By Christine R. Gray
During the Twenties and Nineteen Thirties, Willis Richardson (1889-1977) used to be hugely revered as a number one African-American playwright and drama anthologist. His performs have been played by means of a variety of black highschool, collage, and collage drama teams and by way of theater businesses in Chicago, long island, Washington D.C., Cleveland, Baltimore, and Atlanta. With the outlet of The Chip Woman's Fortune (1923), he grew to become the 1st African American to have a play produced on Broadway. a number of of his forty six performs have been released in diverse magazines, and in his essays, he advised black americans to hunt their dramatic fabric of their personal lives and situations. additionally, he edited 3 anthologies of performs via African-Americans. yet among 1940 and his demise in 1977, Richardson got here to achieve that his performs have been interval items and they not mirrored the issues and events of African-Americans. within the years earlier than his dying, he tried vigorously but unsuccessfully to maintain numerous of his performs via book, if no longer creation. however the guy who has been referred to as the daddy of African-American drama and who was once thought of the wish and promise of African-American drama died in obscurity.
Richardson has even been ignored through the scholarly neighborhood. This severe biography, the 1st broad attention of his lifestyles and paintings, firmly reestablishes his pioneering function in American theater. The e-book starts with a close chronology, via a considerate biographical essay. the amount then examines the character of African-American drama within the Twenties, the interval in which Richardson was once best, and it analyzes his method of drama as a way of teaching African-American audiences. It then explores the African-American group because the important subject matter in Richardson's performs, for Richardson more often than not seems on the outcomes of refusals by means of blacks to assist each other. The paintings also considers Richardson's background performs, his anthologies, his dramas meant for black youngsters, and his essays. A concluding bankruptcy summarizes his lasting impact; the ebook closes with a list of his performs and an intensive bibliography.
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