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PEARL CLEAGE (1948 - ) |
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Nationality: USA Email: n/a Website: n/a |
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Literary Agent: Abrams Artists Agency |
Fiction includes Deal with the Devil and Other Reasons to Riot (Ballantyne Books, 1993), What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day; I Wish I Had a Red Dress (Orion, 2001)
Plays by Pearl Cleage
Blues For An Alabama Sky | ||
| 1st Produced: | 1995 | |||||
Company: | n/a | |||||
| 1st Published: | American Theatre Magazine, NY - July, 1996 | ISBN/ASIN: | - | |||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #7221 | |||
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 150 min | |||||
| Parts: | Male | 3 | Female | 2 | ||
Parts other: | - | |||||
Notes: | - | |||||
Synopsis: | It is the summer of 1930 in Harlem, New York. The creative euphoria of the Harlem Renaissance has given way to the harsher realities of the Great Depression. Young Reverend Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., is feeding the hungry and preaching an activist gospel at Abyssinian Baptist Church. Black Nationalist visionary, Marcus Garvey, has been discredited and deported. Birth control pioneer, Margaret Sanger, is opening a new family planning clinic on 126th Street, and the doctors at Harlem Hospital are scrambling to care for a population whose most deadly disease is poverty. The play brings together a rich cast of characters who reflect the conflicting currents of the time through their overlapping personalities and politics. Set in the Harlem apartment of Guy, a popular costume designer, and his friend, Angel, a recently fired Cotton Club back-up singer, the cast also includes Sam, a hard-working, jazz-loving doctor at Harlem Hospital; Delia, an equally dedicated member of the staff at the Sanger clinic; and Leland, | |||||
Further Reference: | - | |||||
Bourbon at the Border | ||
| 1st Produced: | - - - | - - - | ||||
Company: | n/a | |||||
| 1st Published: | Dramatists Play Service, NY, 2006 | ISBN/ASIN: | - | |||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #40023 | |||
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: | Drama, full length Play/Drama | |||||
| Parts: | Male | 2 | Female | 2 | ||
Parts other: | - | |||||
Notes: | - | |||||
Synopsis: | When May and Charlie joined hundreds of other Americans who went to Mississippi in the summer of 1964 for a massive voter registration drive, they had no idea their lives were about to change forever. As students at Howard University, their campus activism had been met with calls to their parents and threats of expulsion. The stakes in Mississippi were a lot higher. White supremacists, outraged at the challenge to their segregated way of life, responded with violence that left three civil rights workers dead and many wounded. Years later, May and Charlie are still searching for a way back from the damage that was done to them during that long ago Freedom Summer. Unable to confide even in her best friend, Rosa, about the demons that haunt her dreams and twist Charlie's love for her into something she can no longer recognize, May is convinced that if she can just get Charlie to leave Detroit and cross the bridge to Canada, they can start a new life. But when Rosa's friend Tyrone gets Charlie a job as a truck driver, the madness of that summer bubbles over until it threatens all of their very lives. BOURBON AT THE BORDER takes a look at the lives of two ordinary people who gave everything they had to the AfricanAmerican freedom struggle but who have now been largely forgotten. In telling May and Charlie's story, BOURBON AT THE BORDER puts a human face on the unknown soldiers of the civil rights movement by refusing to romanticize them even as it honors their specific sacrifices and the price they paid. | |||||
Further Reference: | - | |||||
Chain | ||
| 1st Produced: | Judith Anderson Theatre, NY | 1992 | ||||
Company: | Women's Project | |||||
| 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 | #49819 | |||
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: | One Act | |||||
| Parts: | Male | - | Female | 3 | ||
Parts other: | - | |||||
Notes: | - | |||||
Synopsis: | This play by Pearl Cleage tells the tale of a sixteen-year-old crack addict, Rosa Jackson, whose parents take matters into their own hands. Their solution: to keep their daughter chained inside their home for seven days. In this desperate attempt to keep their daughter away from drugs and the violence of their Harlem community, Rosa teeters between discovering her self worth, the admiration for her boyfriend, Jesus, who introduced her to the drug, and the reality of her addiction. This not only explores "urban" violence and the impact of drugs on the African American community but the effects of peer pressure and how far parents will go to protect their children. | |||||
Further Reference: | - | |||||
Essentials | ||
| 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 | #40027 | |||
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: | - | |||||
Flyin' West | ||
| 1st Produced: | 1992 | |||||
Company: | n/a | |||||
| 1st Published: | in "Contemporary Plays by Women of Color" Routledge, London, 1996 | ISBN/ASIN: | - | |||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #7222 | |||
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 | 2 | Female | 4 | ||
Parts other: | - | |||||
Notes: | - | |||||
Synopsis: | Following the end of the Civil War, many former slaves, anxious to leave the South and the increasing disappointments and dangers of Reconstruction, took advantage of The Homestead Act and went West to build new lives for themselves and their families. Many of these homesteaders were black women who overcame tremendous odds to work their own land and make a place for themselves in an often harsh and forbidding environment. Set in 1898, FLYIN' WEST is the story of some of these African-American female pioneers who settled, together, in the all-black town of Nicodemus, Kansas. "Pearl Cleage's FLYIN' WEST&[is] a real crowed pleasure, and its characters have humor and vitality&Cleage [is] a natural-born storyteller&" -Washington Post. "Pearl Cleage's FLYIN' WEST is a broadly rendered&sweet anthem of a play, celebrating, as one character&says to a newborn infant, "all them fine colored women makin' a place for you." -NY Times. "FLYIN' WEST is the most potent, gripping play&a paean to women&and a plea for all women | |||||
Further Reference: | - | |||||
Good News | ||
| 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 | #40026 | |||
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: | - | |||||
Hospice | ||
| 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 | #40025 | |||
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: | - | |||||
Last Bus To Mecca | ||
| 1st Produced: | Judith Anderson Theatre, NY | 1992 | ||||
Company: | Women's Project | |||||
| 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 | #49820 | |||
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: | One Act | |||||
| Parts: | Male | - | Female | 3 | ||
Parts other: | - | |||||
Notes: | - | |||||
Synopsis: | n/a | |||||
Further Reference: | - | |||||
One For The Brothers, A Love Story | ||
| 1st Produced: | Ensemble Studio Theatre | 17 Sep 2011 | ||||
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 | #132138 | |||
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: | short play | |||||
| Parts: | Male | 1 | Female | 2 | ||
Parts other: | - | |||||
Notes: | The Ensemble Studio Theatre and Going to the River have lined up some of the most gifted women playwrights of color - some new, some established - for a three-week presentation of nine short, under 10-minute plays in return of the series The River Crosses Rivers. The River Crosses Rivers II mixes established playwrights like Pearl Cleage and Regina Taylor with emerging playwrights France-Luce Benson, Christine Jean Chambers, Naveen Bahar Choudhury, Philana Omorotionmwan, Desi Moreno-Penson, Bridgette Wimberly and Cori Thomas. | |||||
Synopsis: | A love story set during the turbulent 60?s & 70?s when revolution was the norm. | |||||
Further Reference: | - | |||||
puppetplay | ||
| 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 | #40024 | |||
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: | - | |||||
Song For Coretta, A | ||
| 1st Produced: | - - - | - - - | ||||
Company: | n/a | |||||
| 1st Published: | Dramatists Play Service, NY, 2008 | ISBN/ASIN: | - | |||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #82089 | |||
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 | 5 | ||
Parts other: | - | |||||
Notes: | - | |||||
Synopsis: | On February 6, 2006, people began lining up at dawn outside of Atlanta's Ebenezer Baptist Church to pay their respects to the late Mrs. Coretta Scott King, widow of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., whose body lay in state in the small sanctuary. By mid-morning, the crowd wound down the street and around the corner of the old red brick building. People of all ages stood patiently for hours, waiting to say goodbye. Sometimes they murmured to each other quietly. Sometimes they shared memories of Mrs. King's extraordinary life and expressed sorrow at her passing. When a cold rain began to fall at sunset, those who had thought to bring umbrellas shared them with those whose resolve was the only thing not dampened by the drizzle. At close to midnight, the crowd had dwindled to a determined few. The five fictional characters in this play are at the end of that long line of mourners. | |||||
Further Reference: | - | |||||

