The PlayFinder™

Alone in the Executive Office, President Abraham Lincoln is struggling with signing the Emancipation Proclamation when he is mysteriously visited by Uncle Tom, the fictional character in Harriet Beecher Stowe’s abolitionist novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin; or, Life Among the Lowly. These two iconic characters from life and literature—one real, the other fiction—attempt to understand each other across a chasm of race in the midst of the Civil War. Throughout one late night and in... Read more

Earning their bread with satires of white high society, the African Company came to be known for debunking the sacred status of the English classics (which many politically and racially motivated critics said were beyond the scope of black actors). Inside the Company's ranks, similar debates raged about whether to mimic the English tongue, or to provide a more lively interpretation of white theater by acknowledging the vibrancy of the black experience (in the words of the Afric... Read more

The year is 1953 in the Harlem apartment of African American writer Langston Hughes. Unable to sleep in light of the hearing he faces the next day, he gets up and begins to write a poem but finds his living space somehow inhabited by his readers. Exposed, guilt-ridden, and fearful, he confesses how he intends to answer McCarthy’s accusations that he is a Communist—imploring his readers not to abandon him no matter what they might read or hear. ARE YOU NOW OR HAVE YOU EVER BEEN…... Read more

During the night, on a dusty, sage-brush covered island on the southern plains, in the middle of the Red River, black Buffalo Soldiers capture a young warrior called Buffalo Hair, a black man who has chosen to live among the Cheyenne ever since they saved his life. The soldiers find their captive to be a foe from without and within, being so much alike and different from themselves. To Buffalo Hair, his captors are slaves to the white man and enemies of his true people, the Che... Read more

Three college students—a black man, a white woman, and a white man—travel to the dangerous world of Mississippi in 1964 to register Negro voters. Along the way, they discover that before they can change the world, they will have to change themselves. DOWN IN MISSISSIPPI is a celebration of a movement that gave birth to the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Included in Broadw... Read more

Six black minstrel players in a Pullman porter railroad car on a cold winter's afternoon in February, 1895, outside the rural town of Hannibal, Missouri, wait for showtime to arrive. The chilly wind blows outside as they pass the time with stories and memories. Suddenly one member, Percy, so far absent, bursts in and collapses on the floor. When the troupe realizes their friend has been chased by a white mob, they must find a way to protect him and themselves. Fear, anxiety and... Read more

The high-stakes world of Civil War–era horse racing is the stage for this riveting drama of slavery and Reconstruction. Both Simon Cato, a smart, cocky 'colored' jockey, and his horse, Pure Confidence, are owned by Colonel Wiley Johnson. Cato uses his wits and his championship winnings to buy his and his wife's freedom. But the Civil War changes everything, and the passage of time doesn't bring Cato the success he expects in this surprisingly funny, daring and emotionally movin... Read more