Hansberry, Lorraine. A Raisin in the Sun. New York: Random, 1959.
From the Clifton Waller Barrett Library of American Literature.
African American Playwrights II
Lorraine Hansberry
A Raisin in the Sun, by Lorraine Hansberry, marked the first Broadway play to be both written and directed by African Americans. The play tells of the emotional upheaval that an African-American family experiences when making the decision to move from a black ghetto apartment to a house in a white suburb. Hansberry’s first play, this social drama won the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for best new play of 1959, making Hansberry the first woman and the first African American to win the award. Today A Raisin in the Sun remains one of the most performed plays in America by an African-American playwright. Hansberry went on to write several other plays and screenplays, but her death at the age of 35 cut short a promising literary career.
Stella Holt Presents the Joshua Shelley Production of Langston Hughes “Simply Heavenly;” A Folk Comedy with Music, Based upon His Novel “Simple Takes a Wife.” Playbill for the 85th Street Playhouse. [New York: 85th Street Playhouse, ca. 1958.] Autographed by Langston Hughes.
Langston Hughes
Noted poet, novelist, short-story writer, song lyricist, radio writer, columnist, translator, lecturer, and playwright, Langston Hughes emerged as a central literary figure during the Harlem Renaissance in the 1920s. Following the 1921 publication of his first play, The Gold Piece, Hughes saw his success in the theatre steadily increase. Mulatto, his play about miscegenation and revenge in the early twentieth-century South, appeared on Broadway in 1935 and ran for 373 performances. With this number, Hughes could claim the record for the longest-running Broadway play by an African American until Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun overtook it in 1959. Another Hughes play, Simply Heaven, based on his novel Simple Takes a Wife, reached Broadway in 1957. In this work, Hughes also incorporated another of his creative talents by the writing the song lyrics for the show. Hughes continued to be involved in the creation of works for the theatre through the 1960s, culminating in his musical morality play Tambourines to Glory. In addition to playwriting, Hughes fostered the theatrical arts by founding three African-American dramatic groups during the 1930s and 1940s—The Suitcase Theater in Harlem, the Negro Art Theater in Los Angeles, and the Skyloft Players in Chicago.
Purchased with the Robert and Virginia Tunstall Trust Fund.
At right: Hughes, Langston. Tambourines to Glory. Moon Outside My Window. Music by Jobe Huntley. New York: Chappell, 1964.
From the Clifton Waller Barrett Library of American Literature.
At right: The Ogunquit Playhouse… Presents World Premiere of “Just Around the Corner”… Lyrics by Langston Hughes. Playbill for the Manhattan Theatre Colony. [New York: n.p., 1950]. With autograph annotations, signed, by Langston Hughes.
From the Clifton Waller Barrett Library of American Literature.
At right: Autographed photograph of Langston Hughes. 2 October 1935.
Shange, Ntozake [Pauline Williams]. for colored girls who have considered suicide/ when the rainbow is enuf: a choreopoem. New York: Macmillan, 1977.
From the Clifton Waller Barrett Library of American Literature.
Ntozake Shange
Ntozake Shange (Pauline Williams) created an award-winning first play with for colored girls who have considered suicide/ when the rainbow is enuf. A collection of twenty poems that explore the realities and complexities of life for seven African-American women, the play interweaves poetry, music, dance, and drama to produce what Shange terms a “choreopoem.” First staged in a women’s bar in Berkeley, California, the play moved to New York in 1975. It eventually appeared on Broadway, garnering resounding recognition and praise and winning an OBIE Award, Outer Critics Circle Award, Audience Development Committee (Audelco) Award, and Mademoiselle Award in 1977. The play also received Tony, Grammy, and Emmy award nominations. Through Shange’s plays, poetry, and fiction, the African-American woman has found a strong and resounding voice.