BLACK SCENES

Fifteen scenes fruitfully excerpted from the plays of contemporary black dramatists, ""not selected as 'the best' or 'the first' of their kind, neither will they give you a cross-section...'; they're specifically compiled in response to ""the many requests for audition and class scene study material based upon Black experience"" -- and black experience, more than the individual complete script, superordinates as the context of each. Neither the absence of synopses nor the presence of stage directions restricts access; in fact they enlarge and recharge the moment respectively and make the collection very much a reading matter. Most familiar among the contributors (professional biographies appended) will be Ossie Davis (Purlie Victorious), Lorraine Hansberry (A Raisin in the Sun), Abbey Lincoln (better known as an actress), and Douglas Turner Ward, Artistic Director of the Negro Ensemble Company; nearly all have publication credits and/or theatre affiliations, including the editor, whose African Garden piece closes the book. And her introduction rounds it out, properly lauding the heritage of black playwrights and lamenting their lack of opportunity and recognition; complete with a thoughtful list of complementary anthologies, it's a tall assembly and a surprisingly yielding resource.