Contemporary Plays by Women of Color: An Anthology

480 Pages·1996·4.31 MB·English

by  Kathy Perkins

Contemporary Plays by Women of Color
Contemporary Plays by Women of Color is a compelling collection of new and
recent works by African American, Asian American, Latina American and
Native American playwrights. This ground-breaking anthology includes works
by well-known and award-winning playwrights, and newly emerging talents.
Together these plays represent a stunning array of voices and play styles from
women of color.
The works which are included here explore and speak out on issues from the
playful to the painful, and show varied approaches to play-making from solo
performances to collective creations. The volume also includes an invaluable
appendix of published plays by women, biographical notes on each writer and
the production history of each play.
Contemporary Plays by Women of Color will be a unique resource for
practitioners, students and theater lovers. It will be an inspiring addition to any
bookshelf.
Kathy A.Perkins is a lighting designer and Associate Professor of Theater at
the University of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign), where she heads the lighting
design program. She is the editor of Black Female Playwrights: An Anthology of
Plays Before 1950.
Roberta Uno is the Artistic Director of the New WORLD Theater and a
lecturer in the Department of Theater at the University of Massachusetts at
Amherst. She is the editor of Unbroken Thread: An Anthology of Plays by Asian
American Women.
Contemporary Plays by
Women of Color
An Anthology
Edited by Kathy A.Perkins and Roberta Uno
London and New York
First published 1996
by Routledge
11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2005.
“To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of
thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.”
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001
Editorial material © 1996 Kathy A.Perkins and Roberta
Uno
The Queen’s Garden © 1994 Brenda Wong Aoki
Re/membering Aunt Jemima: A Menstrual Show © 1994
Glenda Dickerson • Breena Clarke
Flyin’ West © 1994 Pearl Cleage
1992: Blood Speaks © 1992 Elvira and Hortensia Colorado
Come Down Burning © 1995 Kia Corthron
The Have-Little © 1991 Migdalia Cruz
Till Voices Wake Us © 1993 Louella Dizon
How Else Am I supposed to Know I’m Still Alive © 1989
Evelina Fernandez
Weebjob © 1987 Diane Glancy
Memory Tricks © Marga Gomez August 4th, 1992
Marga Gomez Is Pretty Witty & Gay © Marga Gomez
August 4th, 1992
A Line Around the Block © Marga Gomez August 11th,
1994
Inter-Tribal © 1995 Terry Gomez
Combination Skin © 1991 Lisa Jones
Heroes and Saints © 1990 Cherríe Moraga
My Ancestor’s House © 1992 Bina Sharif
Twilight: Los Angeles 1992 © 1994 Anna Deavere Smith
R.A.W. (‘Cause I’m a Woman) © 1993 Diana Son
“I’m a Woman” by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller © 1961
Jerry Leiber Music & Mike Stoller Music. All rights
reserved. Reprinted by permission. Permission to
iv
perform excerpts from the song “I’m a Woman” by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller in stage productions
of R.A.W. (‘Cause I’m a Woman) may be obtained by contacting Leiber & Stoller, 9000 Sunset
Blvd., Suite 1107, Los Angeles, CA 90069.
Sun Moon and Feather © 1981 Spiderwoman Theater
China Doll © 1991 Elizabeth Wong
Cover photo: © The Advertiser/Sunday Mail, Adelaide
All rights, including, but not limited to, live stage performing rights (both professional and amateur),
film, radio and television broadcasting recording, recitation, lecturing, and public reading, are
expressly reserved to the authors. Particular emphasis is placed upon the question of readings and all
uses of these plays by educational institutions, permission for which must be secured from the
authors representatives. Inquiries concerning rights should be addressed to the publisher in the first
instance.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by
any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including
photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in
writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the
British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Contemporary Plays by Women of Color: An Anthology
/ edited by Kathy A.Perkins and Roberta Uno.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
1. American drama—Minority authors. 2. Minority
women—United States—Drama. 3. Minorities—United
States—Drama. 4. American drama—Woman authors.
5. American drama—20th century.
I. Perkins, Kathy A. II. Uno, Roberta.
PS627.M5C66 1966
812'.540809287—dc20 95–7465
ISBN 0-203-99250-4 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN 0-415-11377-6 (hbk)
ISBN 0-415-11378-4 (pbk)
For our mothers
Minerva F.Perkins and Kiku Fukuyama Uno
and in memory of
Alice Childress (1916–1994)
Contents
Acknowledgments viii
Introduction 1
Kathy A.Perkins and Roberta Uno
1 The Queen’s Garden 19
Brenda Wong Aoki
2 Re/membering Aunt Jemima: A Menstrual Show 51
Glenda Dickerson • Breena Clarke
3 Flyin’ West 71
Pearl Cleage
4 1992: Blood Speaks 1 20
Elvira and Hortensia Colorado
5 Come Down Burning 1 38
Kia Corthron
6 The Have-Little 1 60
Migdalia Cruz
7 Till Voices Wake 1 91
Us Louella Dizon
8 How Else Am I Supposed to Know I’m Still Alive 2 28
Evelina Fernandez
9 Weebjob 2 42
Diane Glancy
10 Excerpts from Memory Tricks, Marga Gomez Is Pretty Witty & 2 77
Gay, and A Line Around the Block
Marga Gomez
11 Inter-Tribal 2 87
Terry Gomez
12 Combination Skin 3 10
Lisa Jones
vii
13 Heroes and Saints 3 32
Cherríe Moraga
14 My Ancestor’s House 3 79
Bina Sharif
15 Excerpts from Twilight: Los Angeles 1992 4 06
Anna Deavere Smith
16 R.A.W. (’Cause I’m a Woman) 4 25
Diana Son
17 Sun Moon and Feather 4 37
Spiderwoman Theater
18 China Doll 4 57
Elizabeth Wong
Appendix
Published plays by American women of color 4 64
Acknowledgments
We would like to thank the following individuals for their advice and/or gracious
assistance in leading us to some of the works in this anthology: Emilia
Cachepero, Anthony Garcia, Hanay Geiogamah, Eric Hayashi, Ron Himes, Fred
Ho, Shelby Jiggett, May Joseph, Ricardo Khan, Yuki Nakamura, Jorge Ortol,
Deborah Oster Pannell, Sophie Parker, and William Yellow Robe, Jr. For
assistance with research and the preparation of this manuscript we would like to
thank Lucy Mae San Pablo Burns, Hilary Edwards, Ann Haugo, Terrilynn
Mitchell, Sangeeta Rao, Dan Rivera, and Nadine Warner. We would also like to
express our appreciation of the support we have received for this project from
Dean Lee Edwards and Dr. Frederick Tillis of the University of Massachusetts at
Amherst; Yvonne Mendez and the staff of the New WORLD Theater; David
Knight, and Joseph Smith of the University of Illinois; and the University of
Illinois Research Board. We also thank our editors, Talia Rodgers and Sarah-
Jane Woolley for their patience, encouragement, and good humor. Finally for their
unwavering personal support we thank Merle Bowen, Elinor Bowles, Jim
Cyress, Nancy M.Davis, Tracy Davis, Tim Daz, Rita Disroe, Suzanne Dougan,
Riki Hing, Velina Houston, Tulani Jordan and Stan Kinard, Ed and Kay Kaneko,
Emma Kaplan, Aquila Ayana McCants, Mariko Miho, Nobuko Miyamoto, Linda
Perkins, Marion Perkins, Sr., Minoca Pinto, Norma Rivera Diaz, the Soman-
Faulkner family, Chinua and Mikiko Thelwell, Ernest and Grace Uno, Josie
Camacho and Victor Uno, Roger and Teresa Uno, and San San Wong.
Thanks and praises to the spirits of those who continue to guide us: Hazel
Bryant, Louise Evans Briggs-Hall, Sidney Kaplan, Aichi Kochiyama Duncan,
Patti O’Neal, Freda Page, Yvonne Adel John, and Atanasio Camacho Uno.
Introduction
Kathy A.Perkins and Roberta Uno
Photos: © Rick Newton
In the tradition of cultural workers before us, this generation of
women of color will…define the ground we walk on and bring our
creative forms into the light. We will sometimes complain, and
protest, and wear on the nerves, but we will not return to the dark.
Marsha Jackson
In 1984, when we first collaborated on the premiere of a musical entitled
Gullah!, written and directed by the late Alice Childress, Kathy Perkins and I
began the work that has resulted in this anthology and an ongoing series of
research, archival, and production projects. At that time, Kathy was four years
into her first teaching appointment as an instructor at Smith College, and I was
(and continue to be) the artistic director of the then five-years-old New WORLD
Theater and a lecturer at the University of Massachusetts. Kathy designed the
lighting for the production and I produced it; although we were immediately
caught up in the intense madness of production and rehearsal, an unspoken bond
was established. We recognized in each other a counterpart—another woman, a
woman of color, a working artist, a teacher, an artist/teacher trying to thrive in an
academic environment. We instinctively knew several things about each other:
that the other was most likely the only person of color in her academic