doollee banner
The Playwrights Database
contact doollee


William Branch

WILLIAM BRANCH  (1927 - )

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

Literary Agent:    Bridget aschenberg, ICM ?


William Blackwell Branch (born September 11, 1927 New Haven, Connecticut) is an African American playwright, and editor. He graduated from Northwestern University in 1949, and from Columbia University with an M.F.A. in 1958. He studied at Yale University in 1965-66. He taught at Cornell University, and William Paterson College, 1994-96.

Buy Plays with Doollee

Each page of doollee.com has links to play/book outlets, either directly to the Publisher, through Stageplays.com and Amazon to the second hand and 1st editions of AbeBooks. These links will automatically take you to the relevant area obviating the need for further search.
AbeBooks.co.uk   AbeBooks.com   Stageplays.com   amazon.com   amazon.co.uk   amazon.ca
whether you are a Playwright who wishes to make their entry definitive, an unlisted Playwright or a User with a tale to tell - we want to hear from you.
download WORD submission template

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

 Baccalaureate         Experiment In Black         Fifty Steps Toward Freedom         In Splendid Error         Light In The Southern Sky         Medal For Willie, A         To Follow The Phoenix         Wreath For Udomo, A

Baccalaureate

Synopsis:
Young black woman graduate student, rooming with her married sister's family, is forced to choose between comfortable middle class ambitions and an exciting, but perilous involvement with a young black activist.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Bermuda    1975 ?

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:
Domestic Drama 3 act

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  3 BM, 3 BF, 3 BB

Further Reference:
-

Top of Page Top of Page

Experiment In Black

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
-    -

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:
-

Top of Page Top of Page

Fifty Steps Toward Freedom

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
-    1970

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:
-

Top of Page Top of Page

In Splendid Error

Synopsis:
Frederick Douglass grapples with the practical, personal, and psychological problems of supporting his friend, John Brown, as both seek an effective way to fight slavery.

Notes:
subtitled: Frederick Douglass

1st Produced:
Greenwich Mews Theatre, New York    Oct 1954

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Black Theater USA, ed. by James V. Hatch and Ted Shine, New York: Free Pr., 1974   -

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:
Historical Drama 3 acts

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  5BM, 1BF, 1BG, 5WW

Further Reference:
-

Top of Page Top of Page

Light In The Southern Sky

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
-    1958

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:
One act

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

Top of Page Top of Page

Medal For Willie, A

Synopsis:
Southern town gathers for official U.S. presentation of a medal to a mother of a dead soldier-hero, but the underlying hypocrisy leads to an event not scheduled on the program.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Club Baron, New York    Oct 1951

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Black Drama anthology, ed. by Woodie King, Jr. and Ron Milner, New York: New amer. Lib., 1972   -

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:
7 Scenes, Prologue, and epilogue. Protest Drama

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  6 BM, 4 BF, 9 WM (or 8 WM and 1 WF)

Further Reference:
-

Top of Page Top of Page

To Follow The Phoenix

Synopsis:
Black college student finds inspiration and courage to participate in potentially dangerous racial demonstrations by recalling the life and example of the extraordinary Mary Church Terrell, a black elitist who fought against racial and sexual discrimination from post-reconstruction days through the sit-ins of the 1960s

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
-    1960

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Scene in Black Scenes, ed. by alice Childress, New York: Doubleday, 1971   -

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:
2 act Historical Drama

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  8 BM, 6 BF, 4 WM (doubling), extras

Further Reference:
-

Top of Page Top of Page

Wreath For Udomo, A

Synopsis:
African prime minister finds that defeating colonialism is the easiest part of acquiring independence; exercising power calls for a diabolical decision in a far more complicated world than he and his fellow revolutionaries ever dreamed of during their student days abroad

Notes:
Based upon the novel by Peter Abrahams

1st Produced:
Karamu Theatre, Cleveland, Ohio, 1959    1959

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:
3 act Morality Drama

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  6 BM, 4 BF, 4 WM, 2 WF, 1 Asian M, extras

Further Reference:
-

Top of Page Top of Page