DAEL ORLANDERSMITH   


Dael Orlandersmith
   Nationality:
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   Literary Agent: *:
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Plays by Dael Orlandersmith

DAEL ORLANDERSMITH
Beauty's Daughter
1st Produced:
1995
Company:
-
1st Published:
Angela Allison
-
To Buy This Play:
If the Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased direct, otherwise
(below) are AbeBooks for secondhand & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
Genre:
Drama
One Act
Parts:
Male
-
Female
1
Parts Other:
-
Notes:
-
Synopsis:
One woman's journey with many obstacles stacked against her. The heroine or "anti-heroine" can choose to be a victim of the violent cards life has dealt her or she can use her poetry and music as a creative means to deal. The audience sees the character's inability and ultimate ability to deal with other people and triumph in the end.
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DAEL ORLANDERSMITH
Gimmick, The
1st Produced:
New York Theatre Workshop
1999
Company:
-
1st Published:
American Theatre Magazine, NY - September
1999
To Buy This Play:
If the Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased direct, otherwise
(below) are AbeBooks for secondhand & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
Genre:
Drama
One Act
Parts:
Male
-
Female
1
Parts Other:
-
Notes:
-
Synopsis:
Harlem - 10 year old Alexis dreams of being a writer and her friend Jimmy dreams of being an artist. At 15 they go to see Picasso paintings at the Museum of Modern Art and Alexis agrees to pose naked. Jimmy gets a gallery show acquires a white girlfriend and gets into drugs. Alexis life spirals ever downward until she hits rock bottom.
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DAEL ORLANDERSMITH
Monster
1st Produced:
New York Theatre Workshop New York
1996
Company:
-
1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY
-
To Buy This Play:
If the Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased direct, otherwise
(below) are AbeBooks for secondhand & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
Genre:
Drama
One Act
Parts:
Male
-
Female
1
Parts Other:
-
Notes:
-
Synopsis:
A violent family history passes from one generation to the next. The narrator, a young woman, uses stories, poetry and characters to introduce and juxtapose situations. Through her powerful eyes we witness violence, friendship, alienation, family love and loyalty.
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DAEL ORLANDERSMITH
My Red Hand My Black Hand
1st Produced:
Long Wharf Theatre New Haven Connecticut
-
Company:
-
1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY
-
To Buy This Play:
If the Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased direct, otherwise
(below) are AbeBooks for secondhand & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
Genre:
-
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male
1
Female
2
Parts Other:
1man [Native American], 2 women [1 black, 1 mixed race]
Notes:
-
Synopsis:
This play tells the story of one girl's courageous search for belonging and acceptance in the two very distinct cultures that make up her heritageAfrican-American and Native-American. The play unfolds as the girl describes the past, present and future of her parents' cultures and their fusion into her own. She tells us about the "Red" Tlingit and Lakota parentage of her father, who leaves the reservation to play blues rock in Boston. And the "Black" rural Virginia Background of her mother, who goes to Boston seeking the big-city life. Her parents meet at a dance and fall in love, but not without the complications of prejudice from their families.
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DAEL ORLANDERSMITH
Raw Boys
1st Produced:
-
2005
Company:
-
1st Published:
-
-
To Buy This Play:
I don't think the play has been published but you could try abebooks.com
Genre:
-
-
Parts:
Male
-
Female
-
Parts Other:
-
Notes:
-
Synopsis:
Billy escapes from an abusive father in Ireland and goes to New York to fulfil his dreams of becoming an actor. Years later he sends for his brother, Shane.
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DAEL ORLANDERSMITH
Yellowman
1st Produced:
-
-
Company:
-
1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY
-
To Buy This Play:
If the Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased direct, otherwise
(below) are AbeBooks for secondhand & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
Genre:
-
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male
1
Female
1
Parts Other:
-
Notes:
-
Synopsis:
"Dael Orlandersmith's two-hander is as magnificently acted as it is beautifully written and offers endless insights into the internal racism and oppressive determinism that haunt the African-American community. Two characters have been brought up in South Carolina in the supposedly progressive sixties. Alma is large, dark-skinned and part of a culture where women "tugged the soil right beside the men". Eugene is the lithe son of a lumberman father and light-skinned mother and is teased for being a "high yella" boy. Growing up in a small town where gradations of colour assume monumental importance, Alma and Eugene fall in love, separate and are uneasily re-united. What gives Orlandersmith's play its power is the tension between self-fulfilment and the weight of the past. Alma is bright, smart, ambitious and at one point goes off to study in New York where she moves to the urgent rhythm of the city; yet she can never entirely escape her inherited self-hatred. Equally Eugene, branded a failure by his father and advised by his grandfather "don't marry nothing dark," finds himself trapped by the antique prejudices of the unforgiving past. ", Guardian
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