A Study Guide for Emily Mann's "Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters' First 100 Years"

By Gale and Cengage

A Study Guide for Emily Mann's "Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters' First 100 Years," excerpted from Gale's acclaimed Drama For Students. This concise study guide includes plot summary; character analysis; author biography; study questions; historical context; suggestions for further reading; and much more. For any literature project, trust Drama For Students for all of your research needs.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Cengage Learning - Gale
• Release date: Aug 12, 2016
• ISBN: 9781535824576

Book preview

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Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters' First 100 Years

Emily Mann

1995

Introduction

Emily Mann's drama Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters' First 100 Years opened at the McCarter Theater in Princeton, New Jersey, on February 7, 1995. Mann's play is an adaptation of the 1991 book of the same name, written by sisters Sadie and Bessie Delany. After a month of preview performances, Having Our Say opened on Broadway at the Booth Theatre on April 6, 1995, where the play continued a successful run until closing December 31, 1995.

Having Our Say is a three-act play. The play consists of dialogue between the two African American sisters, recalling their lives over the previous 100-plus years. The play is constructed as a testimony, in which the two sisters give evidence about their lives, crediting their father and mother for the inspiration that led to their individual successes in life. The sisters welcome the audience into their home, where they proceed to speak to and entertain the audience with stories, photographs, and other memorabilia. Significant themes include racism, Jim Crow laws, strength of character, and determination. Mann received 1995 Tony Award nominations for best play and best director for Having Our Say. Mary Alice, who played the role of Dr. Bessie Delany in Having Our Say, was nominated for best actress. Mann's play was also nominated for an Outer Critics Circle Award and a Drama Desk Award in 1995 and received a Hull-Warriner Award, given by the Dramatists Guild of America, for the 1995 production.

Author Biography

Mann was born on April 12, 1952, to Arthur and Sylvia Mann. Mann and her sister, Carol, were raised in Northampton, Massachusetts, where their father was a history professor at Smith College. Mann graduated from Radcliffe College in 1974, with a bachelor of arts degree in literature. In 1976, she earned a master of fine arts degree at the University of Minnesota. Mann's first play, Annulla: An Autobiography, was produced at the Guthrie Theatre in Minneapolis in 1977. The following year, Mann was named associate director at the Guthrie, a position that she held until 1979. Her second play, Still Life: A Documentary (1980), won several Obie Awards.