The Gospel According to James and Other Plays
Description
This collection of five award-winning plays by Charles Smith includes Jelly Belly, Free Man of Color, Pudd'nhead Wilson, Knock Me a Kiss, and The Gospel According to James. Powerful, provocative, and entertaining, these plays have been produced by professional theater companies across the country and abroad. Four of the plays are based on historical people and events from W.E.B. Du Bois and Countee Cullen to the Harlem Renaissance. Accurate in the way they capture the political and cultural milieu of their historical settings, and courageous in the way they grapple with difficult questions such as race, education, religion, and social class, these plays jump off the page just as powerfully as they come to life on stage. This first-ever collection from one of the nation's leading African American playwrights is a journey down the complex road of race and history.
Product Details
BISAC Categories:
Earn by promoting books
Earn money by sharing your favorite books through our Affiliate program.
About the Author
Reviews
"History serves (Smith), and he serves history; such reciprocity grounds his narratives, gives it real stakes, and adds the gravitas of the broad sweep of our complex and often troubled American heritage. In return, Smith gives the history profoundly human meaning and an active purpose in contemporary life."--Rain Taxi
"In one blistering scene after another--with dialogue that is alternately highly poetic, down-and-dirty, eerily disturbing and fiercely authoritarian--Smith exposes the lies and the blazing truths that animate his characters."--
"A plot twist of his own that darkens even Twain's dark humor."--Bruce Weber, New York Times, on Pudd'nhead Wilson