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Currently, Black
Drama contains 908 plays by 171 playwrights. When
complete, the database will include more than 1,200 plays, of which some
20% have never been published before. In addition to the full-texts
of the plays, the database includes information on related productions,
theaters, production companies, selected playbills, production photographs,
and other ephemera related to the plays.
The plays included in Black Drama have been written from the
mid-1800s to the present by playwrights from North America, English-speaking
Africa, the Caribbean, and other African diaspora countries. Many
of the works are rare, hard-to-find, or out of print. Nearly a
quarter of the completed database will consist of previously unpublished
plays by writers such as Langston Hughes, Ed Bullins, Willis Richardson,
Femi Euba, Amiri Baraka, Randolph Edmonds, Zora Neale Hurston, and many
others.
The varied content of Black Drama illustrates the many purposes that
black theater has served: to give testimony to the ancient foundations
of black culture; to protest injustices; to project emerging images of
the new Black; and to give voice to the many and varied expressions of
black creativity.
Black Drama is composed of three main areas:
- Key writings of the Harlem Renaissance, works performed for the Federal
Theatre Project, and plays by critically acclaimed dramatists of the
1940s.
- Writings from North America, 1960s-1990s, including material from
the Black Arts movement of the sixties and seventies and works performed
by the Black Arts Repertory Theatre/School, The Negro Ensemble Company,
and other companies.
- African and Caribbean drama from the 20th Century, including plays
from Ghana, Uganda, Sierra Leone, Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa, the
West Indies, the United Kingdom, and other parts of the world.
Black Drama provides sophisticated searching within the texts
of the plays, and the ability to search author, play, production, theater,
theatrical company and related materials. Basic searching of plays
is possible, as well as multi-field searching, which offers a variety
of criteria that may be used to focus a search.
Take a look at some highlights of Black
Drama.
If you would like additional information about Black
Drama or any of
the Libraries' other databases, please direct your questions to  .
Molly Royse, Humanities
Coordinator
1 December 2003
To read about previously featured databases, please refer to the Featured
Databases Archive. |
