PHILLIP HAYES DEAN
Biography
Philip Hayes Dean was born in Chicago on January 17, 1931 and grew up there and in Pontiac, Michigan. His first brush with the theater was in the Detroit suburb of Bloomfield Hills. Dean acted on Broadway in the 1955 production of The Wisteria Trees and later segued into stage managing, then play writing, in New York and in regional theaters. His works include The Last American Dixieland Band, Freeman and The Sty of the Blind Pig. Time Magazine called Sty of the Blind Pig one of the best plays of 1971, and it received a prestigious Drama Desk Award the same year. (Full Bio)
Plays
THIS BIRD OF DAWN SIGNETH ALL NIGHT LONG (1968)
Asleep in her apartment in the wee hours of the morning, Anne, a white woman, is jarred awake by a ringing telephone, and then again and again, until she rips the cord from the wall in frustration. But then the ringing phone is replaced by a knock at the door, her insistent caller being a black woman—who claims that she is Anne’s twin sister, Nancy. Rattled and fearful, Anne tries to decoy her unwelcome visitor from the apartment, but Nancy stays. (Source)
Cast Requirement: 2 (2f)
Characters: Anne Jillett, Nancy Ferrett
Publication Info: The American Nightmare. Dramatists Play Service, 2007. (Link)
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The Bird of Dawning Singeth All Night Long was first presented by the American Place Theatre in New York City in 1968. The production was directed by Martin Fried; the set design was by Douglas W. Schmidt; the costume design was by Carrie Fishbein; and the lighting design was by Dennis Parichy. The original cast included:
- Anne Jillett - Leora Dana
- Nancy Ferrett - Billie Allen
THUNDER IN THE INDEX (1969)
The action takes place in the psychiatric ward of a large city hospital, where Joshua Noon, a hip young black man, lies bound in a straitjacket. His pleas to be unshackled lead to a sharp, funny and exacerbating verbal duel with the attending physician, Dr. Goldberg, in which the disparate and perhaps irreconcilable worlds of the two men are brought vividly into focus. But, ironically, the self-assured Dr. Goldberg is ultimately revealed to be an escaped patient himself, which leaves, in the end, the question: Who is really mad, the kept or the keeper? (Source)
Cast Requirement: 5 (1f, 4m)
Characters: Joshua Noon, Dr. Samuel Goldberg, Nurse Sally Towers, First Attendant, Second Attendant
Publication Info: The American Nightmare. Dramatists Play Service, 2007. (Link)
The Sty of the Blind Pig (1971)
The place is Chicago’s south side and the time is the 1950s, just before the civil rights movement began to burgeon. Alberta, unmarried and in her thirties, shares an apartment with her mother, Weedy, an old-fashioned black woman who finds solace for her troubles in religion. Their constant visitor is Uncle Do, a sporty, down-on-his-luck gambling man who is the despair of his strait-laced sister, Weedy. Then, unexpectedly, a wandering street singer, Blind Jordan, comes to their door, searching for a woman he once knew. The others are puzzled and even frightened by their visitor, but Alberta offers to help him in his quest, and when they are alone, all the emotional and sexual frustration struggling within her bursts forth in a scene of tremendous eloquence and power. Out of the unsettling nature of their encounter comes estrangement between mother and daughter, which subsides to an uneasy truce when Blind Jordan departs—leaving behind an awareness of much that has been lost or changed, and of greater change still to come. (Source)
Cast Requirements: 4 (2f, 2m)
Characters: Weedy, Doc, Alberta Warren, Blind Jordan
Publication Info: The Sty of the Blind Pig and Other Plays. Bobbs-Merrill, 1973. (Link)
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The Sty of the Blind Pig was first presented by the Negro Ensemble Company at the St. Mark’s Playhouse in 1971. It was directed by Shauneille Perry; the setting was by Edward Burbidge; lighting was by Ernest Baxter; and the sound was by Chuck Vincenet. The cast included:
- Weedy Warren - Clarice Taylor
- Doc - Adolph Caesar
- Alberta Warren - Frances Foster
- Blind Jordan - Moses Gunn
The Owl Killer (1971)
Conditioned by a lifetime of resigned acceptance, Noah Hamilton can only turn against his renegade son, Lamar, who has killed and mutilated a man and is now in hiding. A petty tyrant, who compensates for his own frustrations, Noah rules his family by fear, turning a deaf ear to the pleas of his wife, Emma, and of his daughter, Stella Mae, whom he banished from his home because of her adulterous behavior. Determined to destroy all vestiges of his son’s presence, Noah destroys the stuffed owls that Lamar has collected—a symbolic act which also seeks to obliterate the deep-seated guilt he feels over his long-held dislike for his wife and children. Yet penance is inevitable, with the ultimate sacrifice demanded to redeem a soul scarred by so many years of compromise and battered pride. (Source)
Cast Requirement: 3 (2f, 1m)
Characters: Noah Hamilton, Emma Hamilton, Stella Mae
Publication Info: Moloch Blues: The Owl Killer and Dink’s Blues. Dramatists Play Service, 1996. (Link)
DREAM OF PASSION (1972)
Returning home late from a disastrous out-of-town appearance, Rainbow Rivers wakens his wife, Cayella, from her nightmare-ridden sleep. Their conversation soon moves toward memories of the powerful show business figure who has so dominated them both, in body and spirit, that they will never be truly free until they exorcize, once and for all, the lingering uncertainties and fears that still bind them to him even now, when the years of success have gone by. (Source)
Cast Requirement: 2 (1f, 1m)
Characters: Rainbow Rivers, Cayella Rivers
Publication Info: The American Nightmare. Dramatists Play Service, 2007. (Link)
Freeman (1973)
Freeman Aquila is a young black man, son of an industrious foundry worker and a practical nurse, who is trapped not so much by the color of his skin as by the complexities of his nature. Spurning the conventional routes to possible 'success' in a white-dominated world, Freeman pursues an independent, free-wheeling course through attempts at politics and real estate schemes—only to be frustrated at every turn. Freeman’s disturbing ambitions are curbed not only by the local establishment, but also by his own family and friends; his weary, middle-class parents, who are fearful of jeopardizing all that their years of resigned acceptance have brought them; his boyhood friend, Rex, now a successful doctor, who has gained power and wealth through 'practical' compromise; and his pregnant wife, Osa Lee, who yearns only for security and a home of her own. Inevitably Freeman’s dogged persistence brings on a crisis. He is clearly in the right, yet he must also lose—as does society as a whole. (Source)
Cast Requirement: 5 (2f, 3m)
Characters: Teresa Aquila, Ned Aquila, Osa Lee Aquila, Freeman Aquila, Rex Coleman
Publication Info: Freeman. Alexander Street Press, 2002. (Link)*
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Freeman was first presented by the American Place Theatre in New York City in 1973. The production was directed by Lloyd Richards; the set was by Douglas Higgins; lighting was by Shirley Pendergast; costumes by Bernard Johnson; and the special music was composed by William S. Fischer. The cast included:
- Teresa Aquila - Estelle Evans
- Ned Aquila - Dotts Johnson
- Osa Lee Aquila - Marjorie Barnes
- Freeman Aquila - Bill Cobbs
- Rex Coleman - J.A. Preston
DINK’S BLUES (1973)
When Dink comes to visit his friend Fish House Fats, he is already drunk, and it is very late. There at Fish’s home “establishment” Dink makes himself too much at home, and soon Fish realizes that Dink is talking to someone not in the room. Dink sinks slowly into a crushing remorse and reveals the belief that he killed the woman he loved in a car crash twenty years ago. She’s been coming to him lately, talking with him, calling him, and he knows it’s only a matter of time before he joins her. Fish, discovering a brotherly sensation he didn’t know he had, tries to keep Dink sane and at the house, feeling he’d do harm to himself if he left. After awhile, however, they both know Dink must face his demons alone, and willing to do so, Dink departs, leaving Fish to hope for the best for his friend and with the lesson to pay more attention to the love he finds at home. (Source)
Cast Requirement: 3 (1f, 2m)
Characters: Fish House Fats, Dink, Stella’s Voice, Juke Box Voice
Publication Info: Moloch Blues: The Owl Killer and Dink’s Blues. Dramatists Play Service, 1996. (Link)
Every Night When the Sun Goes Down (1974)
Set in a seedy hotel of a black neighborhood in a Midwestern city, the play introduces a series of finely drawn representative characters: a pimp who sends his girl out on the street to earn money for his drugs; the light-skinned dancer whose husband, now in jail, once owned the hotel and ran the rackets which prey on them all; the cynical go-getter who has taken over the hotel; a black cop who has learned to see only what he wants to see; a shuffling cleanup man who drowns his disappointments in booze; and an imperious older woman who demands she be treated like a lady despite her frayed finery. It is the interaction of their lives, in the hotel and on the “Square” outside, that forms the moving and revealing core of the play—a core which is suddenly beset with tension and unnamed fear when Blood, the former racket boss, returns unexpectedly. The various characters reveal the truth about themselves, coming to the greater truth they all must now comprehend: the need to stop destroying themselves and to destroy, instead, the terrible environment which, through their acceptance, has kept them all in thrall. (Source)
Cast Requirement: 8 (3f, 5m)
Characters: Sneeky Pete, Blood, Caldonia, Pretty Eddie, Ballerina, Clean Sam, Jericho, Cockeyed Rose
Publication Info: Every Night When the Sun Goes Down. Alexander Street Press, 2002. (Link)*
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Every Night When the Sun Goes Down was first presented by The American Place Theatre in New York City in 1976. The production was directed by Gilbert Moses; the scenery was designed by Kert Lundell; lighting was by Richard Nelson; costumes were by Judy Dearing; the sound design was by Jerry Kornbluth; and the instrumental music was arranged and adapted by Howard Roberts. The cast for this production included:
- Sneaky Pete - Joe Seneca
- Blood - Frank Adu
- Caldonia - Marge Eliot
- Pretty Eddie - Roscoe Orman
- Ballerina - Marki Bey
- Clean Sam - Richard Ward
- Jericho - Norman Matlock
- Cockeyed Rose - Billie Allen
Paul Robeson (1978)
A powerful chronicle of the life of Paul Robeson, taking us from his childhood in New Jersey to his adult life around the world. An All-American athlete and a lawyer with Columbia Law School credentials, Robeson faces the racism prevalent in society in the early part of the twentieth century. He strives to rise above, and it is his triumph in that struggle that turns Robeson into a modern day hero. Realizing the racist system would not allow him to practice as a lawyer, Robeson turns to singing, something he had learned well in the church choir. His singing leads to acting and his acting, with all the accolades due a master, leads him around the world. But every place he visits he sees the strains of racism in its many forms. The more he sees, the more he speaks out, using his influence and stature to try and enlighten those around him. After some time in Europe, he returns to the United States to perform and speak out about the injustices in the country he loves. Confronting racism again, he sticks to his values, adhering to no party line, but is accused of being a Communist, an agitator and much more. He is blacklisted and his passport is revoked, but he goes on speaking out whenever he can. For eight years he fights to clear his name. Finally, the social climate begins to change and towards the end of his life, Robeson’s passport is reinstated along with some of the glory and respect he earned along the way. (Source)
Cast Requirement: 2 (2m)
Characters: Paul Robeson, Lawrence Brown
Publication Info: Black Heroes: Seven Plays. Applause Theatre Book Publishers, New York, 1989. (Link)*
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Paul Robeson was originally produced on Broadway by Don Gregory at the Helen Hayes Theatre in 1979. The production was directed by Charles Nelson Reilly and Lloyd Richards with a cast that included:
- Paul Robeson - James Earl Jones
- Lawrence Brown - Burt Wallace
UNPUBLISHED
If You Can't Sing, They'll Make You Dance (1978)
If You Can't Sing, They'll Make You Dance is about a bickering black couple and the white social worker who tries to solve their problems. (Source)
Cast Requirement: 3 (2f, 1m)
Characters: Gloria, Dee Dee, Yuseff
Publication Info: N/A
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If You Can’t Sing, They’ll Make You Dance was presented by the W.P.A. Theater in 1978. The production was directed by Phillip Hayes Dean; setting by Julie Juracek; lighting by Craig Evans; costumes by Judy Dearing. The cast for this production included:
- Gloria - Marge Eliot
- Dee Dee - Patricia O'Toole
- Yuseff - Frank Adu