Obituary:
Dr. Shine was a dramatist, television scriptwriter, educator, and contributor to the Black Arts movement and regional theater. Soon after Ted (Theodis) Shine’s birth in Baton Rouge, he and his family moved to Dallas where he grew up. Ted joined Munger Avenue Baptist Church as a child and remained a faithful member for the rest of his life. He attended Jay W . Ray Elementary, BF Darrell, and Booker T Washington. At Howard University he was encouraged to pursue satiric playwriting by Owen Dodson. His play Sho Is Hot in the Cotton Patch was produced at Howard in 1951. Graduating in 1953, Ted studied at the Karamu Theatre in Cleveland on a Rockefeller Grant through 1955 and then served two years in the army. Earning his MA at the University of Iowa in 1958, he began his career as a teacher of drama at Dillard University in 1960, moving to Howard University from 1961to 1967, and then settling at Prairie View A & M University where he became a professor and head of the drama department.
In 1964 Ted wrote Morning, Noon and Night, first produced at Howard University, which awarded it the Brooks-Hines Award and contributed to the Black Arts movement and regional theater.
In 1970 Ted’s 1969 plays, Shoes, and Contribution were produced and published together along with Plantation under the title Contributions. Strikingly different in theme, setting, and characterization, they collectively demonstrate Ted’s skill in creating realistic, meaningful plot twists, and thought-filled commentary on the black/human condition.
From 1969 to 1973 Ted wrote over sixty scripts for the Maryland Center for Public Broadcasting’s Our Street series while earning his doctorate from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 1971. The 1974 seminal anthology Black Theater USA, with Ted as a consultant to editor James V. Hatch, includes his play Herbert III This play, like those preceding and following it, displays his shining contribution to contemporary black theater. Throughout the years Ted has received numerous recognitions and awards most recently being inducted into the Texas Institute of Letters.
The family requests that visiting hours be observed from 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM, on Friday, June 29, 2018, at Restland Funeral Home. There will be a funeral service to Mr. Shine beginning at 9:30 AM on Saturday, June 30, 2018, in the Abbey Chapel at Restland Funeral Home, with interment to follow in Restland Cemetery.
Funeral arrangements have been faithfully entrusted to Restland Funeral Home and Cemetery, located at 13005 Greenville Ave, Dallas, Texas 75243, and can be reached at (972) 238-7111.
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