You may know Langston Hughes (1902-1967) as a poet, the author of "The Negro Speaks of Rivers," "I, Too, Sing of America," and "Theme for English B." These poems are quite famous. (Below is a link to Hughes reading "The Negro Speaks of Rivers," a poem that he wrote when he was seventeen!)You may also know Hughes from your freshman composition class. Many teachers assign Hughes' "Salvation," a piece from his autobiography, The Big Sea.
However, Hughes was also a playwright, and "Soul Gone Home" (1937) was one of his many efforts in this genre. Here is a link to an article about a recent performance of this play:
I'm surprised that there haven't been other revivals, but here is a review of an opera based on Hughes' play.
Ah, here is a review of a performance of the play at Purdue's Black Cultural Center:
A picture of this 2002 performance is below:
Hughes wrote a number of other plays and librettos for operas, and during the later part of his career, he became increasingly successful. Staging his plays could be frustrating, and he often had to fight for them. In 1930, he collaborated with Zora Neale Hurston on a play, Mule Bone, but their partnership fell apart. Ultimately, she claimed that the finished play was hers and hers alone. As a result, the theater company that had been planning on performing the play decided not to do so, and the play would not be staged until 1991, long after its authors' deaths.
A review of this play is below:
Written in 1930 and performed on Broadway in 1935, Mulatto was Hughes' first play.
Hughes' Black Nativity (first performed 1961) is probably his most famous play. You may even be able to see it next Christmas in DC!
This online exhibit at the University of Kansas gives an overview of Hughes' career as playwright and songwriter:For more of an overview of Hughes' career, see these links:
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