by Paul Carter Harrison
contributions by Gus Edwards and Victor Leo Walker Ii
Temple University Press, 2002
eISBN: 978-1-4399-0115-1 | Cloth: 978-1-56639-943-2 | Paper: 978-1-56639-944-9
Library of Congress Classification PN1590.B53B59 2002
Dewey Decimal Classification 791.08996073

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ABOUT THIS BOOK
Generating a new understanding of the past—as well as a vision for the future—this path-breaking volume contains essays written by playwrights, scholars, and critics that analyze African American theatre as it is practiced today.Even as they acknowledge that Black experience is not monolithic, these contributors argue provocatively and persuasively for a Black consciousness that creates a culturally specific theatre. This theatre, rooted in an African mythos, offers ritual rather than realism; it transcends the specifics of social relations, reaching toward revelation. The ritual performance that is intrinsic to Black theatre renews the community; in Paul Carter Harrison's words, it "reveals the Form of Things Unknown" in a way that "binds, cleanses, and heals."