Alice Childress was born 12 October 1920 in Charleston, South Carolina, but grew up in Harlem where she attended grade school and two years of high school. Her grandmother, a great storyteller, first aroused her interest in theatre and the world of make-believe. Hearing Laura Bowman recite scenes from Shakespeare inspired Childress to become an actress. In 1941 she joined the American Negro Theatre in Harlem with which she performed for eleven years. One of her first roles was Titania in Shakespeare's A Midsummer-Night's Dream. She also performed in John Silvera and Abram Hill's On Strivers Row in 1940, Theodore Browne's Natural Man in 1941, and Philip Yordan's Anna Lucasta in 1944. In 1949 she wrote the one-act play Florence, which was first performed in a Harlem loft that barely seated twenty-five people but which excited critical acclaim and launched Childress's writing career.

Although essentially Childress educated herself, she received a Harvard appointment as playwright...