Biography

The daughter of a Howard University sociologist, Miller grew up in an intellectual household in which W.E.B. Du Bois and Booker T. Washington were frequent guests. She graduated from Howard University in 1920, earning an award for her one-act play Within the Shadows. Afterward she taught secondary school and continued to write.

A prizewinning play, The Bog Guide (1925), helped establish Miller in the black cultural scene, and she became the most widely published woman playwright of the Harlem Renaissance. She openly addressed racial issues in plays such as Scratches (1929), which commented on colour and class bias within the black community; Stragglers in the Dust (1930), about African-Americans in the military; and Nails and Thorns (1933), which dramatized lynching. She also wrote many historical plays, four of which (including Harriet Tubman and Sojourner Truth) were anthologized in Negro History in Thirteen Plays (1935). (Full Bio)

Plays

THE BOG GUIDE (1925) 

Jealousy has drive Rupert Masters, an Englishman, to reveal the mixed racial blood of his rival to the woman whom they both love. When this revelation causes the rival to be rejected by the woman, the dispossessed lover leaves England in search of a place, a utopia, without prejudice. In Africa he falls in love with a dancer, who conceives his child. When the drama opens, Masters has come to Africa to seek forgiveness, only to learn that the man whom he wronged is now dead along with the African mother of his child. Only the child, a daughter, who is to guide Masters over the bog, survives. (Source)*

Cast Requirement: 3 (1f, 2m)

Characters: Rupert Masters, Elwood Bealer, Sabali

Publication: The Bog Guide. Alexander Street Press, 2004. (Link)*

The Prize Plays and Other One-Acts Published in Periodicals. Edited by Jennifer Burton. G.K. Hall & Co., 1996. (Link)

RIDING THE GOAT (1925) 

The play deals with class struggle and the conflict that arises when the people in a small Black community are convinced that a young couple have become “too educated” to understand the importance of certain cultural traditions. (Source)

Cast Requirement: 4 (2f, 2m)

Characters: William Carter, Ruth Chapman, Ant Hetty, Christopher Columbus Jones

Publication: Black Female Playwrights: An Anthology of Plays before 1950. Indiana University Press, 1990. (Link)

SCRATCHES (1929)

A pool game determines the future life plans of two men and one woman. (Source)

Cast Requirement: 8+

Characters: Cassie, Sister Williams, Doug, Parson Williams, Maza, Jud, Freddie, Mom, Brethren and Sisters of the Church Council

Publication: Scratches. Alexander Street Press, 2004. (Link)*

The Prize Plays and Other One-Acts Published in Periodicals. Edited by Jennifer Burton. G.K. Hall & Co., 1996. (Link)

GRAVEN IMAGES (1929) 

A children’s play that depicts the introduction of prejudice (in biblical times) when Miriam spoke against Moses on account of the Ethiopian woman he had married and the fancied reaction of their youngest son. (Source) 

Cast Requirement: 7+

Characters: Moses, Aaron, Miriam, Zipporah, Jethro, Ithamar, Eliezer, Playmates of Ithamar, Attendants, Maidens

Publication: Graven Images. Alexander Street Press, 2004. (Link)*

STRAGGLERS IN THE DUST (1930) 

 The play takes us to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Washington D.C. In Stragglers in the Dust, Nan, a Negro charwoman, is convinced that the body in the tomb is that of her son killed in action during World War I. (Source)

Cast Requirement: 5 (1f, 4m)

Characters: Mac, Nan, Lester Bradford, The Straggler, The Guard

Publication: Black Female Playwrights: An Anthology of Plays before 1950. Indiana University Press, 1990. (Link)

CHRISTOPHE’S DAUGHTER (1935) 

The play takes us to the island of Haiti during King Henry Christophe’s defeat. The play explores the strength of his two daughters who have decided to fight to the end to protect their father’s honor. (Source)

Cast Requirement: 7 (4f, 3m)

Characters: Athénaire, Améthiste, Queen Marie-Louise, Baron Vastey, Jean, Marie, A Soldier 

Publication: Black Female Playwrights: An Anthology of Plays before 1950. Indiana University Press, 1990. (Link)

SOJOURNER TRUTH (1935) 

A historical play depicting one of the many occasions on which Sojourner Truth’s preaching was effective, changing the minds of a group of white boys bent on destruction. (Source) 

Cast Requirement: 7+

Characters: Sojourner Truth, Mr. Clarkson, Jerry, Ralph, Malcolm, Henry, Sheriff, Boys

Publication: Sojourner Truth. Alexander Street Press, 2002. (Link)*

HARRIET TUBMAN (1935)

A historical drama about the extraordinary feats of this lone Black woman who, on numerous trips, led groups of slaves through the Underground Railroad to freedom.  (Source) 

Cast Requirement: 7+

Characters: Harriet Tubman, Henry Ross, Catherine, Sandy, Sabena, Thomas, Edward, Fugitive Slaves

Publication: Black Female Playwrights: An Anthology of Plays before 1950. Indiana University Press, 1990. (Link)

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