Indiana State University

Black Heroes: Seven Plays. by Errol Hill; New Plays for the Black Theatre. by Woodie King,
Review by: Joel Berkowitz
Black American Literature Forum, Vol. 25, No. 1, The Black Church and the Black Theatre
(Spring, 1991), pp. 209-211
Published by: St. Louis University
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3041788 .
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Errol Hill, ed. Black Heroes: Seven Plays. New York: Applause,
1989. 426 pp. $12.95.
Woodle King, Jr., ed. New Plays for the Black Theatre. Chicago:
Third World, 1989. 311 pp. $14.95.

In his General Introduction to Black Heroes, Errol Hill writes

that his anthology joins other efforts to illuminate neglected
areas of history "by identifying black heroes and ensuring that
they are appropriately memorialized for present and future gen-
erations." The anthology provides a theatrical chronicle of epi-
sodes in the black struggle for freedom and equality over the
last two centuries. The plays in the collection focus on two
Caribbeans-Haitian revolutionary Jean Jacques Dessalines
and Jamaican activist Marcus Garvey-and five Americans: Nat
Turner, Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass, Paul Robeson,
and Martin Luther King, Jr. Each play is accompanied by a
historical introduction and a brief biographical note on the play-
wright. By bringing these dramas to the general public, Hill,
who teaches theatre at Dartmouth College, hopes that black
citizens will find inspiration in the achievements of some of their
greatest leaders.
Hill has advanced his own cause by selecting plays of uni-
formly high quality, starting with Langston Hughes's Emperor of
Haiti and proceeding chronologically by subject through the
slave era and up to the recent past, with Ron Milner's story of
Dr. King, Roads of the Mountaintop. The plays use a variety of
theatrical styles. Because Randolph Edmonds's Nat Thmer and
May Miller's Harrnet Tubman are one-act works, they have the
potential to be staged by a group with limited resources.
Hughes's story of the rise and fall of Dessalines, on the other
hand, uses a cast of Shakespearean proportions, as well as
poetic epiphanies reminiscent of the Bard. Between these formal
extremes lie William Branch's naturalistic treatment of Freder-
ick Douglass, Phillip Hayes Dean's monodrama Paul Robeson,
and episodic panoramas on Garvey and King by Edgar White
BlackAmerican Lterature Forum, Volume 25, Number 1 (Spring 1991)
@ 1991 Joel Berkowitz

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210 Reviews
and Ron Milner, respectively. These plays show that great his-
torical figures can provide not only the raw material for drama,
but the dialogue as well. The anthology closes with the familiar
words "Free at last! Free at last! Great God Almighty we are free
at last!"
Woodie King, Jr., an experienced man of the theatre, realizes
that drama can make its strongest impact by being staged, so
he has compiled New Plays for the Black Theatre in order to
"deliver plays that are easily producible on almost any college
campus; plays that small Black theatres will welcome simply
because they can produce them." This collection contains fifteen
plays, all but one of them in one act, and none requiring more
than five actors. Given these limitations, it comes as little sur-
prise that a few of the plays are variations on soap opera sce-
narios. However, most exploit their practical constraints and
could be quite effective on the small stage.
The theme of coming to terms with black identity runs
throughout this collection. Amiri Baraka's Song has a strident
tone, with such lines as "Thinking you're not a negro when you
are a negro is precisely what makes you a negro." Ben Caldwell
takes a satirical approach in his amusing chestnut Birth of a
Blues!, in which a white journalist has his cliches turned on
their head when he interviews a veteran black blues musician.
Nubia Kai's very sexy three-act play Parting deals with two
young lovers who are trying to fulfill their irreconcilable per-
sonal needs. Other interesting entries are Paul Carter Harrison's
Beckettian Tophat, Bill Harris's doleful Every Goodbye Ain't
Gone, and Richard Wesley's touching The Past Is the Past.
Two other notable plays in this volume deal with a zenith and
a nadir in Afro-American history. Laurence Holder's monodrama
Zora brings writer Zora Neale Hurston to life with love and
humor, and makes a fine vehicle for a strong actress. On the
darker side is The Box, by Daniel Owens, in which three
modem-day black youths awake in a black box and are thrown
one by one into the slave era, then brought back to the present.
Their oppressors are represented by disembodied voices, led by
an eerie auctioneer/narrator. Owens makes the past collide
with the present in a piece that would be particularly effective in
conveying the horrors of slavery to a modern audience.
Black drama usually addresses the multitude of problems
generated by racism, and these two anthologies have been ed-
ited with their social impact in mind. Errol Hill hopes to give
greater recognition to black heroes who have not received the
acknowledgment they deserve, while Woodie King hopes that his

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 Reviews 211
anthology will help college theatre directors break open the
white-dominated canon. By intelligent, sensitive selection, both
editors have compiled collections with much to offer, even on
the printed page. Hopefully, directors will take advantage of the
opportunities these volumes provide by staging these works,
and thus giving them the chance to unleash their full potential.

Joel Berkowitz
The City University of New York

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