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Don Evans

DON EVANS

  (1938 - 2003)
Nationality:    African American
email:    n/a     Website:    n/a

Literary Agent:    n/a

Don Evans (1938-2003) earned an M.F.A. in Theatre Arts from Temple University and studied at HB Studios. As a playwright, he was a crucial part of the Black Arts movement of the 1970s, rising up through New York's New Lafayette Theatre and the Negro Ensemble Company. His plays include the double one-acts ORRIN and SUGARMOUTH SAM DON'T DANCE NO MORE, A LOVE SONG FOR MISS LYDIA, and TRIALS AND TRIBULATIONS OF STAGGERLEE BOOKER T. BROWN. Evans was awarded fellowships in playwriting from the National Endowment for the Arts, the New Jersey Council of the Arts, and the New Jersey Historical Society. Evans also served as Artistic Director of Karamu House in Cleveland and was an AMPARTS Fellow for the United States Information Agency to India.

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

         Blues For A Gospel Queen         Dancing With Demons         It's Showdown Time         Lovesong For Miss Lydia         Mahalia         Matters Of Choice         One Big Happy Family         One Monkey Don't Stop No Show         Orrin         Prodigals, The         Satchmo         Sugar-Mouth Sam Don't Dance No More         Trials And Tribulations Of Staggerlee Booker T Brown

Blues For A Gospel Queen

Synopsis:
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Notes:
Music by John Lewis; lyrics by Don evans; book by Don evans

1st Produced:

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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:
Musical

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
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Dancing With Demons

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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:

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Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

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It's Showdown Time

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.

Notes:
high-spirited And hilarious comedy of contemporary black life, drawn from Shakespeare'sTaming of the Shrew

1st Produced:
New Federal Theatre, Philidelphia    

Organisations:
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1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY,    -

Music:
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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            Other:  -

Further Reference:
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Lovesong For Miss Lydia

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.

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1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY,    -

Music:
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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:
full length Comedy

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
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Mahalia

Synopsis:
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Notes:
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1st Produced:
Henry Street Playhouse, NYC    

Organisations:
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1st Published:
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Music:
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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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Matters Of Choice

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

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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:  4 black females, 3 black males, 1 white male

Further Reference:
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One Big Happy Family

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1st Produced:
American Folk Theatre, New York     1983

Organisations:
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1st Published:
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Music:
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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:
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Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
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One Monkey Don't Stop No Show

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.

Notes:
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1st Produced:
Usa     1982

Organisations:
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1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY,    -

Music:
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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:
full length Comedy

Parts:
Male:  3            Female:  5            Other:  -

Further Reference:
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Orrin

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.

Notes:
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1st Produced:
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Organisations:
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1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY,    -

Music:
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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 One act

Parts:
Male:  3            Female:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:
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Prodigals, The

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.)

Notes:
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1st Produced:
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Organisations:
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1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY,    -

Music:
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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:
two short plays One act

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
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Satchmo

Synopsis:
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Notes:
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1st Produced:
Mcglone-Bolden Assoc    

Organisations:
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1st Published:
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Music:
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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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Sugar-Mouth Sam Don't Dance No More

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.

Notes:
also in Best Short Plays of 1978, Chilton Press

1st Produced:
H.B. Playhouse    

Organisations:
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1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY,    -

Music:
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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 One act

Parts:
Male:  1            Female:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:
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Trials And Tribulations Of Staggerlee Booker T Brown

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.

Notes:
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1st Produced:
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Organisations:
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1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY,    -

Music:
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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:
full length Comedy

Parts:
Male:  5            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
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