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Kwame Kwei-Armah

KWAME KWEI-ARMAH

  
Nationality:    British
email:    n/a     Website:    n/a

Literary Agent:    United Agents  (agent: Sean Gascoine)

image by Pogus Caesar / OOM Gallery

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below is a list of Kwame Kwei-Armah's plays - click on a Play Title for more information

         Beneatha's Place         Big Nose         Bitter Herb, A         Blues Brother, Soul Sisters         Elmina's Kitchen         Fix Up         Hold On         Let There Be Love         One Love: The Bob Marley Musical         Seize the Day         Statement Of Regret         Unzipped         When We Praise

Beneatha's Place

Synopsis:
For his first Drama set in America, Artistic Director Kwame Kwei-Armah (Let there Be Love, elmina's Kitchen) offers his own response to Hansberry, continuing the conversation initiated in Clybourne Park.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Centerstage, 700 North Calvert Street, Baltimore, Md 21202     08 May 2013

Organisations:
CenterStage

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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Big Nose

Synopsis:
Cyrano de Bergerac set in the Caribbean and London during the 1950's, featuring original Calypso music.

Notes:
Written by Kwame Kwei-Armah And Chris Monks

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:
Musical

Parts:
Male:  7            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Bitter Herb, A

Bitter Herb, A
Valerie MacKenna is a successful middle-class businesswoman, who lives with her family in the comfortable streets of suburbia. She is battling to come to terms with the death of her son at a tragically young age. He was murdered by racists. This provocative play challenges conventional thinking and treats the incident as a personal tragedy rather than a political football.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Old Vic, Bristol, UK, >>>     02 Feb 2001

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
in Hidden Gems vol II edited by Deirdre Osborne, Oberon Books Ltd. (29 Sep 2012)   978-1849431484

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:  2            Female:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:

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Blues Brother, Soul Sisters

Synopsis:
The sixties. London is swinging to the Beatles and the Stones, but in downtown Detroit, the Motor City, the summers are shimmering and a new sound is hitting the street.

Notes:
aka Hold On

1st Produced:
Theatre Royal, Bristol, UK >>>     06 Feb 1999

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:
Musical

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:

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Elmina's Kitchen

Elmina's Kitchen
You can't just walk into dis bad man t'ing, you gotta learn the whole science of it. You step into that arena and you better be able to dance wid death til it mek you dizzy. the Yardies are burning up Hackney and Digger's offer of protection for the Diner smacks more of threat than promise. How can Deli save his truanting, thieving son when temptation looms so large on Murder Mile?

Notes:
-

1st Produced:

Organisations:
National Theatre Company

1st Published:
Methuen Drama    978-0413773630

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:  5            Female:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:

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Fix Up

Fix Up
It's Black History month but you wouldn't know it in Tottenham where Revive PLC plan to turn Kwesi's all Black African Party hotbed into luxury flats, and it looks like Kiyi's 'conscious' bookstore will soon go the same way. and then a beautiful visitor shows up in their midst and life goes from bad to worse. Set against the inexorable march of progress in contemporary London, Kwame Kwei-armah's play for the National explores race and roots with verve and wit. "Being around too much white folk. I seen the bluest of blackest men get too much exposure bam, they lose their rhythm. Put on a James Brown tune and they start doing the Charleston to ras!"

Notes:
-

1st Produced:

Organisations:
National Theatre, London

1st Published:
Methuen Drama    978-0413774972

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:  3            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:

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Hold On

Synopsis:
Hold On tells the story of the egotistical chauvinist Rufus Collins trying to put on a sixties soul tribute concert, while his female manager and three girl singers all do everything they can to undermine him and slip into something more funky and commercial. The music, a feast of soul classics, is belted out in terrific style by the cast and ably supported by a seven-piece band.

Notes:
aka Blues Brother, Soul Sisters

1st Produced:
Norwich: Theatre Royal     21 Aug 2001

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:
musical

Parts:
Male:  1            Female:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Let There Be Love

Let There Be Love
looks like an amusing study of racial and generational tolerance, in which a cantankerous old Caribbean Londoner establishes a rapport with his young, Polish cleaner that he can't find with his two daughters. But it ranges far wider and deeper than that, decisively transcending issues of race.
- Nick Curtis, evening Standard

Notes:
-

1st Produced:

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Methuen Drama    978-1408115602

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:  1            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:

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One Love: The Bob Marley Musical

Synopsis:
Bob Marley rocketed to International stardom. Civil war breaks out in his homeland Jamaica and he tries to resolve things with his music

Notes:
Music and lyrics by Bob Marley; book by Kwame Kwei-Armah

1st Produced:
Birmingham Repertory Theatre     2017

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:
Musical

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
https://twitter.com/kwamekweiarmah

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Seize the Day

Seize the Day
Jeremy Charles is campaigning to be the London mayor, but can he really be the people's candidate?

Notes:
-

1st Produced:

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Methuen Drama    978-1408127445

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:  6            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:

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Statement Of Regret

Statement Of Regret
a punchy, provocative look at the black British experience and the need, or not, for solidarity

Notes:
-

1st Produced:

Organisations:
National Theatre Company

1st Published:
Methuen Drama    978-1408115602

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:  6            Female:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Unzipped

Synopsis:
accessibility vs. authenticity: Do We Sell Out to Sellout?(Thu)/Storytelleror History Maker: Who Do You Think You are?/Post Multi-Culturalism: What Colour are You Now? Talawa's Writer's Group (TWG) returns with Unzipped 2009, an unmissable season of play readings and impassioned discussion. This year Talawa has worked with Britain's most established Black and Asian playwrights to push writing boundaries. the Group includes, amongst others, Roy Williams, Malorie Blackman, Dipo agboluaje and Kwame Kwei-armah. In return these writers will share excerpts of their most exciting work for Unzipped 2009. This will be an unforgettable series of readings that will explore the future of Black and Asian theatre as thewriters and their work seek to answer key questions facing the industry. Now in its fourth year, Unzipped has become an unforgettable and provocative event. expect unusual stories and controversial opinions. Book early to avoid disappointment.

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:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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When We Praise

When We Praise
the King James Version of the Bible (KJV) is a foundation stone of the english language. the KJV was composed as a collective project and written to be spoken. Sixty-Six Books has been created, in the spirit of the original, in the same way. Pulpit to print; stage to page; mediated through many forms oral and written, the KJV has, since its inception, been a fundamental part of written and spoken english.This is a work that has travelled to every continent of the globe. It has been shared as a melodic instrument of inspiration, illumination and mutual understanding; and it has also been wielded as a tool of colonial oppression. Sixty-Six Books is a fresh interpretation of the KJV for the new millennium, celebrating and challenging the traditions and achievements of this great work on the occasion of its 400th anniversary. the curators of this project have gathered together a formidable and inspiring line-up of the best established and emerging writing talent to produce a new version of the KJV for thetwenty-first century. each writer has created anew a book of the KJV - as prose, poetry, Drama, performance, song, or ground-breaking digital form. each writer has spoken back to the KJV with untrammeled inventiveness of the imagination. the voices of Sixty-Six Books, drawn from across five continents, innovate, transmute, transpose, reinvent and talk back to four hundredyears of history. all the works that make up Sixty-Six Books are written to be spoken. Culminating in major performance events at the Bush theatre and Westminster abbey in 2011 in London, Sixty-Six Books is a contribution towards the mutual curiosity, tolerance, and force of collective enterprise and shared humanity that characterizes the international and ancient Arts of writing and spoken performance

Notes:
Part of Sixty-Six Books: 21st-century writers speak to the King James Bible. Play is A response to the King James Bible book of Psalms

1st Produced:

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Oberon Books (2011) >>>    978-1849432276

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:
piece

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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