Ann Flagg

In 1966, she spent a year teaching drama at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, but health problems and racist colleagues prompted her to return to Evanston the next year. She died suddenly of an attack of bronchial emphysema in 1970.

From 1961 to 1963 she was enrolled in the master's degree program in theater at Northwestern University. While there she finished her most famous play, Great Gettin' up Mornin', in 1963, which won first prize in the Samuel French annual National Collegiate Playwriting Contest. The contest brought the play to the attention of the show CBS Repertoire Workshop, which produced and aired the play in 1964, starring Nichelle Nichols and Don Marshall. In January of that year, Flagg was flown out to Hollywood to assist with script changes, rehearsal, and production.

In 1952, she became director of the Children's Theater at Karamu House, a prestigious, integrated experimental theater in Cleveland, Ohio, where over the next nine years she cast, directed, and produced numerous plays and ballets with children. Colleagues called her classroom "The Magic Carpet Room" because it contained "magic that lifted minds and hearts to mountain tops." She also appeared as an actress in adult plays, including Antigone and Lysistrata, where her performances were lauded.

In 1941, she graduated from Garnet High School, where she excelled in drama and participated in the West Virginia State College summer theater program. She then attended West Virginia State College, graduating magna cum laude in 1945 with an education degree. At WVSC, she joined the West Virginia State Players and served as their president for a semester, appearing in plays like The Shining Hour and The Little Foxes.

Ann Kathryn Flagg (April 29, 1924 – October 27, 1970) was an American playwright, stage actress and drama teacher, whose works deal with the 19th and 20th century African-American experience. She is best known for her play Great Gettin' up Mornin', aired by CBS television in 1964.

Ann Flagg was born on April 29, 1924 in Charleston, West Virginia to Frances Thomas and Francis Flagg, young parents who split up during Flagg's childhood.