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Daniel W. Owens known by most as Dan Owens is an American playwright.
Owens was born in Malden, MA. [1] He received his education at Bryant and Straton Junior College (certificate in computer programming, 1968). He also attended Boston State College (1968) and the University of Massachusetts at Boston. [2] [3] Owens attended Yale University School of Drama (playwriting, 1971 – 1972), and Harvard University School of Education (Ed.M) where he received his Master's in Education. He then went on to teach black theater and playwriting at Boston University and the University of Massachusetts. While at the University of Massachusetts Owens wrote for the locally produced television show Brotherlove. [3]
In the mid-1970s Owens moved from Roxbury, MA [4] to New York City to write many successful off-broadway productions including critically acclaimed The Michigan, 1979. [5] [6] Owens followed up the following year with Lagrima Del Diablo (The Devil's Tear), [7] 1980. In "Lagrima del Diablo" ("The Devil's Tear"), [8] author Dan Owens imagines a power struggle between a Roman Catholic churchman and a revolutionary leader on a recently de-colonialized West Indian island. Archbishop Stephen Emmanuel Pontifex (Graham Brown) has ordered the closing of the local churches until the revolution frees his fellow churchmen. [9] "Lagrima del Diablo" ("The Devil's Tear") premiered at St. Mark's Playhouse in New York on January 10, 1980 . In 1999 Owens teamed up with veteran actor John Amos [10] (Good Times, Roots) for the production of Lindstrom and Matombi. The play captures the intercommunications of UN peacekeeping force officer Lieutenant Colonel Henry Lindstrom and the leader of a small Angolan opposition army General Isaac Ernesto Motambi.
Owens coauthored Langston Hughes's Little Ham: A Harlem Jazzical [11] with Judd Woldin in 2003. [12] The book was published by Samuel French, Inc and performed as a musical Off Broadway. [13] Langston Hughes's Little Ham: A Harlem Jazzical Is set in the heyday of the 1930s Harlem Renaissance. The story follows Hamlet Hitchcock Jones, known as Little Ham, as he prevents a downtown mob from taking over the Harlem numbers racket. Hughes's Little Ham: A Harlem Jazzical Arranger Luther Henderson was nominated for 2003 Drama Desk Award, Outstanding Orchestrations. [14]
One of Owens' plays, "The Gang on the Roof" was supported by a grant from the Kennedy Center Fund for New American Plays. [10] [15] "The Gang on the Roof" was inspired by a Seattle P-I article about a Vietnam-era racial mutiny. [16] After years of writing in New York City he moved to Seattle where he continued with his play Bobbie and Jerome, which received its world premiere at Langston Hughes Performing Arts Center in Seattle. [17] In September 2013, Owens premiered "Hello Darlin's: Mom's got something to tell you!". [18] "Hello Darlin's: Mom's got something to tell you!" is a one-woman tribute to the late Jackie "Moms" Mabley. Owens was credited in multiple publications for capturing the irreverent and controversial aura of Jackie "Moms" Mabley in a reverent but comic light. [19]
Owens is a two time participant in the Eugene O'Neill’s National Playwrights Conference. [20] Only eight scripts per year are selected from more than 1,400 submitted scripts to be invited for the Eugene O'Neill’s National Playwrights Conference. Writers receive a stipend and full room and board on a 90-acre seaside property, attending all first rehearsals and staged readings of their peers' work in addition to their own workshops. [21]
Loretta Mary Aiken, known by her stage name Jackie "Moms" Mabley, was an American stand-up comedian and actress. Mabley began her career on the theater stage in the 1920s and became a veteran entertainer of the Chitlin' Circuit of black vaudeville. Mabley later recorded comedy albums and appeared in films and on television programs including The Ed Sullivan Show and The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour.
Karamu House in the Fairfax neighborhood on the east side of Cleveland, Ohio, United States, is the oldest African-American theater in the United States opening in 1915. Many of Langston Hughes's plays were developed and premièred at the theater.
Tambourines to Glory is a gospel play with music by Langston Hughes and Jobe Huntley which tells the story of two female street preachers who open a storefront church in Harlem. The play premiered on Broadway in 1963.
A Touch of the Poet is a play by Eugene O'Neill completed in 1942 but not performed until 1958, after his death.
Black Nativity is an adaptation of the Nativity story by Langston Hughes, performed by an entirely black cast. Hughes was the author of the book, with the lyrics and music being derived from traditional Christmas carols, sung in gospel style, with a few songs created specifically for the show. The show was first performed Off-Broadway on December 11, 1961, and was one of the first plays written by an African American to be staged there. The show had a successful tour of Europe in 1962, one of its appearances being at the Spoleto Festival of Two Worlds in Italy.
Dael Orlandersmith is an American actress, poet and playwright. She is known for her Obie Award-winning Beauty's Daughter and the 2002 Pulitzer Prize Finalist in Drama, Yellowman.
Margaret Allison Bonds was an American composer, pianist, arranger, and teacher. One of the first Black composers and performers to gain recognition in the United States, she is best remembered today for her popular arrangements of African-American spirituals and frequent collaborations with Langston Hughes.
David Thompson is an American writer, playwright, and producer. His notable theater productions include Chicago, The Scottsboro Boys, The Prince of Broadway, and New York, New York.
The White Barn Theatre was a theater founded in 1947 by actress and producer Lucille Lortel on her property in the Cranbury neighborhood in Norwalk, Connecticut. The theater premiered numerous plays by established playwrights that often continued to successful Broadway and Off-Broadway runs.
James Theodore Ward was a leftist political playwright and theatre educator during the first half of the 20th century and one of the earliest contributors to the Black Chicago Renaissance. Often referred to as the "dean of black dramatists," Ward was well known for tackling controversial topics related to African-American urban life during the Great Depression. His staged works were lauded for their innovative depiction of the black experience, most notably for doing away with the spiritual ballads and feverish dancing that dominated "Negro theatricals" of his time in favor of a more nuanced, naturalistic approach to plot and character.
Mary Willa "Mamie" Gummer is an American actress. She starred in the title role of The CW series Emily Owens, M.D. (2012–2013), and played the recurring role of Nancy Crozier on The Good Wife (2010–2015) and its spin-off, The Good Fight (2018). She has also appeared in the films Evening (2007), Side Effects (2013), Cake (2014), and Ricki and the Flash (2015). Gummer was nominated for the 2016 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actress in a Play for the original production of Ugly Lies the Bone. She is the daughter of Don Gummer and Meryl Streep.
Douglas Hughes is an American theatre director.
Connie's Inn was a Harlem, New York City, black and tan nightclub established in 1923 by Connie Immerman (né Conrad Immerman; 1893–1967) in partnership with two of his brothers, George (1884–1944) and Louie Immerman (1882–1955).
Graham Brown was an American actor known for his work in theatre.
Judd Woldin was an American composer, most notable for his musical Raisin.
Lewis Grandison Alexander was an African American poet, actor, playwright, and costume designer who lived in Washington, D.C., and had strong ties to the Harlem Renaissance period in New York. Alexander focused most of his time and creativity on poetry, and it is for this that he is best known.
Billie Allen was an American actress, theater director, dancer and entertainer. Allen was one of the first black actors and performers to appear on television and stage in the United States, at a time when those venues were largely closed to African Americans. During the 1950s, Allen became one of the first black entertainers to have a recurring role on network television when she was cast as a WAC on staff on the CBS army base comedy The Phil Silvers Show, from 1955 to 1959. She was one of the first African Americans to appear on television commercials in the U.S. She was also one of the earliest African American actors on daytime soap operas as she appeared in the mid-1950s as the character Ada Chandler on the popular daytime soap opera The Edge of Night. Allen was also known for her work on Broadway and off Broadway.
C. Kelly Wright is an actress, singer, and dancer. She has performed in Off-Broadway musicals and plays in New York City and in television and film in the U.S. and internationally. She is known for the development of new works in theater. She appeared in the world premieres of A Little Princess and Memphis. She has worked with new works from Marcus Gardley, Katori Hall, Imani Harrington, Mike Jones, Victor Lodato, Nina Mercer, Robert O'Hara, and Venus Opal Reese. She was an AUDELCO Award nominee for Best Supporting Actress. In film she is known for her performance in Black Nativity, Angel Wishes: Journey of a Spiritual Healer, and Everyday Black Man.
Valerie "Val" Vigoda is an American electric violinist and singer-songwriter. She is best known for writing and starring in musicals including Striking 12 and Ernest Shackleton Loves Me, the latter of which opened Off-Broadway in 2017, touring internationally with Cyndi Lauper, Joe Jackson, and the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, and for her one-woman concert "Just Getting Good" which has toured nationally.
Stella Holt was an American theater producer. She served as managing director of the off-Broadway Greenwich Mews Theater in New York City for 15 years.