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173 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Many individuals and institutions contributed to the creation of this book. I would like to thank Lou Bellamy, Sarah Bellamy, and Chris Widdess from Penumbra Theatre Company for their openness and willingness to support this project in many ways, including access to the interviews in the August Wilson Lab and to the Penumbra Archives in the Archie Givens Sr. Collection of African American Literature at the University of Minnesota. Thank you to Timothy Johnson and the University of Minnesota Special Collections Library for facilitating my archival research, and to Shannon Walsh from Penumbra for her assistance with the production history and illustrations. I thank the University of the Pacific for a Pacific Grant to conduct research, and I am grateful to my colleagues in the theatre arts department for their support and encouragement: Gary Armagnac, Tara Colt, Randall Enlow, Kathleen Lowe, Cathie McClellan, Lisa Tromovitch, Gary Scheiding, and Derrick Stanley. Thanks to all of the senior faculty involved in the joint junior faculty publication workshop of the Association for Theatre in Higher Education and the American Society for Theatre Research for invaluable feedback at a nascent stage of this book’s development, as well as to Sonja Kuftinec, who graciously read and commented on an early draft. A big thank you to all of the individuals whom I interviewed: Lou Bellamy, Carlyle Brown, Dorothea Burns, Laurie Carlos, James Craven, Phyllis Rawls Goff, Seitu Jones, Robbie McCauley, Rohan Preston, Dominic Taylor, Stew and Chris Widdess, and James A. Williams. Others gave permission for their interviews with Sarah 174 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Bellamy to be cited: Marvette Knight Andrews, Estelene Bell, Terry Bellamy, Tonia Jackson, Marion McClinton, Sanford Moore, Faye M. Price, and Abdul Salaam El Razzac. Thank you for the presence of your articulate and insightful voices. I thank my family and friends, especially Andreas Franz, for reading numerous drafts of the manuscript as it was being revised. Robin Mahala, Joe Zavoral, Maceo Johnson, Molly and Nick Balcom Raleigh, and Sheila Regan assisted in the coordination of various mailings and travel arrangements. Finally, I thank Todd Orjala, Kristian Tvedten, and the University of Minnesota Press for believing in this book and stewarding me through the publication process. Theatre is a collective effort, and a book about theatre is the result of many people working together to create something larger than any single person could possibly achieve alone. ...

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