Samm-Art Williams

Samm-Art Williams (January 20, 1946 – May 13, 2024) was an American playwright and screenwriter, and a stage and film/TV actor.

Quotes

 * The Vietnam War was raging at that particular time, so I wanted to do a positive play about a country character who was yearning for his home, as I was doing at Christmas…I drew on my experience growing up in the country - plowing mules, cropping tobacco, bootleggers, going to church. The rest was my imagination. I wanted to do something that could be performed on the streets - I love street theater. And I wanted my character to have a conscience.
 * On what inspired him to write the play Home in “Lyrical, Uplifting HOME by Samm-Art Williams Comes to ICT” in Broadway World: Los Angeles (2017 Sep 15)


 * I am more interested in how the human being approaches the issue instead of trying to write about the issue itself because we really know what the issues are in this life regardless of what we’re talking about…
 * On centering his plays around human beings rather than social issues (as quoted in the book African American Dramatists: An A-to-Z Guide; 2004)


 * I would like to see a character make his stand on what he things [sic] about it because that way I think I can get into the humanness of people, and that’s really where my head is.
 * On having the character actively address certain issues (as quoted in the book African American Dramatists: An A-to-Z Guide; 2004)