Janet League

To Be Young, Gifted and Black: The World of Lorraine Hansberry in Her Own Words

Gene Frankel

Rita Gardner, Bruce Hall

Excerpts from the 1969 Off-Broadway production at the Cherry Lane Theater of To Be Young, Gifted and Black: The World of Lorraine Hansberry, adapted by Robert Nemiroff, Hansberry's widower, and directed by Gene Frankel.

The First Breeze of Summer

Ethel Ayler, Charles Brown

A portrait of an African American working-class family, this stage production depicts an elderly grandmother's flashbacks to the affairs she had as a young woman and a hard-working father's current conflict with his two unhappy sons.

Solomon Northup's Odyssey

Gordon Parks

Avery Brooks, Mason Adams

This is based on a true story. Solomon Northrop is a black man in the mid 19th century before slavery was abolished. He's a born freeman who works as a carpenter and is also a part time musician. One day he is approached by some men who want him to play for them. However, that is not their intention; they have kidnapped him and sold him into slavery. Now he has to endure the hardships that he has been spared because of his status as a freeman. And his family who don't know what happened to him is searching for him but where do they go? And Solomon also wishes to let them know where he is so that they could get him but unfortunately no one believes his story or is willing to help him.

The Spook Who Sat by the Door

Ivan Dixon

Lawrence Cook, Janet League

A black man plays Uncle Tom in order to gain access to CIA training, then uses that knowledge to plot a new American Revolution.