The Playwrights Database
DOUGLAS TURNER WARD (1930 - )
Nationality: African-Americanemail: n/a Website: n/a
Literary Agent: n/a
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below is a list of Douglas Turner Ward's plays - click on a Play Title for more information
Brotherhood Day Of Absence Happy Ending Reckoning, The RedeemerBrotherhood
Synopsis:
A liberal white couple, entertain a sophisticated black couple in their rather strange, sheet-shrouded living room. The whites, filled with hypocrisy, and the blacks, concealing their contempt, put on a show of super-cordiality and friendship. But the false brightness soon palls, and the host and hostess become rattled at the simplest request from their guests. Then the black couple leave and the white couple gleefully tear away the sheets-revealing a horrendous array of plaster "pickaninnies" and other racist artifacts, while "Old Black Joe" blasts forth on the hi-fi
Notes:
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1st Produced:
NEC, New York 1970
Organisations:
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1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY, 1970 -
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:
Satire/Comedy One Act
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: 1 BM, 1 BF, 1 WM, 1 WF
Further Reference:
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Top of PageDay Of Absence
Synopsis:
Oh no you rotters
Notes:
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1st Produced:
St Mark's Playhouse, New York 1965
Organisations:
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1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY, 1966 -
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:
Satirical Fantasy One Act
Parts:
Male: 8 Female: 6 Other: -
Further Reference:
-
Top of PageHappy Ending
Synopsis:
The story of two sisters, Ellie and Vi, who work as maid and laundress for the wealthy Harrisons. As the play begins they are sitting at the kitchen table in a tenement apartment in Harlem, lamenting the end of their good times. Mr. Harrison has discovered his wife in an act of infidelity. The sisters fear that if the marriage breaks up they will be both out of a job. Their nephew, Junie, chides them for their slavish sentiments at a time when blacks are on the march toward liberation. But Ellie explains the facts of life to him: how she feeds and dresses her relatives and furnishes their homes at the Harrison's expense. "I know the pay is bad," she declares, "but I'd be losing money on any other job." But when things look grimmest, the telephone rings with the message that the Harrisons have made up and need their maid at once as a sitter.
Notes:
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1st Produced:
St Mark's Playhouse, New York 1965
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY, 1966 -
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:
Comedy One Act
Parts:
Male: 2 Female: 2 Other: -
Further Reference:
-
Top of PageReckoning, The
Synopsis:
concerns the bigoted governor of a Deep South state, who is blackmailed by his beautiful black mistress, and her procurer, into turning over all the money which graft has put in his strongbox-and also into persuading his constituents, assembled outside the statehouse, to allow a young black militant and his followers to enter the capital city unmolested. Essentially a contest of wits between the foxy governor and the even foxier pimp, the play is given contrast and dimension by the accompanying actions of the governor's boneheaded son, the prostitute, and the governor's black maid and chauffeur-who seem at first to be pure "Uncle Toms." Two long soliloquies highlight the play. In the first the pimp, facing the audience, unburdens his soul with harsh, powerful words of bitterness and loathing. In the second the governor rants of white sexual fantasies about blacks, and, perhaps unknowingly, embodies the hatred and fear which racism ignites. But when at last the girl and the pimp turn their full fury on the gov
Notes:
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1st Produced:
New York 1969
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY, 1970 -
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: 2 Other: -
Further Reference:
-
Top of PageRedeemer
Synopsis:
A diverse group of people gather for the "second coming."
Notes:
in Holidays And in About Heaven And Earth
1st Produced:
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
Contact The Negro Ensemble Company, 133 Second Ave., New York, NY 10003, -
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: 3 Other: -
Further Reference:
-
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