Gospel According to James and Other Plays

Charles R. Smith is an award-winning playwright and member of the Playwrights Ensemble of the Tony Award–winning Victory Gardens Theater in Chicago. He is also Distinguished Professor of Theatre at Ohio University, where he heads the Professional Playwriting Program. His plays explore contemporary issues of race, identity, and politics in America.

"The strengths of Smith's theatre collection are numerous and exhilarating. His characters are original and surprising, often vexing and exasperating, but they each have their piece to contribute. Smith's dramas are persuasive without being didactic, and without suggesting simple conclusions. They are eloquent and poignant, but with a punch. Something like Carson McCullers without the malaise, or Spike Lee without the chatter. These are smart, profoundly felt, demanding scripts that refuse to pander to our expectations. The Gospel According to James and Other Plays belongs on the shelf of anyone with a sincere love for relevant, powerful theatre." (ForeWord Reviews) "History serves (Smith), and he serves history; such reciprocity grounds his narratives, gives it real stakes, and adds the gravitas of the broad sweep of our complex and often troubled American heritage. In return, Smith gives the history profoundly human meaning and an active purpose in contemporary life." (Rain Taxi) "In one blistering scene after another—with dialogue that is alternately highly poetic,down-and-dirty, eerily disturbing and fiercely authoritarian—Smith exposes the lies and the blazing truths that animate his characters."(Chicago Sun-Times, on Knock Me a Kiss) "A plot twist of his ownthat darkens even Twain'sdark humor."(New York Times, on Pudd'nhead Wilson)