The Playwrights Database
JAMAL WILLIAMS
Nationality: African Americanemail: Click here to contact Website: n/a
Literary Agent: n/a
Jamal Williams, Playwright. A novelist, short story writer, playwright and screenwriter, Jamal Williams has a Master of Creative Writing from The University of California at San Francisco State. He is a Charter Member and former Executive Director of The Buriel Clay San Francisco Black Writers Workshop, * and Playwright-in-Residence of The Lorraine Hansberry Theatre Company (1989-1992). He is a winner of the San Francisco Bay Guardian 1st Playwriting Competition for Best Full-Length Play, 1991 ("Is You Is or Is You Ain't"). His first novel, entitled Where Dark Things Hide, is a hybrid urban science fiction and horror novel. He founded the Uptown Playwrights Workshop in Harlem. He co-founded the Harlem Screenwriters Workshop. Many of his works have been staged across America: Atlanta, San Francisco, Berkeley, Dallas, Washington D.C., Sacramento, Los Angeles, Winston Salem, North Carolina, Colorado Springs, Colorado, and New York City, amongst many locations. His most recent productions, an elaborate production of "Yesterday Came Too Soon" (The Dorothy Dandridge Story) starring Leslie Lewis Sword was done in April 2005 at The National Black Theatre in New York City; (Los Angeles Production, February/March 2004; and Berkeley Black Repertory Company, Berkeley, California, November 2003; and National Black Theatre Festival, Winston Salem, North Carolina, August 2003). "Return to Crosscreek" was selected as a stage reading in the R. Joyce Whitley Play Festival Karamu Theatre Company, April 2004, "Ding Dong Daddy" (Blacken Blues Theatre Festival 2004, Dallas, Texas), Pittsburgh Playwrights Theater Black/White Festival 2007. "Miss Laura Maye Brown of Harlem", NY Downtown Urban Theater Festival, Manhattan Rep Summerfest - 2007. "Last Dance of the Panther Women", Prometheus Fire Theater Co., Stamford, Ct. 3/28/08. . 'King Willie" has just completed a three year development program with The Essential Theater Company of Washington, D.C. "Osage Avenue" (The MOVE inferno) took Honorable Mention at the 2008 Downtown Urban Theater Festival at Cherry Lane Theater in New York. Additional stage productions are: "Eulogy for the Blackman" (Theater for the New City, New York, June 2002); "The Blue Mirror Revue" (via The Writer's Clique at Harlem Theatre Company, New York, February 2002), "Yesterday Came Too Soon: The Dorothy Dandridge Story" (The 4305 Village Theatre, September 2001). This Los Angeles production was nominated for eight Hollywood/Beverly Hills NAACP Theater Awards of 2001. The production won for Best Actress. And "House on Fire" (Theater for The New City, New York, March, 2000) was highly acclaimed. "Ding Dong Daddy" was produced in that Black/White Theater Festival, in Pittsburgh, PA in October 2007. Jamal has won numerous awards, fellowships, and scholarships. He has an extensive body of work also includes two novels, and two screenplays. Contact information: 1782 Old Rex Morrow Road, Morrow, GA, 30260; (718) 930-8601; Email: jammit50@gmail.com ; Jammit50@yahoo.com
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below is a list of Jamal Williams's plays - click on a Play Title for more information
Bloodlines to Oblivion Eulogy for the Blackman House on Fire Is you is or is you ain't Last Dance of the Panther Women LBJ (Long Bien Jail) Miss Laura May of Harlem Osage Avenue Yesterday Came Too Soon (The Dorothy Dandridge Story)Bloodlines to Oblivion
Synopsis:
The play concentrates on the "Last" San Francisco family as it prepares to relocate to the jungles of Guyana to join the Jim Jones' People's Temple new settlement in South America. This black family sans one (the father) is anxious to leave the racism of America behind and to be a part of the utopian jungle home of Jim Jones' Peoples Temple congregation. The father is fighting to keep from losing his family that he has kept together for decades. Unknown to him, his family is headed to a mass suicide in the jungles in a few weeks. But he tries everything to keep his headstrong wife from taking his family from him by what he considers a dangerous shade-tree charlatan.
Notes:
The 1st produced play About the Jim Jones, Peoples Temple, tragedy from A typical San Francisco family perspective
1st Produced:
San Francisco, California 1983
Organisations:
The Julian Theater Company
1st Published:
- -
Music:
-
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Genre:
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: 5 Female: 3 Other: -
Further Reference:
-
Top of PageEulogy for the Blackman
Synopsis:
Eulogy is a performance piece that strings several Dramatic/monologue vignettes together at a fictional funeral. It explores with comedy, dance, and Drama some negative black male stereotypes that are all jammed together in a raggedy coffin. The "black" community is so ashamed of these men that they have hired a traveling preacher to give the last eulogy for these men that are in one coffin so that they can move on to a more respectful future.
Notes:
-
1st Produced:
Organisations:
Frank Silvera Writers Workshop
1st Published:
- -
Music:
-
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Genre:
comedy
Parts:
Male: 2 Female: 1 Other: -
Further Reference:
-
Top of PageHouse on Fire
Synopsis:
The comedy and farcical play examines a house owned by a B-list actress who is raising a son under the rules of extreme feminist rules. Not having a man of her own she and her single women "clan" try to infuse all those superficial things that they feel replaces the symbol of a good black man unto her son. And typically because they try and mold him into their vision, it causes the hypocrisy and surreal ness into a tragic result. Because this respected woman with the high ideals actually distorts those very high level feminist principles in order to satisfy her carnal yearnings, it leads to a reexamination by all those in her clan. This play asks several questions including: Are Hollywood black divas indeed a possessed cult of women? Are they living in a House on Fire, and doing their ghostly dance as the smoke arises? And have they mortgaged so much of their souls that they are willing to sacrifice all to maintain their facade?
Notes:
-
1st Produced:
Organisations:
Frank Silvera Writers Workshop
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
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Genre:
comedy
Parts:
Male: 3 Female: 6 Other: -
Further Reference:
-
Top of PageIs you is or is you ain't
Synopsis:
In 1946, one year after the end of World War II, many black women who had journey from the south to work in the war time industries in the shipyards of the north as well as the west coast found themselves at a crossroad in their lives. Because the men were returning from their victorious war duty and expecting to regain jobs that were now being done by these women, many liberated black women had to make choices. Some decided to make the north and west their new homes and were to never return to the racist/oppressive south which they'd escaped. Their main dilemma was that many had left family there and felt guilty about seeking a more free life away from them. Olivia, the main character, makes a sojourner trip back to Crosscreek in the summer of 1946 to rescue two sisters whom she left four years prior and had actually forgotten until her fiancee revealed a fact that she'd forgotten about: she had been a prostitute in her first year. Though she'd taken a different name and persona to hide her shame she'd gotten her education and a good job and tried to forget the shame buy forgetting her past. Ruby Hightop follows her down south trying to convince her to leave her sisters and return to the good times of the new liberal West. In the process of her absence, Unilee has booted Carolyn out the home. Carolyn has married Olivia's beau and Tyrone has found himself a "kept" man in the Pondexter's home. A showdown occurs when these conflicting forces collide and Olivia's money is stolen, Tyrone heads back to Harlem and Unilee goes running after him. It's a battle of who gets Olivia's soul.
Notes:
-
1st Produced:
The Mojo Theatre Company 1997
Organisations:
The Mojo Theatre Company
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: 3 Female: 5 Other: -
Further Reference:
-
Top of PageLast Dance of the Panther Women
Synopsis:
Last Dance is a performance piece that takes place the last year of the existence of the Black Panther Party. It takes place in the courtyard of Merritt College in Oakland, Ca, the birthplace of the Panthers. It is about the dance of conflict that two women panthers dance as one tries to prevent the other from assassinated Kathleen Cleaver as she and her husband, Eldridge Cleaver are coming to a dance in their honor at the campus to celebrate their return from exile in Algeria.
Notes:
-
1st Produced:
Stamford, Ct. Performance Arts Center, Stamford, Ct. 2008
Organisations:
Prometheus Fire Theatre Company
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:
Performance piece
Parts:
Male: 2 Female: 2 Other: -
Further Reference:
-
Top of PageLBJ (Long Bien Jail)
Synopsis:
The play is about the war (racism) within the war (armed combat) in Vietnam. In 1968, at a military stockade for American soldiers, a race riot breaks out as a result of news of the assassination of Rev Martin Luther King reaches the soldiers in Vietnam. Based on an actual event that was covered up by the military, the prisoners of this stockade called LBJ (Long Bien Jail) as a backhanded compliment to President Lyndon Baines Johnson go on a two day rampage and riot taking over the prison from the military police. Three unlikely prisoners (Latino, Black, and white) find a hiding place and though very distrustful of one another learn to ban together to survive the murderous madness. They slowly learn more about each other's lives. And in the mix of this nightmarish hell, a ghost is haunting one of them who is the soldier that "fragged" him to get an apology for ending his life.
Notes:
An Award winning play: Dramalogue; Best Northern California Play; Best Director; Best Play
1st Produced:
San Francisco, California 1986
Organisations:
The Lorraine Hansberry Theatre Company
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:
Vietnam Drama
Parts:
Male: 5 Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
-
Top of PageMiss Laura May of Harlem
Synopsis:
Miss Laura Maye of Harlem is a full length, two act play. It is a story about a hundred and four year woman and has lived only in Harlem. On the night of a surprise birthday party, she dies in her sleep, but is visited by two opposing spirits. One spirit, Mr. Man offers her hard love and hard choices. The other spirit, Miss D , tries to discourage her from completing her last task; her rich first-hand knowledge and history about the past. She has been given a tape recorder by her only living relative, her grandson, way back in 1979 when it was fashionable for the black consciousness movement to get the young to get oral history from their elders before it is to be lost with their deaths. She should tell her history into that old tape machine to leave a oral legacy to a grandson. She is reluctant because she lived a life simple and insignificant. But through the telling of the stories she reveals a much more rich history of her life and of Harlem at the same time. Miss Laura starts off as 104 years old and instantly becomes twenty-nine with the removal of make-up, in front of the audience, and on stage. As she goes from 1929 back to the present time, she ages appropriately on stage. Period music and language is adhered to in the telling of this story.
Notes:
This play has had two festival workshop productions.
1st Produced:
Organisations:
Manhattan Rep Theatre, Summer Festival
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:
Historical Drama
Parts:
Male: 2 Female: 3 Other: -
Further Reference:
-
Top of PageOsage Avenue
Synopsis:
The play: "Osage Avenue" (The MOVE Inferno) is a performance piece that Dramatically recreates the people and the times and situations of the disastrous fire in the city of Philadelphia in 1984 that shocked the country as well as the world. Philadelphia's first black Mayor Wilson Goode has been derisively been called the leader of the city that "bombed" itself. Four actors, 1 female and three males will play a rendition of twenty characters, some based on real people, others just fictional character types that one can find in almost any urban black community. The play opens up a few weeks after the Osage Avenue community has been burned to the ground by the incompetence of the city and state official. One of the main characters, Slick Willie, has been so affected by the lost of his middle-class house that he wanders around in a state of mental denial and has become a street person who leads tourist through the burnt out environment for money. The ramshackle house of the radical Move (Back to Africa) group is under police siege; an assault that turns into an inferno that burned the whole neighborhood to the ground
Notes:
The play came in 2nd (Honorable Mention) for the festival.
1st Produced:
Organisations:
The 2008 Downtown Urban Theatre Festival
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: 4 Female: 2 Other: -
Further Reference:
-
Top of PageYesterday Came Too Soon (The Dorothy Dandridge Story)
Synopsis:
Yesterday Came Too Soon, is a one actor play that takes place in the famous stars' backstage dressing room on the last night of her life. In her manic depression she is visited by what she thinks is her estranged sister, Vivian. . She begins to tell the story of her famous but tragic life. Through song and actions, she reveals Dorothy's inner secrets. It traces her autobiography from the age of three until her tragic suicide. Many believe that because of her fame and her exotic beauty she became a "target" for the lifestyle and treachery of the type of men that would use her and take away any possible chance for real happiness. Despite her early death, today she is still an inspirational icon for many black actresses trying to navigate the treacherous waters of entertainment.
Notes:
This is A play that has been produced All over the country. It has garnered many Awards And is still being requested from theater groups to produce. It is probably one of the most Accurate plays About Dorothy Dandridge.
1st Produced:
Metropole Theater, Los Angeles, California 1997
Organisations:
John Doyle Productions
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 woman show
Parts:
Male: - Female: 1 Other: -
Further Reference:
-
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