4/23/13- African-American Theatre

What constitutes it?
-writer? story? characters? actors? audience? producing theatre?

Samuel Hay's Two General Directions
1. The Black Experience

• characters off the streets, out of joints and drives
• themes directed towards African-Americans
• language of ordinary folks dressed up with poetry, music & dance

2. The Black Arts (like Tyler Perry)

• characters as model humans & historical figures
• themes notices and understood by white people

African Grove Theatre, 1821

-James Hewlitt

William Wells Brown

-first play published by an African-American, this comic 1858 melodrama depicted 2 types of African-Americans: cliche and respectable, put together

Ira Aldridge, "The African Roscius" (Roscius = Thespian)

(Minstrel shows- both races)

The Black Vaudeville song and dance team

-Bert Williams and George Walker ("In Dahomey")

Eubie Blake, 1883-1983

-ragtime and musicals

"Shuffle Along"

Charles Sydney Gilpin & Paul Robeson as "Emperor Jones"

-I want a Black actor to play this Black role (even though Broadway was also segregated)

Harlem Renaissance (1920s thru early 1930s)

-a celebration of creativity

-Langston Hughes (1902-1967)

-Negritude- we're doing our things, our way

Porgy & Bess, 1935

-written for black by whites (Gershwin)

Voodoo Macbeth, 1935

-The USA Work Program created jobs for people (Group: The Negro Unit)

-directed by Orson Welles

-took the Scottish Play and set it in Haiti for supernatural awareness

Voodoo Macbeth

"Swing Mikado" and "Hot Mikado"- versions of Rodgers & Hammerstein shows

Carmen Jones

-first Rodgers & Hammerstein show written for an all-black cast

Negro Repertory Company

-Androcles

-Lysistrata

DC: Howard Theatre

1943- Robeson was first time a black actor played Othello, opposite Uta Hagen as Desdemona

American Negro Theatre (1940-1944)

-biggest alum: Harry Bellafonte

Black Arts Movement (mid60s- mid70s)

"the artistic sister of the Black Power Movement"

Afro-Centricity- shift from Negro/black to African-American heritage

New Lafayette Theatre (1968-early 70s)

-to give whites a view

LeRoi James/Amiri Baraka (1935- )

-Dutchman, 1964

-modeled like Ionesco's "The Lesson"

Lorraine Hansbery

-first African-American to have show on Broadway

-"A Raisin in the Sun"

Ensemble Theatre in Houston, Texas!!

Ntozake Shange

-"For Colored Girls..."

-writes "choreopoems"- poetry to be staged with wonderful movement

Adrienne Kennedy

-"Sleep Deprivation Chamber"

-best known: "Funnyhouse of a Negro"

Suzan-Lori Parks

-Venus

-365 Days/365 Plays

-In the Blood

-Topdog/Underdog (Pulitzer Prize-winning play of 2002)

August Wilson (1945-2005)

-wrote a play for each decade, to give insight into African-American history with each family

"Fences"

George Wolfe 

-The Colored Museum

-dark comedy dealing with biting issues
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

African-Americans have made huge strides in their own theatre culture in America; they have come a long way from the Minstrel shows of long ago. I particularly enjoy the Voodoo Macbeth production, which was directed by Orson Welles for Broadway. Suzan-Lori Parks’ Topdog/Underdog, a Pulitzer Prize-winning play, is a perfect example of how far African-Americans have come. One of the biggest African-American playwrights in the last century was August Wilson. His play, Fences, stands as one of the most widely-known African-American plays. I love that Wilson captures history with every play that he has written.