Böcker av Alice Childress

A talented and experienced Black actress has been cast in Chaos in Belleville, an anti-lynching play set to open on Broadway. She's paid her dues throughout the years, playing stereotypical supporting roles in second-rate shows, and is ready for her star turn. Chaos in Belleville, written by a white playwright, might not be quite as enlightened a piece as she's been hoping for - but that doesn't mean it won't sell out. And selling out is the question at the heart of Alice Childress's comedy-drama. A cast of multigenerational Black actors rehearse under the purview of a white director and stage manager, and as the rehearsal process unfolds, theatre conventions and racial politics collide, resulting in a surprisingly funny yet deeply piercing look at the entertainment industry.

A masterpiece . . .Trouble in Mindstill contains astonishing power; it could have been written yesterday. VultureAhead of its time,Trouble in Mind, written in 1955, follows the rehearsal process of an anti-lynching play preparing for its Broadway debut. When Wiletta, a Black actress and veteran of the stage, challenges the plays stereotypical portrayal of the Black characters, unsettling biases come to the forefront and reveal the ways so-called progressive art can be used to uphold racist attitudes. Scheduled to open on Broadway in 1957, Childress objected to the requested changes in the script that would sanitize the play for mainstream audiences, and the production was canceled as a result. Childresss final script is published here with an essay by playwrightBranden Jacobs-Jenkins, editor of TCG Illuminations.

A new edition of Childress's hilarious, uncompromising novel about African American domestic workers, featuring a foreword by Roxane GayFirst published in Paul Robeson's newspaper, Freedom, and composed of a series of conversations between Mildred, a black domestic, and her friend Marge, Like One of the Family is a wry, incisive portrait of working women in Harlem in the 1950's. Rippling with satire and humor, Mildred's outspoken accounts vividly capture her white employers' complacency and condescensionand their startled reactions to a maid who speaks her mind and refuses to exchange dignity for pay.Upon publication the book sparked a critique of working conditions, laying the groundwork for the contemporary domestic worker movement. Although she was critically praised, Childress's uncompromising politics and unflinching depictions of racism, classism, and sexism relegated her to the fringe of American literature. Like One of the Family has been long overlooked, but this new edition, featuring a foreword by best-selling author Roxane Gay, will introduce Childress to a new generation.

As the first African American woman to have a play professionally produced in New York City and the first woman to win an Obie for Best Play, Alice Childress occupies an important but surprisingly under-recognised place in American drama. Spanning the 1940s to the 1960s, the plays collected here are the ones Childress herself believed were her best, and offer a realistic portrait of the racial inequalities and social injustices that characterised these decades.