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DON EVANS |
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Nationality: USA Email: n/a Website: n/a |
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Literary Agent: n/a |
B.S., Cheyney State; M.A., M.F.A., Temple University; Associate Professor of Black Studies at Trenton State College. He has written a variety of essays and articles in Black World, Reporter, Esaence and Players, etc. Recipient: Outstanding Playwright of 1974, Arena Theatre.
Plays by Don Evans
Blues for a Gospel Queen | ||
| 1st Produced: | 1986 | |||||
Company: | n/a | |||||
| 1st Published: | I don't think it has been published. Try emailing Playwright or Agent where listed at top of page. | ISBN/ASIN: | - | |||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #80433 | |||
To Buy This Play: | If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies | |||||
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Genre: | Musical | |||||
| Parts: | Male | - | Female | - | ||
Parts other: | - | |||||
Notes: | Music by John Lewis; lyrics by Don Evans; book by Don Evans | |||||
Synopsis: | n/a | |||||
Further Reference: | - | |||||
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Dancing With Demons | ||
| 1st Produced: | - - - | - - - | ||||
Company: | n/a | |||||
| 1st Published: | I don't think it has been published. Try emailing Playwright or Agent where listed at top of page. | ISBN/ASIN: | - | |||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #98360 | |||
To Buy This Play: | If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies | |||||
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Genre: | n/a | |||||
| Parts: | Male | - | Female | - | ||
Parts other: | - | |||||
Notes: | - | |||||
Synopsis: | n/a | |||||
Further Reference: | - | |||||
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It's Showdown Time | ||
| 1st Produced: | New Federal Theatre, Philidelphia | - - - | ||||
Company: | n/a | |||||
| 1st Published: | Dramatists Play Service, NY, | ISBN/ASIN: | - | |||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #11135 | |||
To Buy This Play: | If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies | |||||
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Genre: | full length Comedy | |||||
| Parts: | Male | 8 | Female | 4 | ||
Parts other: | - | |||||
Notes: | high-spirited and hilarious comedy of contemporary black life, drawn from Shakespeare'sTaming of the Shrew | |||||
Synopsis: | Transferring the action from Shakespeare's Padua to a black neighborhood in Philadelphia, the author retains the main theme of a good but simple man out to tame-and marry-the sharpest-tongued woman in town. In this case the hero is Adam Poindexter, who has come up from South Carolina to open a barber shop, and the unwilling object of his affections is Rosa Richardson, "a quick-tempered, foot-stomping, nigger-hating black woman." Adam proves his mettle quickly by single-handedly routing a gang of street toughs-but Rosa turns out to be a more difficult conquest. The complications multiply hilariously as the undaunted Adam presses on, much to the consternation of Rosa's family and friends, including her sexually liberated sister and her "church-a-fied" boyfriend, and a busybody widow who manages the not inconsiderable task of reforming the neighborhood wino. As in its immortal predecessor, delightful use is made of revealing soliloquies and asides and, as before, all ends happily in a burst of exuberant and rollicking high spirits. | |||||
Further Reference: | - | |||||
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Lovesong For Miss Lydia | ||
| 1st Produced: | - - - | - - - | ||||
Company: | n/a | |||||
| 1st Published: | Dramatists Play Service, NY, | ISBN/ASIN: | - | |||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #11136 | |||
To Buy This Play: | If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies | |||||
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Genre: | full length Comedy | |||||
| Parts: | Male | 2 | Female | 2 | ||
Parts other: | - | |||||
Notes: | - | |||||
Synopsis: | Lydia Frazier, a widow in her seventies and a pillar of her church, is living out her life with quiet dignity in her modest Philadelphia home. Her circumstances change, however, when, for reasons of loneliness (and a little extra income), she decides to take in a boarder. Her roomer turns out to be the charming, and apparently unscrupulous, Mahlon, who loses no time in working his wiles on his trusting, vulnerable landlady, despite the cautious warnings of her well-meaning, suspicious friends, Sarah and Ostell. And, for a time, it does appear that the suave, scheming Mahlon has bamboozled Miss Lydia into a course of action that will surely end in disenchantment and loss. But despite a series of sometimes funny, sometimes tense, confrontations, the sage and goodhearted old lady eventually proves that charity and understanding are more than a match for either duplicity or unfeeling prejudice and, as the play ends, it does indeed become a "lovesong" for its very remarkable and indomitable protagonist. | |||||
Further Reference: | - | |||||
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Mahalia | ||
| 1st Produced: | Henry Street Playhouse, NYC | - - - | ||||
Company: | n/a | |||||
| 1st Published: | I don't think it has been published. Try emailing Playwright or Agent where listed at top of page. | ISBN/ASIN: | - | |||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #66556 | |||
To Buy This Play: | If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies | |||||
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Genre: | Play/Drama | |||||
| Parts: | Male | - | Female | - | ||
Parts other: | - | |||||
Notes: | - | |||||
Synopsis: | n/a | |||||
Further Reference: | - | |||||
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Matters Of Choice | ||
| 1st Produced: | - - - | - - - | ||||
Company: | n/a | |||||
| 1st Published: | I don't think it has been published. Try emailing Playwright or Agent where listed at top of page. | ISBN/ASIN: | - | |||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #66555 | |||
To Buy This Play: | If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies | |||||
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Genre: | Play/Drama | |||||
| Parts: | Male | - | Female | - | ||
Parts other: | 4 black females, 3 black males, 1 white male | |||||
Notes: | - | |||||
Synopsis: | Matters of Choice: A middle-class black family returns home to find their house burglarized. Indignant that they are the victim, they set about a series of absurd moves to recover their losses. Uncertainty leads them to disrupt their household and accuse their friends | |||||
Further Reference: | - | |||||
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One Big Happy Family | ||
| 1st Produced: | American Folk Theatre, New York | 1983 | ||||
Company: | n/a | |||||
| 1st Published: | I don't think it has been published. Try emailing Playwright or Agent where listed at top of page. | ISBN/ASIN: | - | |||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #110715 | |||
To Buy This Play: | If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies | |||||
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Genre: | n/a | |||||
| Parts: | Male | - | Female | - | ||
Parts other: | - | |||||
Notes: | - | |||||
Synopsis: | n/a | |||||
Further Reference: | - | |||||
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One Monkey Don't Stop No Show | ||
| 1st Produced: | - - - | - - - | ||||
Company: | n/a | |||||
| 1st Published: | Dramatists Play Service, NY, | ISBN/ASIN: | - | |||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #11137 | |||
To Buy This Play: | If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies | |||||
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Genre: | full length Comedy | |||||
| Parts: | Male | 3 | Female | 5 | ||
Parts other: | - | |||||
Notes: | - | |||||
Synopsis: | The action takes place in suburban Philadelphia, where the Reverend Avery Harrison, a Baptist preacher, clings tenaciously to his position in the local black elite. His upwardly mobile philosophy is avidly shared by his wife, Myra (whose hilarious malapropisms, however, continually betray her ghetto origins), and by his son, Felix, a strictly brought up private school product who has suddenly discovered the joys of sex, thanks to a surreptitiously studied manual and the cooperation of a local charmer known as "Li'l Bits." Another jarring note is struck when the Reverend's countrified niece Beverly, the only daughter of his lately demised brother, arrives from the rural South with the news that she has been left in the custody of Caleb Johnson, a jive-talking, fast-living, macho type who was the partner of Beverly's father in a disreputable local nightclub. Hilarious complications ensue as the Reverend and his wife find their passions rekindled; Felix and "Li'l Bits" nervously face the prospect that she may be in a "family way"; and Beverly (who is a lot sharper than her country background might suggest) plots her conquest of the increasingly helpless Caleb. | |||||
Further Reference: | - | |||||
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Orrin | ||
| 1st Produced: | - - - | - - - | ||||
Company: | n/a | |||||
| 1st Published: | Dramatists Play Service, NY, | ISBN/ASIN: | - | |||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #11138 | |||
To Buy This Play: | If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies | |||||
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Genre: | Play One Act | |||||
| Parts: | Male | 3 | Female | 1 | ||
Parts other: | - | |||||
Notes: | - | |||||
Synopsis: | takes place in the Philadelphia home of a middle-class, upwardly mobile black family. Their well-ordered existence is suddenly shaken by the return of the eldest son, Orrin, a junkie and drug pusher who had been thrown out by his father many months before. Filled with bitterness and false courage, Orrin taunts his "upright" family with street talk and tales of his free-wheeling lifestyle. Despite his bravado, the loneliness and loss he feels are soon clear-as is the sad truth that the distance between him and his family is too great to overcome. | |||||
Further Reference: | - | |||||
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Prodigals, The | ||
| 1st Produced: | - - - | - - - | ||||
Company: | n/a | |||||
| 1st Published: | Dramatists Play Service, NY, | ISBN/ASIN: | - | |||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #11139 | |||
To Buy This Play: | If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies | |||||
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Genre: | two short plays One Act | |||||
| Parts: | Male | - | Female | - | ||
Parts other: | - | |||||
Notes: | - | |||||
Synopsis: | ORRIN takes place in the Philadelphia home of a middle-class, upwardly mobile black family. Their well-ordered existence is suddenly shaken by the return of the eldest son, Orrin, a junkie and drug pusher who had been thrown out by his father many months before. Filled with bitterness and false courage, Orrin taunts his "upright" family with street talk and tales of his free-wheeling lifestyle. Despite his bravado, the loneliness and loss he feels are soon clear-as is the sad truth that the distance between him and his family is too great to overcome. (3 men, 1 woman.) The joys and sorrows of black womanhood are at issue in SUGAR-MOUTH SAM DON'T DANCE NO MORE. Sammy, a charming but unreliable drifter, returns unexpectedly to Verda Mae, his on-again/off-again love. This time Sammy promises to stay, and announces that he has left his wife for good, but Verda Mae, after a lifetime of such assurances, won't be convinced. Ironically, in the end, it is Verda Mae's growing sense of independence that leads her to the loneliness and abandonment she fears will be her inevitable fate. (1 man, 1 woman.) | |||||
Further Reference: | - | |||||
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Satchmo | ||
| 1st Produced: | McGlone-Bolden Assoc | - - - | ||||
Company: | n/a | |||||
| 1st Published: | I don't think it has been published. Try emailing Playwright or Agent where listed at top of page. | ISBN/ASIN: | - | |||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #66624 | |||
To Buy This Play: | If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies | |||||
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Genre: | Play/Drama | |||||
| Parts: | Male | - | Female | - | ||
Parts other: | - | |||||
Notes: | - | |||||
Synopsis: | n/a | |||||
Further Reference: | - | |||||
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Sugar-Mouth Sam Don't Dance No More | ||
| 1st Produced: | H.B. Playhouse | - - - | ||||
Company: | n/a | |||||
| 1st Published: | Dramatists Play Service, NY, | ISBN/ASIN: | - | |||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #11140 | |||
To Buy This Play: | If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies | |||||
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Genre: | Play One Act | |||||
| Parts: | Male | 1 | Female | 1 | ||
Parts other: | - | |||||
Notes: | also in Best Short Plays of 1978, Chilton Press | |||||
Synopsis: | The joys and sorrows of black womanhood are at issue in SUGAR-MOUTH SAM DON'T DANCE NO MORE. Sammy, a charming but unreliable drifter, returns unexpectedly to Verda Mae, his on-again/off-again love. This time Sammy promises to stay, and an-nounces that he has left his wife for good, but Verda Mae, after a lifetime of such assurances, won't be convinced. Ironically, in the end, it is Verda Mae's growing sense of independence that leads her to the loneliness and abandonment she fears will be her inevitable fate. It is the joys and sorrows of black womanhood which are at issue. Sammy, a charming but unreliable drifter, returns unexpectedly to Verda Mae, his on-again-off-again love. This time Sammy promises to stay, and announces that he has left his wife once and for all. But Verda Mae, after a lifetime of such assurances, is not easily convinced. And, ironically, it is her growing sense of independence which, in the end, leads to the loneliness and abandonment which are her unwelcome, but inevitable, fate. | |||||
Further Reference: | - | |||||
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Trials And Tribulations Of Staggerlee Booker T Brown | ||
| 1st Produced: | - - - | - - - | ||||
Company: | n/a | |||||
| 1st Published: | Dramatists Play Service, NY, | ISBN/ASIN: | - | |||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #11141 | |||
To Buy This Play: | If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies | |||||
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Genre: | full length Comedy | |||||
| Parts: | Male | 5 | Female | 2 | ||
Parts other: | - | |||||
Notes: | - | |||||
Synopsis: | The play begins in the Nite Life bar, where one of the denizens recounts the tale of the Reverend Booker T. Brown, a good-hearted preacher of middle years who finds himself smitten by the charms of a nubile young parishioner. His temptation is put to the test when Big Red (better know as the devil) offers him a proposition: all the money he can spend plus the favors of his desired, in exchange for which the Reverend must sign away his soul. He agrees-but then recants-which leads to the central action of the piece, an hilarious play-within-a-play in which all the actors appear in double roles as good and evil clash with the Reverend's immortal soul hanging in the balance. It is touch and go for a while, yet all works out happily in the end-but not before a joyous good time is had by audiences and actors alike. | |||||
Further Reference: | - | |||||
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