Having Their Say: Twentieth-Century Progressive White Playwrights on Black Topics

White playwrights have been accused of cultural appropriation of black literary material; however, during the 20th century, progressive white playwrights did not shy away from dramatizing difficult race-related themes—contextualizing the interconnections of racial dynamics and a forward-moving society. Many of those dramatists (such as Ridgely Torrence, Eugene O’Neill, Paul Green, George Sklar, Molly Kazan, Howard Sackler, Martin Duberman, Lanford Wilson, Tony Kushner, and Rebecca Gilman) tackled prevalent black issues, receiving respect and appreciation from diverse audiences. In this course students will examine works by white playwrights who dramatized topical issues pertaining to the social and political experience of African Americans.