The Plays of Georgia Douglas Johnson: From the New Negro Renaissance to the Civil Rights Movement

by STEPHENS JUDITH L. (ED)

• ISBN13: 9780252030925
• ISBN10: 0252030923
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2005-12-30
• Publisher: Univ of Illinois Pr

Summary

This volume collects twelve of Georgia Douglas Johnson's one-act plays, including two never-before-published scripts found in the Library of Congress. As an integral part of Washington, D.C.'s, thriving turn-of-the-century literary scene, Johnson hosted regular meetings with Harlem Renaissance writers and other artists, including Countee Cullen, Langston Hughes, May Miller, and Jean Toomer, and was herself considered among the finest writers of the time. Johnson also worked for U.S. government agencies and actively supported women's and minorities' rights.As a leading authority on Johnson, Judith L. Stephens provides a brief overview of Johnson's career and significance as a playwright; sections on the creative environment in which she worked; her S Street Salon; The Saturday Nighters, and its significance to the New Negro Theatre; selected photographs; and a discussion of Johnson's genres, themes, and artistic techniques.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	ix
A Note on Terminology	x
Introduction	1	(62)
Judith L. Stephens
PART I. PRIMITIVE LIFE PLAYS
Blue Blood	63	(11)
Plumes	74	(11)
PART II. HISTORICAL PLAYS
Frederick Douglass	85	(9)
William and Ellen Craft	94	(13)
PART III. PLAYS AND STORIES OF AVERAGE NEGRO LIFE
Paupaulekejo	107	(11)
Starting Point	118	(11)
PART IV. LYNCHING PLAYS
A Sunday Morning in the South (white church version)	129	(10)
A Sunday Morning in the South (black church version)	139	(15)
Safe	154	(8)
Blue-Eyed Black Boy	162	(6)
And Yet They Paused	168	(9)
A Bill to Be Passed: Including Kill That Bill!	177
Robert E. Williams