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Hughes Allison

HUGHES ALLISON  (1908 - 1974)

 Nationality:    African American
email:    n/a     Website:    n/a

Literary Agent:    n/a


Born in greenville, SC Hughes allison moved to newark, NJ in 1919. he is reputed to have written some 2,000 radio scripts. In 1940 he heped organise the Negro Playwrights Group.

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below is a list of Hughes Allison's plays - click on a Play Title for more information

 It's Midnight over Newark         Panyared         Trial of Dr Beck, The

It's Midnight over Newark

Synopsis:
a Living Newspaper dramatization of black physicians not being allowed to practice their profession.

Notes:
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1st Produced:
-    1941

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   -

Music:
-

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

Booksellers:

Genre:
-

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Panyared

Synopsis:
story of a kidnapped African prince sold into slavery

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
-    1938

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   -

Music:
-

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

Booksellers:

Genre:
-

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Trial of Dr Beck, The

Synopsis:
In this play, his sole Broadway venture, Mr. Allison, a writer of detective fiction who died in 1974, combined an interest in law, biology and sociology. The scientific aspects of the case have faded into a kind of idiosyncratic polemicism, if not racism, but the legal side of the whodunit still retains a certain theatrical viability. The play's protagonist, a prosperous doctor in Harlem, is on trial for murdering his wife. In the course of testimony, it is revealed that the doctor, who is light-skinned, has a morbid disregard for people with dark skins, such as his wife. He has written a book in support of eugenics. Coincidentally, his wife and her twin sister have made millions by selling their patented brand of hair straightener. In other words, the root of the play is the erasure of black identity, an arcane subject to find dramatized in 1981 at Henry Street, the scene of so many socially relevant contemporary dramas. The evening is resolutely old-fashioned and ripe with stereotypes, white as well as black, and with thunderstruck confrontations, but it manages to hold our interest and to maintain a mystery about the name of the murderer. Is it the accused, or someone else in the courtroom?

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
W.P.A. Federal Theater, NY    1937

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   -

Music:
-

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

Booksellers:

Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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