Biography

Born in 1942, raised in Jersey City, and educated at Skidmore and the Sorbonne, Kathleen Collins was an activist with SNCC during the Civil Rights Movement who went on to carve out a career for herself as a playwright and filmmaker during a time when Black women were rarely seen in those roles. She was married twice, and had two children who she raised in Piermont, New York. She died young, at age 46, from breast cancer. Her most known work is the film Losing Ground, followed perhaps by two plays, In the Midnight Hour, and The Brothers. A never-before released collection of short fiction, Whatever Happened to Interracial Love?, was published in 2016, followed in 2019 by Notes from a Black Woman's Diary: Selected Works of Kathleen Collins. (Full Bio)

Plays

THE BROTHERS (1982)

When Nelson’s career as a track star dries up, he exiles himself to his bed declaring the, "Negro life is void”, sending his family into a tail spin as they try to convince him of his worth. Set to the backdrop of the 1960’s with news of the death of Ghandi and Martin Luther King, Kathleen Collins's play The Brothers (1982) follows the life and saga of the Edwards brothers and is told through the females that loved them. As the men wrestle with the changing identity of the American Negro they set in motion a chain of events exposing the complex world of the women who have dedicated their lives to care for them. The play reveals a nest of desire and love veiled under societies shifting expectations of a Black woman's role.

Cast Requirement: 7 (6f, 1m)

Characters: Danielle Edwards, Marietta Edwards, Mr. Norrell, Lillie Edwards, Rosie Gould, Letitia Edwards, Caroline Edwards, The Doctor, Voice of Newscaster

Publication: 9 plays by Black women. Penguin Books USA Inc, 1986. (Link)

Notes from a black woman's diary: selected works of Kathleen Collins. HarperCollins, 2019. (Link)

In the Midnight Hour (1980)

This play takes place in the early 1960's and concerns itself with one night in the life of an upper class Black family, when the seeds of change and trauma that are to affect their lives come clearly into focus.

Cast Requirement: 7 (3f, 4m)

Characters: N/A

Publication: Women's Project: Seven New Plays by Women. Edited by Julia Miles. Performing Arts Journal Pubs, 1980. (Link)

BEGIN THE BEGUINE (1984)

Begin the Beguine, was written as a quartet of one-acts in 1984 (Remembrance, The Reading, Begin the Beguine, The Healing).

Publication: Notes from a black woman's diary: selected works of Kathleen Collins. Harper Collins, 2019. (Link)

Remembrance

Dedicated to Seret Scott. In Remembrance a woman approaching middle age addresses the audience directly. Atop a dresser, she has erected a simple shrine—a candle, a cross, a bouquet of flowers. She has begun to, in her words, find God. She is a dancer, a mother and a wife. In this one-act play the character seeks to locate herself and carve her own identity, away from those who threaten to swallow her up. The play takes place in an apartment in the present. (Source)

Cast Requirement: 1 (1f)

Characters: A Black woman in her late 30s.

The Reading

Two women—one white, one black—sit in a psychic’s waiting room. The black woman, Marguerite, is a fashion designer, and the white woman, Helen, is a novelist. There’s a candle that keeps going out: it stays lit only if one of the women sits before it in a lotus pose, stares at it “belligerently,” or meditates. (Source)

Cast Requirement: 3 (3f)

Characters: Marguerite Simpson, Helen Mills, The Woman

Begin the Beguine

A mother and son struggle to connect. The play, which takes place in the present in a space that resembles a park, is dedicated to the actress Ruby Dee and her son, performer Guy Davis.

Cast Requirement: 2 (1f, 1m)

Characters: A Young Man, An Older Woman

The Healing

A sick black woman, Ellen, has come to see Joe, a white healer who glides his hands around her body, applying “energy” to her illness. Sometimes he holds her feet to keep them “grounded.” Ellen implores him not to: the gesture reminds her too much of Christ washing the feet of his disciples. As Joe applies pressure to various regions of her body, she - witness to strange happenings but unequipped to interpret them - feels waves of relief and consolation, skeptic though she is. (Source)

Cast Requirement: 2 (1f, 1m)

Characters: Ellen, Joe

UNPUBLISHED

Almost Music (aka) Portrait of Katherine (1976)

Unpublished manuscript in the Kathleen Collins Scripts collection. (Link)

While Older Men Speak (1985)

Unpublished manuscript in the Kathleen Collins Scripts collection. (Link)

Looking for Jane (1988)

Unpublished manuscript in the Kathleen Collins Scripts collection. (Link)