Yvonne Huff and Morocco Omari in the Victory Gardens
Theater production
of Knock Me a Kiss. Photo by Liz Lauren.
Knock Me a Kiss
Originally produced by Victory Gardens Theater in Chicago in
January of 2000, Knock Me a Kiss is a fictional account inspired
by the actual events surrounding the 1928 marriage of W.E.B.
Du Bois's daughter Yolande to one of Harlem's great poets, Countee
Cullen. The marriage marked the height of the Harlem Renaissance
and was viewed as the perfect union of Negro talent and beauty.
It united the daughter of America's foremost black intellectual,
cofounder of the NAACP and publisher of Crisis Magazine, with
a young poet whose work was considered to be one of the flagships
for the New Negro movement.
The play opens as jazz bandleader, Jimmy Lunceford, pursues a
willing but apprehensive Yolande. She demurs, insisting that
she and Jimmy be married in a manner consistent with her stature.
Meanwhile, Du Bois tries to convince Countee Cullen to take a
wife of great breeding, stature and education. When Countee realizes
that Yolande appears to possess all of the attributes outlined
by the elder Du Bois, he sets out to win her affection. When
Yolande is forced to choose between her passion for Jimmy and
marrying Countee, her overwhelming devotion to her father overpowers
her heart.
The marriage is a triumph of pomp and pageantry, but fails to
be a union of man and woman. Finally, Yolande and Countee go
their separate ways: Countee travels to Paris with his close
friend Harold Jackman and Yolande goes back to Jimmy only to
find that she is no longer wanted.
Hedy Weiss of the Chicago Sun-Times said of Knock Me a Kiss, “In one blistering
scene after another – with dialogue that is alternately highly poetic,
down-and-dirty, eerily disturbing and fiercely authoritarian – Smith exposes
the lies and the blazing truths that animate his characters.”
Knock Me a Kiss is available through Dramatic Publishing,
is included in Best New Plays of 2000, published by
Smith & Kraus, and is currently under film option.
Production Requirements:
Cast requirements: 3 men, 3 women.
Set requirements: Unit Set, various locations.
Approximate running time: 2 hours
Production History:
• Victory Gardens Theater, Chicago, 2000
-Nominated for the 2000 Joseph Jefferson Award for Best New Work
-Awarded the 2000 Black Theater Alliance Award for Best New Work
