This volume represents the first major bibliography on Black theatre and performance in Africa, the Caribbean, Latin America, Europe, and Canada. Unlike previous bibliographies on the topic, this work gives equal weight to Africa and the African Diaspora, and to biographical/critical material and play texts themselves. John Gray has collected more than 4,000 entries from a broad range of media, books, dissertations and theses, unpublished papers, periodical and newspaper articles, films, and videotapes. More than 650 playwrights and theatre groups from 45 countries are featured, as are performance genres that range from masquerades and carnival celebrations to the most recent works of noted playwrights such as Wole Soyinka and Derek Walcott.
The work is organized into two categories: studies of specific geographic areas and countries, and materials on individual playwrights. Within these categories, works cited are further divided according to the type of material, such as book, journal, or dissertation. Also included are a listing of major bibliographies on African-American theatre, and two appendices that cite reference works and provide a regional listing of African and African Diaspora playwrights and theatre companies. A set of four indexes, covering artists, play titles, subjects, and authors of cited works, conclude the book and provide easy access to its comprehensive listings. This unique work will be an important resource for courses in African studies, theatre arts, and minority and ethnic studies. It will also be a useful addition to the reference collections of college, university, and public libraries.
About the Author: JOHN GRAY is a cultural historian specializing in Black culture. He is currently Director of the Black Arts Research Center, an archival resource center dedicated to the documentation, preservation, and dissemination of the African cultural legacy. His previous publications include Blacks in Classical Music: A Bibliographical Guide to Composers, Performers, and Ensembles (Greenwood Press, 1988) and Ashe, Traditional Religion and Healing in Sub-Saharan Africa and the Diaspora: A Classified International Bibliography (Greenwood Press, 1989).
