The Green Pastures (1929)
THE GREEN PASTURES
BY MARC CONNELLY
The Wisdom Tooth
WITH GEORGE S. KAUFMAN
Dulcy
To the Ladies
Merton of the Movies
Beggar on Horseback
THE
GREEN PASTURES
A Fable
SUGGESTED BY ROARK BRADFORD’S SOUTHERN
SKETCHES, “OL’ MAN ADAM AN’ HIS CHILLUN”
by
MARC CONNELLY
FARRAR & RINEHART, Incorporated
NEW YORK
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
CAUTION: Professionals and amateurs are hereby warned that “The Green Pastures”, being fully protected under the copyright laws of the United States of America, the British Empire, including the Dominion of Canada, and all other countries of the Copyright Union, is subject to a royalty. All rights, including professional, amateur, motion pictures, recitation, public reading, radio broadcasting, and the rights of translation into foreign languages are strictly reserved. In its present form this play is dedicated to the reading public only. All inquiries regarding this play should be addressed to the author in care of the publishers.
COPYRIGHT, 1929, BY MARC CONNELLY
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
TO MY MOTHER
CHARACTERS
| Mr. Deshee, the Preacher | First Gambler |
| Myrtle | Second Gambler |
| First Boy | Voice in Shanty |
| Second Boy | Noah |
| First Cook | Noah’s Wife |
| A Voice | Shem |
| Second Cook | First Woman |
| First Man Angel | Second Woman |
| First Mammy Angel | Third Woman |
| A Stout Angel | First Man |
| A Slender Angel | Flatfoot |
| Archangel | Ham |
| Gabriel | Japheth |
| God | First Cleaner |
| Choir Leader | Second Cleaner |
| Custard Maker | Abraham |
| Adam | Isaac |
| Eve | Jacob |
| Cain | Moses |
| Cain’s Girl | Zipporah |
| Zeba | Aaron |
| Cain the Sixth | A Candidate Magician |
| Boy Gambler | Pharaoh |
| General | King of Babylon |
| Head Magician | Prophet |
| First Wizard | High Priest |
| Second Wizard | Corporal |
| Joshua | Hezdrel |
| First Scout | Second Officer |
| Master of Ceremonies |
SCENES
| Part I | |
| 1. | The Sunday School |
| 2. | A Fish Fry |
| 3. | A Garden |
| 4. | Outside the Garden |
| 5. | A Roadside |
| 6. | A Private Office |
| 7. | Another Roadside and a House |
| 8. | A House |
| 9. | A Hillside |
| 10. | A Mountain Top |
| Part II | |
| 1. | The Private Office |
| 2. | The Mouth of a Cave |
| 3. | A Throne Room |
| 4. | The Foot of a Mountain |
| 5. | A Cabaret |
| 6. | The Private Office |
| 7. | Outside a Temple |
| 8. | Another Fish Fry |
The following is a copy of the program of the first performance of “The Green Pastures,” as presented at the Mansfield Theatre, New York City, Wednesday evening, February 26th, 1930:
Laurence Rivers presents
THE GREEN PASTURES
A FABLE
by
Marc Connelly
Settings by Robert Edmond Jones
Music under the direction of Hall Johnson
Play staged by the Author
“The Green Pastures” was suggested by Roark Bradford’s Southern Sketches, “Ol’ Man Adam an’ His Chillun”
CAST OF CHARACTERS
(In the order of their appearance)
| Mr. Deshee | Charles H. Moore | |
| Myrtle | Alicia Escamilla | |
| First Boy | Jazzlips Richardson, Jr. | |
| Second Boy | Howard Washington | |
| Third Boy | Reginald Blythwood | |
| Randolph | Joe Byrd | |
| A Cook | Frances Smith | |
| Custard Maker | Homer Tutt | |
| First Mammy Angel | Anna Mae Fritz | |
| A Stout Angel | Josephine Byrd | |
| A Slender Angel | Edna Thrower | |
| Archangel | J. A. Shipp | |
| Gabriel | Wesley Hill | |
| The Lord | Richard B. Harrison | |
| Choir Leader | McKinley Reeves | |
| Adam | Daniel L. Haynes | |
| Eve | Inez Richardson Wilson | |
| Cain | Lou Vernon | |
| Cain’s Girl | Dorothy Randolph | |
| Zeba | Edna M. Harris | |
| Cain the Sixth | James Fuller | |
| Boy Gambler | Louis Kelsey | |
| First Gambler | Collington Hayes | |
| Second Gambler | Ivan Sharp | |
| Voice in Shanty | Josephine Byrd | |
| Noah | Tutt Whitney | |
| Noah’s Wife | Susie Sutton | |
| Shem | Milton J. Williams | |
| First Woman | Dinks Thomas | |
| Second Woman | Anna Mae Fritz | |
| Third Woman | Geneva Blythwood | |
| First Man | Emory Richardson | |
| Flatfoot | Freddie Archibald | |
| Ham | Homer Tutt | |
| Japheth | Stanleigh Morrell | |
| First Cleaner | Josephine Byrd | |
| Second Cleaner | Florence Fields | |
| Abraham | J. A. Shipp | |
| Isaac | Charles H. Moore | |
| Jacob | Edgar Burks | |
| Moses | Alonzo Fenderson | |
| Zipporah | Mercedes Gilbert | |
| Aaron | McKinley Reeves | |
| A Candidate Magician | Reginald Fenderson | |
| Pharaoh | George Randel | |
| The General | Walt McClane | |
| First Wizard | Emory Richardson | |
| Head Magician | Arthur Porter | |
| Joshua | Stanleigh Morrell | |
| First Scout | Ivan Sharp | |
| Master Of Ceremonies | Billy Cumby | |
| King of Babylon | Jay Mondaaye | |
| Prophet | Ivan Sharp | |
| High Priest | Homer Tutt | |
| The King’s Favorites | Leona Winkler | |
| Florence Lee | ||
| Constance Van Dyke | ||
| Mary Ella Hart | ||
| Ineze Persand | ||
| Officer | Emory Richardson | |
| Hezdrel | Daniel L. Haynes | |
| Another Officer | Stanleigh Morrell |
The Children
Philistine Bumgardner, Margery Bumgardner, Anothony Sylvester, Mary Sylvester, Fredia Longshaw, Wilbur Cohen, Jr., Verdon Perdue, Ruby Davis, Willmay Davis, Margerette Thrower, Viola Lewis
Angels and Townspeople
Amy Escamilla, Elsie Byrd, Benveneta Washington, Thula Ortiz, Ruth Carl, Geneva Blythwood
Babylonian Band
Carl Shorter, Earl Bowie, Thomas Russell, Richard Henderson
The Choir
Sopranos—Bertha Wright, Geraldine Gooding, Marie Warren, Mattie Harris, Elsie Thompson, Massie Patterson, Marguerite Avery
Altos—Evelyn Burwell, Ruthena Matson, Leona Avery, Mrs. Willie Mays, Viola Mickens, Charlotte Junius
Tenors—John Warren, Joe Loomis, Walter Hilliard, Harold Foster, Adolph Henderson, William McFarland, McKinley Reeves, Arthur Porter
Baritones—Marc D’ Albert, Gerome Addison, Walter Whitfield, D. K. Williams
Bassos—Lester Holland, Cecil McNair, Tom Lee, Walter Meadows, Frank Horace
The Author wishes to thank Alma Lillie Hubbard of New Orleans for assisting in the selection of the spirituals.
AUTHOR’S NOTE
“The Green Pastures” is an attempt to present certain aspects of a living religion in the terms of its believers. The religion is that of thousands of Negroes in the deep South. With terrific spiritual hunger and the greatest humility these untutored black Christians —many of whom cannot even read the book which is the treasure house of their faith—have adapted the contents of the Bible to the consistencies of their everyday lives.
Unburdened by the differences of more educated theologians they accept the Old Testament as a chronicle of wonders which happened to people like themselves in vague but actual places, and of rules of conduct, true acceptance of which will lead them to a tangible, three-dimensional Heaven. In this Heaven, if one has been born in a district where fish frys are popular, the angels do have magnificent fish frys through an eternity somewhat resembling a series of earthly holidays. The Lord Jehovah will be the promised comforter, a just but compassionate patriarch, the summation of all the virtues His follower has observed in the human beings about him. The Lord may look like the Reverend Mr. Dubois as our Sunday School teacher speculates in the play, or he may resemble another believer’s own grandfather. In any event, His face will be familiar to the one who has come for his reward.
The author is indebted to Mr. Roark Bradford, whose retelling of several of the Old Testament stories in “Ol’ Man Adam an’ His Chillun” first stimulated his interest in this point of view.
One need not blame a hazy memory of the Bible for the failure to recall the characters of Hezdrel, Zeba and others in the play. They are the author’s apocrypha, but he believes persons much like them have figured in the meditations of some of the old Negro preachers, whose simple faith he has tried to translate into a play.
This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published before January 1, 1930.
The longest-living author of this work died in 1980, so this work is in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 44 years or less. This work may be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works.
Public domainPublic domainfalsefalse