Black Female Playwrights - Part II

So let's take a closer look at the black female playwrights. Starting with the first row (and moving across) we have...

Lorraine Hansberry

When I think of black female playwrights, the first name that comes to mind is Lorraine Hansberry, author of A Raisin in the Sun, the first play written by an African-American woman to be published on Broadway. She wrote a second play - The Sign In Sidney Brustein's Window - which closed on Broadway on the date of her death, at the young age of 35 in 1965. What a loss! A Raisin in the Sun was the inspiration for Bruce Norris' Clybourne Park, which is expected to come to Broadway next year.

Ntozake Shange

And of course when I think of Ntokake Shange, I immediately think of the play For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf even though Ms. Shange has written a number of plays including Mother Courage and Her Children. Now I've read somewhere (can't remember where) that For Colored Girls... is returning to Broadway soon. They play will star singer India Arie and Whoopi Goldberg is one of the producers.

Katori Hall 

This young playwright is on fire and I love it! In the UK, she won an Olivier award last year for her play The Mountaintop and now it is on Broadway with two of the hottest black Hollywood actors. Next year, her play - Hurt Village - will be at the newly renovated Signature Theatre Company. I can't wait.

Lydia R. Diamond

Now, I have been getting emails with video clips of singer Alicia Keys talking about producing Lydia R. Diamond's Stick Fly which begins Broadway previews on November 18, 2011. I don't know much about this playwright; but from what I've read, her works seems interesting and I plan to check Stick Fly out next month.