"At the time I moved into acting seriously, here in New York, there were damned few jobs in the profession for anybody, black or white. I turned to writing out of expediency. I love the theater and I had to do something to stay in it," Charles Gordone wrote in the New York Times in 1970. In the same year he became the first black playwright to win the Pulitzer Prize,awarded for No Place To Be Somebody (1969), which was also the first play to win a Pulitzer before it moved to Broadway. Coming into professional prominence at a time when blacks were gaining acceptance in legitimate theatre, Gordone has spoken out strongly against the narrow concept of black theatre, stressing the importance of dealing with "the humanity of all people, the love of all people, the will to survive and the will to live--of all people--and the strength...