Biography

Abram Hill was born on January 20, 1910 in Atlanta, Georgia, and made his first onstage appearance in the chapel of Morehouse College. His family moved to Harlem, New York when he was thirteen and he attended DeWitt Clinton High School in the South Bronx and City College of New York for two years. After working a series of occasional jobs including a photographer’s assistant and elevator operator at Macy’s, he attended Lincoln University in Pennsylvania as a pre-med student in 1934. And in 1936 he secured a job in drama with the Civil Concentration Corps (CCC) where he directed plays.

For the next two years, Hill shuttled between working at the CCC and toward a Bachelor of Arts degree at Lincoln where he studied drama under J. Newton Hill. While there, he produced his first play in 1937, Hell’s Half Acre.  After graduating in 1938, Hill worked as a play reader and Administrative Aide to the National Director of the Federal Theater (part of the Works Progress Administration). His second play, On Striver’s Row, was produced by the Rose McClendon Players in 1939, just one year before he co-founded the American Negro Theatre (ANT) in 1940. (Full Bio)

Plays

HELL’S HALF ACRE (1937)

The dramatization of the intricate forces at odds in a small southern town when four white persons accused of lynching are finally brought to trial. (Source)

Cast Requirement: 22+

Characters: Ed Norman, Amos Lovejoy, Gerritt Alcott, Creek Calhoun, Will Burrows, Ben Ackerson, Tim, Sylvan Stanwick, Granny, Flossy Brown, Daisy Clupepper, Willis Harderman, Reverend Taut, Dr. Frank Smalls, Jim Laycart, Lillie Tidd, Godfrey Joy, Dixon, Solicitor Shuebl Tabor, Judge Cleveland Adams, Mrs. Alcott, Elsie Carver, Mob, Militia, Jurymen, Children, Court Audience, Guards

Publication: Hell’s Half Acre. Alexander Street Press, 2004 (Link)*

STEALING LIGHTNING (1937) 

Depression drama involving a feud between two families, one of which lives in comfortable circumstances. 

Cast Requirement: 6 (4f, 2m)

Characters: Jim, Miz Crabb, Lil, Molly, Miss Packer, Higgins

Publication: Stealing Lightning. Alexander Street Press, 2003. (Link)*

LIBERTY DEFERRED (1938) 

Co-Authored by John Silvera, Liberty Deferred creates a documentary of Blacks in America from slavery to the 1930s. (Source)

Cast Requirement: 74+

Characters: Mary Lou Dixon, Jimmy North, Ted, Linda, First Merchant, Second Merchant, Third Merchant, First Planter, Second Planter, Servant, Tobacconist, Captain, Master, Denmark Vesey, Northern, Immigrant, Quaker, Thomas Jefferson, Mill Owner, Plantation Owner, Overseer, Eli Whitney, Slave Dealer, Benjamin Franklin, Senator Early, John Wheatley, Phillis Wheatley, Loudspeaker, Spokesman, Missouries, Second Congressman, Calhoun, Dred Scott, Harriet Tubman, William Lloyd Garrison, Issac Knapp, Reverend Plummer, Reverend J.C. Postell, Bishop Meade, Ascott, Taney, Frederick Douglass, Jefferson Davis, Abraham Lincoln, A Negro Woman, A White Soldier, A Red Cap, Uncle Tom, The Two Black Crows, Crap Shooters, Cotton Pickers, Judge, The Unemployed of London, Tobacco Customers, Twenty Black Natives, Singers, Dancers, Benjamin Banneker, Chorus, Slaves, Abolitionist, Westerners, Southerners, A White Senator

Publication: Liberty Deferred and Other Living Newspapers of the 1930s Federal Theatre Project. Edited by Lorraine Brown. George Mason University Press, 1989. (Link)

SO SHALL YOU REAP (1938) 

A labor problem play set in New York during the Depression Era. (Source)

Cast Requirement: 22+

Characters: Commanding Officer Victor C. Smith, Inspecting Captain Charles Monroe, Bullhead, Lefty Davis, Spike Edwards, Diana, Jonathan Smalls, Mickey Sweeny, Delponia, Jerry, Two Buck Mac Quire, Lawerance Gallagher, Riverhead Lizzie, Lanky Lou, Richard Sobol, Brigadier-General Stephen Fond, A Peddler, His wife, A Cop, A Stingy Father, Mrs. Scott, An Orphanage Superintendent, Mr. Evans, State Troopers.

Publication: So Shall You Reap. Alexander Street Press, 2004. (Link)*

ON STRIVERS’ ROW (1939)

In New York’s Harlem Renaissance, a few blocks uptown featured stunning homes that showed off the new wealth in the Black community–this was Strivers’ Row. In Abram Hill’s raucous comedy, the neighborhood comes to exuberant life through the Van Striven family, whose matriarch Dolly wants nothing more than to throw the perfect debutante party for her daughter. But when classism, colorism, gossip, and jealousy come knocking, Dolly’s perfect celebration becomes the event of the season for all the wrong reasons. (Source)

Cast Requirement: 16 (10f, 6m)

Characters: Sophie, Dolly Van Striven, Professor Hennypest, Tillie Petunia, Chuck, Cobina, Mrs. Pace, Oscar Van Striven, Lily Livingston, Rowena, Ed Tucker, Louise Davis, Dr. Leon Davis, Ruby Jackson, Beulah, Joe Smothers

Publication: Black Theatre U.S.A. Edited by James V. Hatch and Ted Shine. Free Press, 1996. (Link)

WALK HARD (1939) 

Set in New York City in the late 1930s, when earning a living wage was a struggle, especially for blacks. Andy Whitman is a nineteen-year-old black man with a powerful left hook. During a street fight with a rival bootblack, Andy is spotted by a boxing manager who quickly recruits him. The boxing game holds the promise of monetary gains for Andy and a ticket out of America, where he feels stifled. 

Cast Requirement: 18 (6f, 10m)

Characters: Bobby, Mack Jeffris, Mr. Berry, Lou Foster, Happy, Mickey, Larry Batchelo, Becky, Charlie, Susie, Ruth Lawson, A Bartender, Sadie, Dorothy, George, Hotel Clerk, Lady Friend, A Reformer

Publication: Black Theater, U.S.A.; forty-five plays by Black Americans, 1847-1974. Edited by James Hatch. Free Press, 1974. (Link)

ANNA LUCASTA (1944) 

An adaptation for an all-black cast of Philip Yordan’s play of the same title, originally written about a Polish family in Pennsylvania. The play concerns the struggle of a prostitute to reclaim her life. This adaptation concerns a naive young black man who has been sent up north by his father to Brooklyn, NY with a large sum of money to find a good wife. He falls into the clutches of the Lucasta family, who scheme to get their hands on his money, using every unscrupulous device that they can think of—including bringing their prostitute daughter Anna home from her waterfront beat to marry the country hick. As a favor to her family, Anna consents, but when she meets and gets to know the young man, she falls in love with him. (Source)

Cast Requirement: 14 (5f, 9m)

Characters: Theresa, Blanche, Noah, Eddie, Rudolf, Danny, Stella, Frank, Stanley, Joe, Officer, Anna, Katie, Lester

Publication: The Best Plays of 1944-45: The Year Book of Drama in America. Edited by Burns Mantle. Dodd Mead, 1945. (Link)

MISS MABEL (1951) 

A black version of G. R. Sheriff's novel about a woman who poses as her own twin sister who has amasses a fortune, draws up a will in her sister's name, then murders her sister, hoping to provide generous financial gifts to her church and some of her needy friends, leaving only a small bequest for herself. Her crimes are uncovered immediately after the reading of the will, and Miss Mabel is jailed for forgery and murder, in spite of her loyal friends' efforts to get her out of trouble. (Source)

Cast Requirement: 10 (4f, 6m)

Characters: Ilahee, Peter, Mary, Jeremiah Watkins, Mr. Smallwood, Mrs. Wilson, Reverend Wilson, The Doctor, Miss Mabel, The Sheriff

Publication: Miss Mabel. Alexander Street Press, 2003. (Link)*

LATIN, GREEK OR GRITS (1970)

Originally titled Booker T. Washington, this play is about the famed founder of the Tuskegee Institution. (Source)

Cast Requirement: 50+

Characters:  A Kleagle, Some Klansmen, An Army Captain, Jeff Dophin, Jim Avery, Esau Honeycut, Ben Dalimus, Ed Newsome, Greasey Sam, Jake, Simon, Booker Washington, General Armstrong, Fanny, Three Crapshooters, A Washerwoman, A Blind Old Man, A Girl, Pete, Mrs. Newsome, Three Preachers, Whitfield, The Governor of Alabama, The Smith Family, The Edward Family, The Tucker Family, Madame Zimby, A Woman, A Man, A Boy, Scott, Monroe Trotter, Charles Eliott,Hank, Bowen, W. E. B. BuBois, James Langston, Kelly, Frank, Four Farmers, A Legislator, A Secretary, A Man With A Mission, Crowds

Publication: Latin, Greek or Grits. Alexander Street Press, 2003. (Link)*

BEYOND THE BUSH (1970) 

Beyond the Bush is about a romantic affair which takes place in the upper South, just below the Mason-Dixon line, involving a divorced, white landowner and a lower class black woman while her boyfriend is serving in Vietnam. (Source) 

Cast Requirement: 9 (4f, 5m)

Characters: Luke, Agnes, Kate, Edward Sloan, Hattie Brown, Joe Brown, Geneva, Grandpa Brown, Bill Templeton

Publication: Beyond the Bush. Alexander Street Press, 2003. (Link)*