmaking at Yale.
He wrote the screenplay for Sounder and received an Academy Award nomination. He later wrote its sequel.
Elder was born in Americus, Georgia but raised in Jersey City, New Jersey. He began his career as a Broadway actor but soon found his skills in playwriting. His first and most well known play, Ceremonies in Dark Old Men, won him a Drama Desk Award for Most Promising Playwright. The play, which was about a Harlem barber and his family, was produced by the Negro Ensemble Company in 1969, [2] and this encouraged him to study filmmaking at Yale. He did not complete the course in filmmaking at Yale.
He wrote the screenplay for Sounder and received an Academy Award nomination. He later wrote its sequel.
Alice Childress (October 12, 1912[1] – August 14, 1994) was an American playwright, actor, and author
Childress was born in South Carolina, but at age nine, after her parents separated, she moved to Harlem where she lived with her grandmother on 118th Street, between Lenox Avenue and Fifth Avenue. Though her grandmother had no formal education, she encouraged Alice to pursue her talents in reading and writing. Alice attended public school in New York for her middle school and attended the Wadleigh High School for her high school education, but had to drop out once her grandmother died. She became involved in theater immediately after her high school and she did not attend college.
Childress was born in South Carolina, but at age nine, after her parents separated, she moved to Harlem where she lived with her grandmother on 118th Street, between Lenox Avenue and Fifth Avenue. Though her grandmother had no formal education, she encouraged Alice to pursue her talents in reading and writing. Alice attended public school in New York for her middle school and attended the Wadleigh High School for her high school education, but had to drop out once her grandmother died. She became involved in theater immediately after her high school and she did not attend college.
Cheryl L. West (born 1965, Chicago) is an American playwright.
West holds a degree from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana. She worked as a social worker and taught before turning to playwriting. In 1990 she moved to Seattle.
She won a National Endowment for the Arts Playwrighting Award for 1995-96. Also making a successful foray into film, her play Before It Hits Home has been optioned by Spike Lee; and she has been asked to pen a film adaptation for Home Box Office and write an original screenplay for Paramount Studios. She had been commissioned to write a dramatic adaptation of Richard Wright's 1940 novel Native Son.
A film version of Holiday Heart premiered on Showtime in 2000 starring Ving Rhames and Alfre Woodard.
West holds a degree from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana. She worked as a social worker and taught before turning to playwriting. In 1990 she moved to Seattle.
She won a National Endowment for the Arts Playwrighting Award for 1995-96. Also making a successful foray into film, her play Before It Hits Home has been optioned by Spike Lee; and she has been asked to pen a film adaptation for Home Box Office and write an original screenplay for Paramount Studios. She had been commissioned to write a dramatic adaptation of Richard Wright's 1940 novel Native Son.
A film version of Holiday Heart premiered on Showtime in 2000 starring Ving Rhames and Alfre Woodard.
Katori Hall (born May 10, 1981) is an American playwright, journalist, and actress from Memphis, Tennessee.
Her play The Mountaintop, about Martin Luther King's last night before his assassination, premiered in London in 2009 to great critical acclaim. After a sell-out run at Theatre 503, the play transferred to the Trafalgar Studios in the West End. The production was directed by James Dacre and featured British actors David Harewood and Lorraine Burroughs. Harewood was nominated for Best Actor in the Evening Standard and Whatsonstage Awards and Burroughs for Best Actress in the Olivier Awards. The production was also nominated for Best New Play in the Olivier and Whatsonstage Awards and Most Promising Playwright in the Evening Standard Awards. Hall won the best new play award at the Laurence Olivier Awards in March 2010 for The Mountaintop.[1] The win made her the first black woman in history to win the Olivier Award for Best New Play. In September 2011, The Mountaintop opened on Broadway starring Samuel L. Jackson as Dr. Martin Luther King and Angela Bassett as a mysterious maid/angel. In January 2011 during the extension of the show, lead producers Jean Doumanian and Sonia Friedman announced that The Mountaintop recouped its entire capitalization of $3.1 million.
Her play The Mountaintop, about Martin Luther King's last night before his assassination, premiered in London in 2009 to great critical acclaim. After a sell-out run at Theatre 503, the play transferred to the Trafalgar Studios in the West End. The production was directed by James Dacre and featured British actors David Harewood and Lorraine Burroughs. Harewood was nominated for Best Actor in the Evening Standard and Whatsonstage Awards and Burroughs for Best Actress in the Olivier Awards. The production was also nominated for Best New Play in the Olivier and Whatsonstage Awards and Most Promising Playwright in the Evening Standard Awards. Hall won the best new play award at the Laurence Olivier Awards in March 2010 for The Mountaintop.[1] The win made her the first black woman in history to win the Olivier Award for Best New Play. In September 2011, The Mountaintop opened on Broadway starring Samuel L. Jackson as Dr. Martin Luther King and Angela Bassett as a mysterious maid/angel. In January 2011 during the extension of the show, lead producers Jean Doumanian and Sonia Friedman announced that The Mountaintop recouped its entire capitalization of $3.1 million.
