The Black Plays Archive (2013 to present)

The Black Plays Archive (BPA) was founded in 2013 by playwright and director Kwame Kwei-Armah. It is resourced and managed by the National Theatre Archive team and is a rich resource of information and inspiration documenting more than 850 plays and the work of over 300 writers. The earliest recorded play in the archive is The Lily of Bermuda which we covered on Day 19.

It is not a physical archive but an online catalogue listing the first professional production of scripted plays written by Black British, African and Caribbean playwrights. The entry for each play provides the basic information about where the play was performed, the creative team, venue and and details of published texts or physical records relating to the play to help people discover more about it. It was a crucial source of information for our Black Theatre History Month project and we have referred to it in lots of the posts.

As well as providing basic catalogue information, the BPA also offers short audio extracts of plays directed and recorded especially for the project. It includes work by some of the writers we have been looking at during Black Theatre History Month including Kwame Kwei-Armah, Alfred Fagon, Winsome Pinnock and Roy Williams. You can access the whole list here.

There are also essays and interviews about Black Theatre History and Resources for Teachers.

Resources

That Black Theatre Podcast hosted by Nadia and Nadine Deller. I particularly recommend the ones with Winsome Pinnock and director Ola Ince who is very eloquent on the importance of the Black Plays Archive.