Royalty free Aboriginal script options
Monday 17 June 2013
There is a growing collection of clever and delicious new commercial Aboriginal and multicultural writing managed by various agents. For example http://www.vam.ac.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0011/177644/37047_file.pdf
I set out looking for a cultural security drama in the public domain and found very few. The english language plays I found are all from India or African-Americans. No titles found for Canada or New Zealand.
INDIA
T.P.Kaliamsam (1884-1946)
http://tpkailasam.blogspot.com.au
Rabindranath Tagore (died 1946)
multiple titles on gutenberg or readbooksonline site
GREAT BRITAIN - two writers whose works may include drama or material suitable for dramatization.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ignatius_Sancho
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olaudah_Equiano
UNITED STATES
Mary Burill (1881-1946) "They that sit in darkness" (1919)
http://www.one-act-plays.com/dramas/they_that_sit_in_darkness.html
"Aftermath" (? date) no copies
Ira Aldridge (1807 – 1867) "The Black Doctor" no copies
Victor SeÌjour (1817-1874) ? titles
William Wells Brown (1818-1884) "The escape; or, a leap for freedom"
Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872-1906) with Jesse A. Shipp (1864-1934) "In Dahomey" Musical Comedy (1902)
Garland Anderson (1886-1934) "Appearances" (1924) held in Australian National Library
Angelina GrimkeÌ (1805-1879) "Rachel" (1920)
http://openlibrary.org/books/OL6626297M/Rachel
Alice Dunbar-Nelson (1875-1935) "Mine eyes have seen"
http://www.one-act-plays.com/dramas/mine_eyes_have_seen.html
Myrtle Smith Livingston "For unborn children" ? dates unknown
http://www.lincolnu.edu/web/library/livingston
Ruth Gaines Shelton (?date) "The church fight" recently revived http://www.darryllacyproductions.com/plays.html
Joseph Cotter, Sr.(1861-1946) "Caleb the Degenerate" (1901) no copies
Linn Riggs (1899-1954) part Cherokee Indian - many titles
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynn_Riggs
Eulalie Spence (died 1981 under copyright)
Marita Bonner (died 1971 under copyright)
Willis Richardson (died 1977 under copyright)
Jean Toomer (died 1967 under copyright)
Georgia D. Johnson (died 1967 under copyright)
Randolph Edmonds (died 1983 under copyright)
Langston Hughes (died 1983 under copyright)
Theodore Ward (died 1983 under copyright)
Zora Neale Hurston (died 1960 under copyright)
May Miller (died 1995 under copyright)
Theodore Browne (died 1979 under copyright)
Georgia D. Johnson (died 1977 under copyright)
Charles Fuller (alive and well - under copyright)
AUSTRALIA
David Unaipon (died 1967 under copyright, stories but no plays)
Jack Davis (died 2000 under copyright - license to perform http://www.hlamgt.com.au) A list of other Aboriginal writers is at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Indigenous_Australian_writers all of them are available commercially.
MAINSTREAM WRITERS
"Ned McCobbs Daughter" by Sidney Howard gives one tiny but very clear clue that the female lead role is inter-married.
"The Maharani of Arakand" by George Calderon is a sweet multicultural nectarine.
Australian Author Kylie Tennant (died 1966) published a volume of plays "Bushrangers Christmas eve and other plays" which may not be copied without permission because it is under copyright, however the publisher printed in the binder a waiver of performance royalties on them at her request, including her version of a traditional aboriginal legend about the honey-ant tribe. It is very simplistic, written for children but deals with a difficult subject of tribal conflict. Copy in some Australian libraries.
"All Gods Chillun got wings" by Eugene O'Neil deals with racial issues.