The A to Z of African American Theater

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OAKLAND ENSEMBLE THEATRE (OET). Benny Sato Ambush established the OET in Los Angeles in 1972. Within a few years while operating in a 99-seat playhouse, it attained nonprofit status. Sato developed a cadre of actors and on average would produce five to seven plays a year. After five years, the OET moved to the Alice Arts Center, a larger venue with some 500 seats. By 1982, with a budget that had grown to over $500,000, Ambush signed a Bay Area Actors Equity contract to employ five to seven Equity actors. They continued to produce plays, but by 1994, with dwindling audiences and a fixed overhead, the budget had shrunk to $260,000. Ambush left, and Zerita Dodson took over as producing director. The OET had a long and glorious history, not the least of which includes the world premiere of Roger Guenveur Smith’s 1996 one-man show Huey Newton that smashed box office records.

OBIE AWARDS, THE. Initiated by theater critic Jerry Tallmer, The Village Voice, started the annual Off-Broadway Theater Awards, or “Obies” in 1956. Initially, the awards were limited to only Off-Broadway shows. By 1964, the Voice began including Off-Off-Broadway shows. Each year, the winners are selected in the category of performance, best production, direction, design, special citations, sustained achievement, lifetime achievement. The Voice also awards annual grants to selected companies, and a Ross Wetzsteon Grant in honor of its former theater editor. The African American recipients of these awards are listed in each decade as follows:

– 1960S –

1960–61, The Blacks won for Best New Play, Godfrey M. Cambridge, for Distinguished Performance as an Actor (The Black); 1961–62, C. Bernard Jackson, James Hatch, and Jerome Eskow for Best Musical Award (Fly Blackbird), James Earl Jones for Best Actor (Clandestine on the Morning Line, The Apple, and Moon on a Rainbow Shawl), Vinnette Carroll for Distinguished Performance as an Actress (Moon on a Rainbow Shawl); 1963–64, Dutchman for Best American Play, Adrienne Kennedy for Distinguished Play (Funnyhouse of a Negro), Gloria Foster for Best Performance (In White America), Diana Sands for Distinguished Performer (The Living Premise); 1964–65, James Earl Jones for Distinguished Performer (Beal), Roscoe Lee Browne for Best Performance (In White America); 1965–66, Gloria Foster (Medea) and Douglas Turner Ward (Day of Absence) for Distinguished Performances; 1967–68, Michael A. Schultz for Best Director (Song of the Lusitanian Bogey), Moses Gunn for Distinguished Performance (The Negro Ensemble Company repertory); 1968–69, James Earl Jones for (The Great White Hope), Ron O’Neal (No Place To Be Somebody), Nathan George (No Place to be Somebody), Douglas Turner Ward (Ceremonies in Dark Old Men) all won for Outstanding Performers, Michael A. Schultz for Outstanding Director (Does a Tiger Wear a Necktie), Charles Gordone (No Place to be Somebody), and Lonnie Elder III (Ceremonies in Dark Old Men) for Most Promising Playwright; 1969–70, Gilbert Moses for Distinguished Direction (Slave Ship).

–1970S–

1970–71, Athol Fugard (white, Boesman and Lena), Derek Walcott (Dream on Monkey Mountain) both won for Best Foreign Play, Ed Bullins for Distinguished Plays (The Fabulous Miss Maria and In New England Winter), John Berry for Distinguished Direction, Ruby Dee for Best Performance by an actress (Boesman and Lena), Kirk Kirksey for Best Distinguished Performance (consistent excellence of performance); 1972–73, Joseph A. Walker won for Best American Play (The River Niger), Roxie Roker (The River Niger) and Douglas Turner Ward (The River Niger) for Distinguished Performance; 1973–74, The Great MacDaddy won for Distinguished Play, Loretta Greene (The Sirens) and Barbara Montgomery (My Sister, My Sister) for Distinguished Performance; 1974–75, The First Breeze of Summer won for Best New American Play, Ed Bullins for Playwriting (The Taking of Miss Janie), Gilbert Moses for Direction (The Talking of Miss Janie), Moses Gunn (The First Breeze of Summer), Reyno, The First Breeze of Summer) for Best Performance, Joseph Papp (white) and Ellen Stewart for Special 20-Year Obies; 1976–77, Ntozake Shange (poet), Oz Scott (director), and entire cast won for Distinguished Production (For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf); 1977–78, Nell Carter won for Best Performance (Ain’t Misbehavin’); 1978–1979, Morgan Freeman won for Best Performance (Mother Courage and Coriolanus), Mary Alice for Best Performance (Nongogo and Julius Caesar); 1979–80, Morgan Freeman (Mother Courage and Coriolanus) and Hattie Winston (Mother Courage and The Michigan) won for Best Performance.

–1980S–

–1990S–

1990–91, La Chanze won for Outstanding Actress in a Musical (Once on This Island); 1991–92, Robbie McCauley won for Best New American Plays (Sally’s Rape), Lynne Thigpen for Best Performances (Boesman and Lena); 1993–94, Anna Deavere Smith won for Best Play (Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992); 1995–96, Adrienne Kennedy won for Best Play (June and Jean in Concert and Sleep Deprivation Chamber), Suzan-Lori Parks won for Best Playwriting (Venus), Adina Porter (Venus) and Savion Glover (Bring in ‘da Noise, Bring in ‘da Funk) for Special Citation, Lisa Gay Hamilton for Best Performance (Valley Song); 1996–97, Special Citations were awarded to Arthur French (sustained excellence of performance), Roger Guenveur Smith and Mark Anthony Thompson (A Huey P. Newton Story), and James Hatch and Camille Billops; 1997–98, Heather Gillespie won for Best Performance (Mamba’s Daughters), Target Margin Theater for (Mamba’s Daughters); 1999–2000, Marion McClinton won for Best Direction (Jitney), the entire cast of Jitney for Excellence of Ensemble Performance.

–2000S–

2000–01, Bill Sims, Jr. won for Best Playwriting (Lackawanna Blues), Ruben Santiago-Hudson for Special Citation (Lackawanna Blues), Kirsten Childs for Best Music and Lyrics (The Bubbly Black Girl Sheds Her Chameleon Skin), Classical Theater of Harlem received a Ross Wetzsteon Grant; 2001–02, George C. Wolfe won for Best Direction (Topdog/Underdog), Jeffrey Wright for Best Performance (Topdog/Underdog); 2002–03, Mos Def won for Best Performance (Fucking A), John Kani and Winston Ntshona for Special Citation (The Island); 2003–04, Ty Jones for Best Performance (The Blacks: A Clown Show), J. Kyle Manzay for Best Performance (The Blacks: A Clown Show); 2003–04, Tonya Pinkins won for Best Performance (Caroline, or Change), George C. Wolfe for Special Citation for his stewardship of the Public Theater; 2004–05, Lynn Nottage (Fabulation), LaChanze (Dessa Rose), Lynn Nottage (Fabulation) won for Best Performance; 2005–06, Edwin Lee Gibson won for Best Performance (The Seven), S. Epatha Merkerson for Best Performer (Birdie Blue), Peter Francis James for Best Performance (Stuff Happens), Robert O’Hara for Special Citation (In the Continuum), Billie Holiday Theatre received a $3,000 grant; 2006–07, Roslyn Ruff won for Best Performance (Seven Guitars), Lou Bellamy for Best Direction (Two Trains Running), Bill T. Jones for Best Music and Choreography Excellence (Spring Awakening), Daniel Beaty for Special Citation in Writing and Performance (Emergence-SEE!), Nilaja Sun for Best Performance (No Child), Andre De Shields for Sustained Excellence of Performance.

OCCOMY, MARITA BONNER. See BONNER, MARITA ODETTE (MRS. MARITA BONNER OCCAMY).

O’HARA, ROBERT. O’Hara has been acclaimed as a young, exciting, fresh, promising, and provocative performance artist, director, and vital playwright. He seems to be living up to his potential by writing a series of plays tackling some of the most vexing and troubling problems of humankind. O’Hara believes he is operating in the theater of choke, in that if one of his plays earns him money, he wants to be there for the ride. His plays include Insurrection: Holding History, which he wrote for his graduate thesis at Columbia University. A native of Cincinnati, OH, O’Hara graduated from Tufts College before enrolling in Columbia University, where he earned an M.F.A. in directing in 1996. Insurrection was produced by the NYSF/Public Theatre in New York City in June, the same year he graduated. He is the prolific writer of such plays as Brave Brood, Beowulf, Antebellum, Booty Candy (10 one-act plays), An American Ma(u)l, and In the Continuum. In such a short time, O’Hara has earned some prestigious honors and awards that include the John Golden Award, Mark Taper Forum Sherwood Award, Oppenheim Award, National Endowment for the Arts/Theatre Communications Group theater residency/American Conservatory Theatre, Tanne Award for exceptional body of work, Rockefeller fellowship, and Van Lier fellowship at New Dramatists.

OLYMPIAN PLAYERS. This little theater group located in Pittsburgh, PA, was active between 1935 and 1941. It was the main African American theater company in Pittsburgh during the years of its activity. The players exchanged plays with other dramatic organizations in the city and participated in the annual citywide play tournament. It was one of the theatrical groups supported by the Pittsburgh Playhouse, a liberal white nonsectarian organization. After the outbreak of World War II, all dramatic groups in Pittsburgh were absorbed by public and private recreational centers.

O’NEAL, FREDERICK (1905–92). A director, actor, and theater administrator of the regional and professional stage, O’Neal was one of the chief architects of the American Negro Theatre (ANT) in Harlem in the 1940s. He was involved actively in professional theater for over 40 years between the 1930s and the 1970s. He held several positions in theater associations, including president of the Negro Actors Guild (1951–52) and Actors’ Equity Association (1964–73)—the first African American to do so. He also performed in numerous Broadway and off-Broadway productions. Born in Brooksville, MS, he moved with his family to St. Louis, MO, where he began putting on shows in his neighborhood. Before the age of 13, he was bitten by the acting bug. Still a teenager, he landed roles in As You Like It as Silvius in 1926 and Black Majesty in 1927, both sponsored by the St. Louis Urban League. He then organized his own group, the Aldridge Players, with the support of the league. The players were active for eight years (c. 1927–35).

In 1935, the glitter of New York City beckoned this young thespian. There he studied at the New Theatre School in New York City, the American Theatre Wing, and privately with Theodore Komisarjevsky and Lem Ward. The move to New York could not have come at a better time for O’Neal. He landed a role in Twenty Million Others with the Civic Repertory Theatre in New York City (1935), and he was selected for the acting company of the celebrated New York Negro Unit of the Federal Theatre Project, the brainchild of the Works Progress Administration of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. O’Neal was involved with this unit from 1935 to its demise in 1938. A few years later, he cofounded with Dick Campbell the Rose McClendon Players (and Workshop Theatre) that thrived from 1938 to 1940. It was O’Neal’s next theatrical venture, however, that had the greatest influence on the development of African American theater, the cofounding of ANT with Abram Hill in Harlem. O’Neal served as cochairman and company manager from 1940 to the early 1950s and played in many of the productions. Among them were Natural Man as Preacher (1941); Three’s a Family (1943); Anna Lucasta as Frank on Broadway (1944), in Chicago (1945–46), and in London (1947); and Henri Christophe (1947). In addition to numerous regional and out-of-town productions, O’Neal appeared on and off Broadway in productions of Take a Giant Step as Lem Scott (1953), House of Flowers as Houngan (1954), Shakespeare in Harlem as Preacher, God’s Trombones (1960), and Ballad for Bimshire as Neddie Boyce (1963). O’Neal also played in several films, such as Anna Lucasta (1959) and Take a Giant Step (1961). On television, he portrayed Moses in the Hallmark Hall of Fame production of The Green Pastures (1959).

O’Neil was the recipient of numerous awards for Anna Lucasta, the Clarence Derwent Award and the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award (1944–45), the Chicago Critics’ Award (1945–46), the Motion Picture Critics’ Award (1959), the Ira Aldridge Award (by the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History, 1963), the Canada Lee Foundation Award (c. 1966), and the Audience Development Committee Award (1976). In 1975, he was also elected to the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame.

O’NEAL, JOHN. An actor, playwright, and theater practitioner, O’Neal may be best remembered as an icon of the civil rights movement and as cofounder of the Free Southern Theatre (FST) with Gilbert Moses. Born in Mound City, IL, O’Neal earned a B.A. from Southern Illinois University in 1962. His desire was to become an actor, but like many students of that era, he found himself caught in the frenzy of the movement. O’Neal believed it was the most important thing happening in his life. He reassessed his way of thinking about being in theater and became a field secretary for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in New Orleans. Meanwhile, as an outlet for his acting talent, he cofounded the FST in 1965. He wanted to use theater to stimulate critical and reflective thought among black people in the South. Following the demise of the FST in 1980, he formed his own production company, Junebug Productions, and toured his one-man performance piece across the country each year.

O’Neal wrote several plays but became best known for his portrayal of an African folk character named Junebug Jabbo Jones. It is a one-man performance piece he wrote utilizing dance, music, and storytelling. O’Neal has also collaborated with other writers and groups, including The Mozambique Caper with Joan Holder and members of the San Francisco Mime Troupe; Black Power, Green Power, Red in the Eye (1972), a melodrama depicting the games some black politicians use to exploit black folk; and Where Is the Blood of Your Fathers (1973), a stage documentary about the contribution of African Americans during the Civil War whose script the FST developed through workshops. O’Neal and Ben Spillman edited it, and it was produced by the FST for 18 performances at Memphis State University (winter 1974) and at Florida A&M University (spring 1975). Hurricane Season (1973) examines the impact of the unprincipled use of computer technology on the life and family of a New Orleans black dock worker. It was produced by the FST (1973) for 19 performances and in Buffalo, NY, by the Buffalo Theatre (winter 1974). Going against the Tide (1974) is a melodrama focusing on a conflict between a conservative housing project mother and her revolutionary daughter, which the FST produced in New Orleans (summer 1974) for 18 performances. When the Opportunity Scratches, Itch It! (1974–75) is a satire that is an indictment of opportunism among elements of the black bourgeoisie. The FST produced it (1974–75) for approximately 40 performances.

O’Neal also organized the Color Line Project. This group gathers and preserves personal stories of the civil rights movement. The stories are then archived, preserved, and made available to the general public with the assistance of the Clarice Smith Center. O’Neal received awards from such organizations as the National Endowment for the Arts, the Ford Foundation, and the Rockefeller Foundation.

O’NEAL, REGINA SOLOMON. A playwright, teacher, TV scriptwriter, producer, and broadcaster, O’Neal was born in Detroit. She received her formal education at Wayne State University (B.A., M.A., 1965) and was a teacher and reading coordinator in the Detroit Public Schools; a workshop director at the Edward MacDowell School in Milwaukee, WI; a coproducer-director at African Fables of WilCas Records; and a writer-producer at Wayne State University. Representative plays by O’Neal are Walk a Tight Rope (1974), about a young teacher who is the first black to teach in an all-white Midwestern school during the early 1960s; And Then the Harvest (1974), a 30-minute drama in one act that examines the cause of a race riot in the late 1960s and in which the resolve of a black family is tested after moving from the rural South to a northern ghetto; and Night Watch (1974), which deals with the convictions of a shallow white liberal after he is put to the test. O’Neal is the recipient of the Emmy Award from the Detroit chapter of NATAS (1979) and the NAEB Leadership Award in minority telecommunications (1979).

O’NEAL, RON (1937–2004). O’Neal, a journeyman actor, catapulted to national fame in the 1972 blaxploitation film Superfly. With a pulsating score by Curtis Mayfield, O’Neal utilized his classical training to advantage in playing the lead role of Priest to make the film a huge financial success. Many folks in the black community criticized the film for glorifying the life of a pimp. A sequel, Superfly T.N.T., produced a year later, did not fare as well, and subsequent films by O’Neal were mediocre at best. O’Neal was born in Utica, NY, and raised in Cleveland, OH. He attended the Ohio State University but soon dropped out and pursued his interest in theater at Karamu Repertory Theatre in Cleveland, one of the oldest interracial theaters in the country. O’Neal appeared in a variety of plays there, including Finian’s Rainbow, A Streetcar Named Desire, and A Raisin in the Sun. Upon moving to New York City, he found work at Joseph Papp’s New York Shakespeare Festival. It was there that he received his first break, being cast in a lead role in Charles Gordone’s play No Place to Be Somebody. The play was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for best play of the year, and O’Neal won a Drama Desk Award and a Theatre World Award for his performance. It was O’Neal’s performance in No Place that cemented his selection to play the lead in Superfly. O’Neal subsequently appeared in more than 40 films and made TV appearances in The Equalizer; Remington Steele; Roots; Hill Street Blues; Frank’s Place; and Murder, She Wrote, among others. Awards for O’Neal include an Obie Award and Clarence Derwent Award.

ORLANDERSMITH, DAEL. A playwright and actor, Orlandersmith was born in East Harlem. She is among a phalanx of bright, young African American female writers who emerged in the 1990s as a dominating force in the topsy-turvy world of black theater. She, along with Suzan-Lori Parks, Cheryl L. West, Anna Deveare Smith, and Kia Corthron, has written some of the more penetrating theater of the decade. Orlandersmith became interested in writing at a young age, writing mostly poems while attending a Catholic school one block from the barrio where her friends were black and Puerto Rican Americans. She attended Hunter College but left early to take her writing and performing talents to the Nuyorican Poets Cafe. This led to a worldwide tour with the group to Australia, Europe, and parts of the United States. Over the years, her poems developed into longer, more emphatic monologues. She also performed in such stage productions as Romeo and Juliet and Macbeth and in a film, Amateur by Hal Hartley. Realizing there were few parts for plus-sized women, Orlandersmith was prompted to write a one-woman performance piece, Beauty’s Daughter. It premiered at the American Place Theatre in 1995 to great acclaim and won an Obie Award. Her next play, Monster, premiered at the New York Theatre Workshop in 1996.

Owing to the success of her literary output, Orlandersmith was invited to the esteemed Sundance Theatre Laboratory, where she worked assiduously. She assembled another one-woman show, The Gimmick, which was produced in 1998–99, yet she felt the need to expand her work into a vehicle for multiple characters. This opportunity materialized when Gimmick was workshopped at the Sundance Theatre Lab. The revised version was better received in the McCarter Theatre, the Long Wharf Theatre, Seattle’s A Contemporary Theater, and other venues across the country. Yellowman (2002) was another expansion to this full-length form. It deals with the tensions between light-skinned and dark-skinned black people that had their roots in slavery. It was a Pulitzer Prize finalist, for which the author is writing a screenplay. The play was originally commissioned, developed, and produced by McCarter Theatre at the Wilma Theatre and Long Wharf Theatre with the support of the Sundance Theatre. The Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park also produced it (February–March 2006). Other plays she authored include Liar, Liar; My Red Hand, My Black Hand; and Raw Boys. Orlandersmith was the recipient of several prestigious awards, including the AT&T onstage grant, Kennedy Center Roger Stevens Playwriting Award, New York Drama Desk Award, Helen Merrill Emerging Playwright Award, New York Foundation for the Arts fellowship, and Guggenheim Foundation fellowship.

OSBORNE, PEGGY ADAMS. A playwright, Osborne wrote one play of note, The Meeting (1968), an educational play in one act. It takes a pedagogical approach to teaching sixth-graders and beyond about their African American heritage. It contains a teaching and production guide with stage settings, costume guide, and character portraits of such well-known black historical and contemporary personages as Jean Baptiste Point Du Sable, Frederick Douglass, and Sidney Poitier.

OUI BE NEGROES (ORIGINAL AFRICAN AMERICAN IMPROV/SKETCH COMEDY TROUPE). Shaun Landry, a past member of Chicago’s Second City, was cofounder and artistic director of the nationally acclaimed Oui Be Negroes. In 1993, Landry recruited a cast of talented improvisers from the Second City Outreach Program in Chicago. Their first show was at Café Voltaire in Chicago. The name of the group changed several times, from Oui Be Negroes to Sheffield’s Improv Olympus to Turn around Theatre to the Original African American Improv/Sketch Comedy Troupe. The group has toured the country, especially during Black History Month, to festivals from New York to San Francisco and throughout the world over the past decade. Landry also organized the two-person ensemble Black and Tan Improvisation, cofounded the San Francisco Improvisation Cooperative, and produced the San Francisco Improv Festival. He also did improvisation and sketch work with the National Touring Company of the Second City, the Second City Geese Theatre Company, and Playback Theatre Midwest. He was on the board of directors of the Next Stage Theatre.

OWA. A playwright and photojournalist, Owa was born in New York City. He studied playwriting with the Negro Ensemble Company’s (NEC) Playwrights Workshop. He was the first Rockefeller writer-in-residence with the Frank Silvera Writers’ Workshop in New York City. Owa has worked in East Africa and Europe as a photojournalist. His plays have been produced by La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club, Urban Arts Corps, Brooklyn College (City University of New York), Hudson Valley Freedom Theatre, Bijou Theatre, and Eugene O’Neill National Playwrights Conference.

Among the plays Owa wrote, The Soledad Tetrad is noteworthy. Part 1 is A Short Piece for a Naked Tale: A Study in Chaos (1975). The NEC produced it (spring 1975). Part 2 is Transitions for a Mime Poem: A Study in Transcendence (1975). It was written as a living memorial to George and Jonathan Jackson and the Soledad Brothers. The NEC Playwrights Workshop produced it in New York City (spring 1975). Part 3 is Rejections: A Study in Development (1973). It is a morality drama in one act about a confrontation between a black boy and a white man on a park bench that leads to tragedy. Part 4 is The Bloodrite; or, In between the Coming or Going (1977). It is a full-length morality drama depicting a dialogue and confrontation on a New York pier between a businessman and an ex-convict It was produced by the NEC Playwrights Workshop in New York City (spring 1975) and by the Eugene O’Neill Theatre Center’s National Playwrights Conference. Other plays Owa authored are Heaven Must Be a Very Complicated Place (1982), about blacks in the 1940s. The Billie Holiday Theatre produced it (1982). Hip Niggas is a tragedy in one act. Two young, hip black youths mug an old black woman for $3 to buy a bottle of wine.

OWENS, DAN (DANIEL W.). A playwright, poet, teacher, and theatrical director, Owens was born in Malden, MA. He received his education at Bryant and Straton Junior College (certificate in computer programming, 1968), Boston State College (1968), the University of Massachusetts at Boston (B.A. in English, 1971), Yale University School of Drama (playwriting, 1971–72), and Harvard University School of Education (Ed.M.). He taught black theater and playwriting at Boston University and the University of Massachusetts (early 1970s). He was resident playwright at New African College of Boston (1969–71); assistant educational director at Store Front Learning Center, Boston (1969–71); director of playwrights’ workshops at National Center of Afro-American Artists, Boston (1969–73); coordinator at Columbia Point in Massachusetts (1969); and associate director for the Roxbury, MA (summer, 1971). He was one of 12 playwrights selected for the Eugene O’Neill Theatre Program, National Playwrights Conference in Waterford, CT (1973). Owens produced his own plays in Boston and New Haven (1969–72).

Since 1972, plays by Owens have been produced by the People’s Theatre in Cambridge, MA; the Eugene O’Neill Theatre Center; and National Playwrights Conference. In New York City, his plays were presented at the Afro-American Studio for Acting and Speech, the Black Theatre Alliance, the Frank Silvera Writers’ Workshop, the New Federal Theatre, the Negro Ensemble Company, the Frederick Douglass Creative Arts Center, and the Richard Allen Center for Culture and Art. He is also a published poet. In 1972, Owens was writer for Brotherlove, Channel 7 in Boston. While at the University of Massachusetts, he was associate editor of Viewpoint, a student publication.

Owens’s output as a playwright has been prolific. Most of his plays were presented in and around Boston and the state of Connecticut. His representative plays include The Box (1969), a symbolic drama in one act in which three young black people are trapped in a box and must learn to understand attitudes that are different from their own. Nigger, Nigger, Who’s the Bad Nigger (1969) is a drama in one act about color prejudices among blacks and between two brothers, one dark and one fair. Clean (1969) is a tragedy in one act in which the admiration of a young man for a black pimp leads to a tragic consequence. Joined (1970) is a melodrama in one act portraying the conflict of a black assassin whose job it is to kill a white liberal. Imitatin’ Us, Imitatin’ Us, Imitatin’ Death (1970) is an absurdist drama in one act dealing with the conflicts and contradictions within the black revolutionary movement. Bus Play (1972) is a drama in one act in which five black women compete for one supervisory position in a hospital. Misunderstanding (1972) is a drama in one act centering on a conflict between a black man and his girlfriend, who does not share his dreams. Where Are They? (1972) is a drama in two acts that begs the question, What happened to the young black revolutionaries of the 1960s? Refusal (1973) is a drama in one act that asks the question, Who writes for black aesthetic—black or white critics?

Emily T: Emily Tillington (1973) is a drama in one act. A black woman examining her life tries to find her identity. It was first produced at Emerson College, Boston (1973). What Reason Could I Give (1973) is a musical drama in three acts. It concerns the problems of a black writer who is unable either to give or to experience love. Acife and Pendabis: Noirhomme (1974) is a drama in three acts. The play deals with a young West Indian whose rejection of his people’s tradition brings about his downfall. One Shadow Behind (1974) is a poetic drama in two acts. Three sensitive and talented people (two men and a woman) struggle among themselves for self-expression until one dies. Debts (1975) is a drama that deals with the problems and consequences of past due debts. The Eugene O’Neill Theatre Center presented it at the National Playwrights Conference at the amphitheater (outdoors) in Waterford, CT (July 1975), for two performances. The Michigan (1979) is a full-length comedy. The title is a gambling term that refers to a phony wad of money consisting of blank paper on the inside and large bills on the outside. A con man is trying to find the one big scam that will make him rich. Lagrima Del Diablo: The Devil’s Tear (1980) is a dialogue between a guerrilla leader and an archbishop who is his prisoner. Forever My Darlin’ (1984) is a play with music by Chapman Roberts. It is a humor-laced play with music that shows the effect that the suicide of rhythm-and-blues star Johnny Ace has on an adolescent girl singer who is obsessed with fantasies of fame.

OYAMO (CHARLES GORDON). A playwright and educator, OyamO was born in Elyria, OH. His parents, Earnest and Bennie Gordon, moved him and his six siblings to a home on East 32nd Street in Lorain, OH, soon after his birth. After serving a period with the U.S. Naval Reserve, he received an honorable discharge in 1966. OyamO earned an M.A. in playwriting from Yale University School of Drama (1981). He changed his name to OyamO because his real name is similar to Charles Gordone, the Pulitzer Prize–winning playwright.

He has taught at several universities and conducted workshops at the College of New Rochelle, Emory University, New Dramatists, and the University of Iowa Playwrights’ Workshop. Presently, OyamO is associate professor at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.

His greatest success as a playwright is I Am a Man (1995), which tells the story of T. O. Jones and other sanitation workers who went on strike in Memphis, TN, in 1968. The characters are inventions of Jones’s mind and show his struggle to lead and resolve this occurrence during the days of Martin Luther King Jr. Another well-known play by Jones is Breakout (1969), a symbolic drama in two acts encouraging blacks to break all social confinements that imprison them. The Eugene O’Neill Theatre Center National Playwrights Conference in Waterford, CT, produced it (July 1972) for two performances. It was also produced by the Manhattan Theatre Club, New York (April 1975), under Harold Scott’s direction.

OyamO has authored more than 30 plays, most of which are agitprop, street theater, and satires that were produced in New York City. Among them are Out of Site (1969), His First Step (1969), Willie Bignigga (1970), The Lovers (1970), The Thieves (1970), Crazy Nigger (1971), The Barbarians (1972), Erotic Love Chartune (1975), Blue Journey (1977), Mary Goldstein and the Author (1979), Fuck Money (1969), Unemployment (1969), Chumpanzee(s) (1970), The Revelation (1970), The Advantages of Dope (1971), The Ravishing Moose (1972), A Star Is Born Again (1975), The Star That Could Not Play (1973), and The Place of the Spirit Dance (1980). OyamO has received many awards, including a Guggenheim fellowship, a Rockefeller Foundation playwright-in-residence grant, three National Endowment for the Arts fellowships, and numerous others.

OYEDELE, OBAMOLA. A playwright Oyedele is based in New Haven, CT, where he was actively involved in the black theater activities of his community during the 1970s. Oyedele’s play of note is The Struggle Must Advance to a Higher Level (1972), a mock-ceremonial play. It satirizes the screaming of radical slogans and cliché-ridden phrases by the pseudorevolutionaries and calls for the advancement of the black struggle to a higher level of action.