Three intriguing figures are currently treading our theatrical boards -- an idealistic teacher, expatriate musician and pioneering journalist. Matching them for charisma are the three actors who bring them to life, which, in the case of the two shows that are premieres, extends even to the writing.

And all six, the characters and the actors/authors, are black.

Three simultaneous solo shows about African Americans seems an extraordinary coincidence until you recall that February is Black History Month.

The plays are as different as their heroes, the eras they depict, the modes they use, their performances and the pleasures and emotions they generate.

The most accomplished of the three is "No Child ..." ("left behind" is implied) by Nilaja Sun, who has won awards performing it off-Broadway and around the country. A very assured production by Open Stage Theatre in the Strip is well directed by David Maslow and performed with variety and grit by Rita Gregory.

The central character of the idealistic theater artist who spends a six-week residency teaching marginal 10th-grade students at an embattled public school in the Bronx is named Miss Sun, a pretty clear sign that it's basically autobiographical. But that's already clear in the earnestness of its emotions and ideals.

Given a class many teachers would coddle with simplistic work, Miss Sun is determined to challenge it to stage a really difficult play, "No Country's Good." This grand Timberlake Wertenbaker drama about Royal Marines and transported convicts staging Farquhar's Restoration comedy,"The Recruiting Officer," in the wilds of 18th-century Australia, was done here by City Theatre in 1992 and Point Park in 2000. It's hard stuff for anyone, let alone these kids.

That's the point. "My Country's Good" is no harder for them than Farquhar is for the convicts. In each case there's a supposedly brutish group (convicts, students), their superiors (soldiers, teachers) and an enlightened risk-taker who believes, or at least hopes, that an encounter with art, or at least the hard work it entails, can be civilizing.

It goes without saying that Miss Sun and her kids succeed, demonstrating that "marginal" is in the eye of the beholder, suggesting that a fetish for testing negates the power of art. The play is heartening but also earnest to the extreme, turned from advocacy into 75 minutes of theater by being performed by one actor playing more than a dozen distinct roles, including teachers, students and even custodial staff.

Gregory is a dignified actor who reveals many more facets than I've ever seen. A simple but classy set, projections and sound effects all frame her well, such that the play's many levels really do come together in a compelling argument. But hurry: it closes Saturday.

At Open Stage Theater, 2835 Smallman St., Strip District, through Sat.; Thurs and Friday, 8 p.m.; Sat. 2 and 8 p.m.; $18-$20; 412-394-3353 or proartstickets.org.

The most ambitious of the trio is this staccato, many-angled portrait of a mid-century American jazz artist who grows up rural, achieves some renown in New York and finally flees American racism by immigrating to France -- as did many black artists, especially musicians.

Indeed, the events of Carter Freeman's life, both joyous and tragic, seem so plausible and familiar that you may convince yourself you've heard of him and might even ask the obliging playwright/performer, Herb New­some, whether or not he's still alive, in Paris or wherever. But the name is just too perfect, as the extra capital letter shows. However convincing and probing a biographical sketch this may be, and no matter how much of it is "true," it is also an emblem, a dramatic argument that only Carter can be a free man only when freed of the incessant pressure of American racism.

It wears that argument lightly, all the more because the story is so interesting as you piece it together out of jumbled reminiscences by Carter's family and friends and his own words. Newsome plays all these roles, a half dozen or more primary ones, differentiating them with just a touch of accent, a slight stoop or a hint of gravel or whine. He also plays trumpet (as does Carter), tenor sax, bass, piano and drums (as do the members of his combo) -- plays them for real, not just miming -- and he also plays Carter's mother, among others.

All of this is done with the simplest of acting touches, but it's always who is speaking. This minimalism is supported by fine video projections and sound effects. Obviously Newsome has been well served by his director, Michael Rosenthal.

Newsome has worked here before, mainly for Kuntu Rep. This is the premiere, and "FreeMan" is a little long at 100 intermissionless minutes. But with some pruning and a few more details to connect and anchor the story along the way, it should make a touring staple. It's already very touching, with some wonderful flashes of poetry and a jagged irony that lifts it above the merely cautionary or programmatic. There are a few scenes with August Wilson-like power and a final poem of Carter's that will make your eyes mist over.

At New Horizon Theater, Kelly-Strayhorn Theater, 5941 Penn Ave., East Liberty; through Sun.; Thurs.-Fri. 7:30 p.m., Sat. 3 and 7:30 p.m., Sun. 3 p.m.; $15-$20; 412-431-0773.

If "No Child ..." is inspirational autobiography and "FreeMan" is biographical fiction, "Martin Delany" is a more familiar form, historical re-creation. In 95 minutes (including intermission), playwright/performer Wali Jamal presents the life of Delany, born free in 1812 in Charles­town (then Virginia), up to the mid-1850s, as he is about to give up on America and move to Canada.

Delany walked north to Pittsburgh at age 19 and became a barber, an apprentice doctor, a novelist, a journalist, a publisher and one of the earliest proponents of the Back to Africa movement. Although Jamal focuses on his early life, Delany later helped American blacks immigrate to Liberia, was admitted to and ejected from Harvard, served as an officer to black troops in the Civil War, held government roles in South Carolina and much more.

Clearly Delany is a figure whom we ought to know, especially for his long residence and controversial causes in Pittsburgh. As a performer, Jamal gives him warmth and personality. If you give him a scene, he can play it: His account of a trip through the pre-Civil War slave states, protected by nothing but a paper asserting his freedom, is hair-raising, and his account of mentors and courtship and family matters is touching.

Jamal's many characters, male and female, provide variety, and director Marci Woodruff helps prune and shape. But author Jamal relies on too much narration, which sometimes moves too quickly, trying to cover too much, without enough signposts. The script needs further development. But as an introduction to a distinctive and important American, it already rewards attention.

By History's Flipside at Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre, 542 Penn Ave., Downtown; through Feb. 28; Thurs.-Fri. 8 p.m., Sat. 3 and 8 p.m., Sun. 3 p.m.; $12-$7; 412-394-3353.