Alice Childress Overview

Playwright Alice Childress blazed across off-Broadway like a supernova, startling audiences and critics with her candid, finely crafted characterizations of African Americans. Childress remarked that she concentrated "on portraying the have-nots in a have society, those seldom singled out by mass... [more]

Playwright Alice Childress blazed across off-Broadway like a supernova, startling audiences and critics with her candid, finely crafted characterizations of African Americans. Childress remarked that she concentrated "on portraying the have-nots in a have society, those seldom singled out by mass media." Born in South Carolina and schooled in Harlem, Childress wrote, directed, and produced plays with the American Negro Theater and other companies, and won a best play Obie for "Trouble in Mind" in 1956. Childress parlayed her ten-year membership in the American Negro Theater into a Harvard appointment to the Redcliffe Institute from 1966 to 1968. Her play "Wedding Band: A Love/Hate Story in Black and White" was produced by Joseph Pap for the 1972 New York Shakespeare Public Theater. In her later plays, Childress openly examined racism within the black community as well as subtle forms of sexism perpetuated by both men and women. "Wine in the Wilderness" frankly depicts the struggles of black women to understand their feminine identities in the face of sexism and racism. Her literary achievements include novels and short stories. In addition, Childress was the first black woman to write a professionally produced Broadway play, and the first woman to win an Obie Award. [show less]