While many historically significant or interesting plays by white playwrights are easily found in anthologies, few by early African American writers are equally accessible. Indeed until the 1970s, almost none of these early plays could be located

outside of a library.

The Roots of African American Drama fills this gap. Five of the thirteen scripts included here have never been in print, and only three

others are presently available anywhere. The plays represent a variety of styles-allegory, naturalism, realism, melodrama, musical comedy, and opera. Four are full length,

eight...

This compilation of sixteen plays written during the Harlem Renaissance brings together for the first time the works of Langston Hughes, George S. Schuyler,

Francis Hall Johnson, Shirley Graham, and others. In the introduction, James V. Hatch sets the plays in a historical context as he describes the challenges presented to artists by the political and social climate of the time. The topics of the plays cover the realm of the

human experience in styles as wide-ranging as poetry, farce, comedy, tragedy, social realism, and romance. Individual introductions to each play provide...