Ann K Flagg
Drama, Creative Drama, Playwright, Director, Educator, Education Director, Actor, Youth Theatre
1924-1970
Years:
Affiliations:
Karamu House, Northwestern, Evanston School District 65, ANT
Cleveland, Chicago, Ohio, Illinois, Evanston
Locations:
Connections:
Ossie Davis, Moses Gilbert, Rose Lee Scott, Winifred Ward, Osceola Adams (Archer)
Ann K. Flagg, born in Charleston, West Virginia, on April 29, 1924, was an American playwright, stage actress, director, public school teacher, and teaching artist. Outside of her work as an educator, she’s known to have toured with the American Negro Repertory Players as a stage manager and actor in 1947. Flagg is also known for her work as a director at Karamu House in Cleveland, where she integrated children's theatre from 1952 to 1961. Her efforts impacted many well-known Black theatre artists (Moses Gilbert, Rose Lee Scott).
Ann's classroom at Karamu was often called the “Magic Carpet Room” and her “pillow circle” where “children would…take a pillow from a large hamper in the corner and each child would sit on the pillow while Flagg or an older member of Student Theatre read to the group: Sometimes we would read to each other, or ourselves and then we would act out the stories” (Abookire, 191).
Flagg attended Northwestern University for graduate school, studying with Winifred Ward and earning her master's degree in playwriting. During this time, she also taught drama in Evanston schools. She is best known for her play "Great Gettin' up Mornin'," which aired on CBS television in 1964. In 1966, Flagg began teaching playwriting at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale. However, due to her intersectional identities as a Black woman and someone navigating long-term illness/disability, this appointment lasted only one year. She returned to Evanston, where she taught until 1970. Ann K. Flagg passed away that year after experiencing an acute attack of bronchial emphysema.
"...the most remarkable teacher of creative drama we ever had in Evanston: Ann Flagg." - Winifred Ward in Children and Drama.
