African American Theater E-Book

Glenda Dicker/sun

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Serie: Cultural History of Literature
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 386

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2013

Beschreibung

Written in a clear, accessible, storytelling style, African American Theater will shine a bright new light on the culture which has historically nurtured and inspired Black Theater. Functioning as an interactive guide for students and teachers, African American Theater takes the reader on a journey to discover how social realities impacted the plays dramatists wrote and produced.

The journey begins in 1850 when most African people were enslaved in America. Along the way, cultural milestones such as Reconstruction, the Harlem Renaissance and the Black Freedom Movement are explored. The journey concludes with a discussion of how the past still plays out in the works of contemporary playwrights like August Wilson and Suzan-Lori Parks.

African American Theater moves unsung heroes like Robert Abbott and Jo Ann Gibson Robinson to the foreground, but does not neglect the race giants. For actors looking for material to perform, the book offers exercises to create new monologues and scenes. Rich with myths, history and first person accounts by ordinary people telling their extraordinary stories, African American Theater will entertain while it educates.

Leseprobe

African American Theater

For my parents and their parents

African American Theater

A Cultural Companion

GLENDA DICKER/SUN

polity

Copyright © Glenda Dicker/sun 2008

The right of Glenda Dicker/sun to be identified as Author of this Work has been asserted in accordance with the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

First published in 2008 by Polity Press

Polity Press 65Bridge StreetCambridge CB2 1UR, UK.

Polity Press350 Main StreetMalden, MA 02148, USA

All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages for the purpose of criticism and review, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher.

ISBN-13: 978-0-7456-5779-0

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Typeset in 11/13 pt Adobe Garamondby Servis Filmsetting Ltd, Stockport, CheshirePrinted and bound in Great Britain by MPG Printers Ltd, Bodmin, Cornwall

The publisher has used its best endeavours to ensure that the URLs for external websites referred to in this book are correct and active at the time of going to press. However, the publisher has no responsibility for the websites and can make no guarantee that a site will remain live or that the content is or will remain appropriate.

Every effort has been made to trace all copyright holders, but if any have been inadvertently overlooked the publishers will be pleased to include any necessary credits in any subsequent reprint or edition.

For further information on Polity, visit our website: www.polity.co.uk

Contents

Picture Credits

Acknowledgements

About this Book

Timeline of Significant Events

Abbreviations

Introduction: A Journey with the People who Forgot how to Fly

1.

The People who Could Fly: Slavery, Stereotypes, Minstrelsy, and Myth

2.

A Leap for Freedom: The Anti-Slavery Movement

3.

We are Climbing Jacob’s Ladder: Progressing and Migrating

4.

The Harlem Renaissance: A Sunburst Something like Spiritual Emancipation

5.

War Stories: Buffalo Soldiers, Black Bird Men, and the Bloods

6.

Sitting Down, Sitting In, and Standing Up: The Black Freedom Movement

7.

Black is Beautiful: Protest and Performance

8.

Conversations: A Second Generation Takes Center Stage

9.

A Presence of Ancestry: I Believe I Can Fly

References

Index

Picture Credits

The publisher would like to thank the following for permission to reproduce the images in this book:

Page 7, © 2007 JupiterImages and its Licensors; Page 8, Shutterstock; Page 9, © 2007 JupiterImages and its Licensors; Page 12, © 2007 JupiterImages and its Licensors; Page 13, © 2007 JupiterImages and its Licensors; Page 25, © CORBIS; Page 33, © 2007 JupiterImages and its Licensors; Page 36, © 2007 JupiterImages and its Licensors; Page 37, © 2007 JupiterImages and its Licensors; Page 38, © 2007 JupiterImages and its Licensors; Page 43, © Bettmann/CORBIS; Page 45,CSUArchives/EverettCollection/RexFeatures;Page64,©2007 JupiterImages and its Licensors; Page 70, Courtesy Hatch-Billops Collection; Page 77, Shutterstock; Page 78, © 2007 JupiterImages and its Licensors; Page 82, © John Springer Collection/CORBIS; Page 89, Courtesy Kimball and Bolcom; Page 90, Courtesy Kimball and Bolcom; Page 92, Roger-Viollet/Rex Features; Page 98, Mark E. Mitchell Collection of African American History; Page 99, Mark E. Mitchell Collection of African American History; Page 100, Courtesy Kimball and Bolcom; Page 106, Everett Collection/Rex Features; Page 100, Courtesy Kimball and Bolcom; Page 106, Everett Collection/Rex Features; Page 110, CSU Archives/Everett Collection/Rex Features; Page 117, Bettmann/ CORBIS; Page 118, Bettmann/CORBIS; Page 120, © Jack Moebes/ CORBIS; Page 122, Courtesy Hatch-Billops Collection; Page 125, Bettmann/ CORBIS; Page 127, CORBIS; Page 132 CSU Archives/ Everett Collection/Rex Features; Page 133, © 2007 JupiterImages and its Licensors; Page 138, © 2007 JupiterImages and its Licensors; Page 140, Shutterstock; Page 141, Star Collection, reprinted by permission of the DC Public Library © Washington Post; Page 142, Shutterstock; Page 144, © Bettmann/CORBIS; Page 178, Courtesy of Ms. Dee; Page 187, Everett Collection/Rex Features; Page 188, Teresa Lee/Everett/Rex Features; Page 191, © 2007 JupiterImages and its Licensors, All Rights Reserved

Every effort has been made to trade all copyright holders, but if any have been inadvertently overlooked the publishers will be pleased to include any necessary credits in any subsequent reprint or edition.

The following images are © Glenda Dicker/sun: pages 19, 23, 27, 35, 54, 68, 81, 104, 108, 130, 148, 151, 154, and 180.

For further information on Polity, visit our website: www.polity.co.uk

Acknowledgements

I want to thank Tayana Hardin for her invaluable research assistance. Without the internet savvy her generation takes for granted, I would never have been able to find much of the information I needed to complete the book. Shanesha Brooks Tatum was also helpful with the tidying up process. Susana Castro-Pollard was a friend in need as I struggled with deciding which images to include. A gifted designer, she patiently helped me sift through hundreds of images from seemingly hundred of books to settle on the 60 that are included here. She also helped prepare the photographs for publication.

Judith Stephens and Freda Scott Giles provided extremely helpful feedback and cogent suggestions throughout the writing process. They both remain highly valued friends and colleagues, Judith for encouraging me to keep on climbing and Freda for her careful attention to all my work. Margaret Wilkerson and Eleanor Traylor will always be the bright shining lights who guide my path.

Andrea Drugan, commissioning editor for Polity, was a pleasure to work with and most helpful to me as I navigated the thorny territory from draft to completion. All at Polity were encouraging and uniformly pleasant and professional.

I must pay homage to my family. My great-grandfather, Madison Kilpatrick (pictured in chapter 3), and his five daughters inspired me to strive for a life of service. On my mother’s side my grandmother, Ruth Harris Sanders, and her sister, Mazella Harris Goodson, laid down clear, sturdy footsteps for me to follow. The unwavering support of my parents, Harvey and Gerthyl Dickerson, throughout all my creative endeavors has been a constant source of sustenance. My father in particular was helpful with the research for chapter 5, “War Stories.” My brother, Harvey, knows all my secrets. My daughter, Anitra, her husband, Pierre, and my little baby grandson, Julian, give me hope for the future.

About this Book

African American Theater: A Cultural Companion is different from many other books on black theater in the United States and elsewhere. Rather than providing a history of African American theater, which has already been done splendidly, I have tried to capture a story told by people in their own words from slavery days to the first decade of the 21st century and to explore how their realities influenced the theater of their times. Elderly people who still remember slavery speak of the days of bondage. Race men and women who came to prominence in the era of Reconstruction provide admonitions to the newly freed. The “exodusters” of the Great Migration explain why they traveled north. Zora Neale Hurston bridges the gap between the elitist “New Negroes” of the Harlem Renaissance and the rowdy Harlem rent parties. Black soldiers recount their war stories from the Civil War to Vietnam. The “ordinary people” who moved the Black Freedom struggle forward tell their extraordinary tales. The cultural workers of the Black Arts Movement conjure the magic of that moment. Ossie Davis eulogizes Malcolm X and reminisces about Marian Anderson’s singing. Nine contemporary African American actors pay homage to Ossie Davis and others of his generation, including Paul Robeson, Lena Horne, Sidney Poitier, Ruby Dee, and Harry Belafonte. Angela Davis praises Gertrude “Ma” Rainey; James Earl Jones remembers August Wilson; and James Baldwin empowers Suzan-Lori Parks.

With this interactive workbook, I hope you will become my companion on an African American cultural journey beginning in the middle of the 19th century and ending in the early 21st. The symbol introduces exercises to bring the historical subject matter to life and suggestions for further thought. Crucially, the book offers a guide to creating what I call a Black Life Book, in which you can document the important events of your life, stories you heard, important dates, and so on. It can contain such artifacts as newspaper articles that interest you, family photos, advertisements, letters, and playbills. The Black Life Book can also be a way to remember and honor members of your family as far back as you can trace them.

African American Theater: A Cultural Companion has 60 illustrations chosen to enrich the written word. These will enhance your understanding of a mask not yet animated by an inner quality called “Iwa” and African art that resonates with cultural significance. They range from photographs of the legendary Harriet Tubman in old age and Denzel Washington before he became internationally renowned to celebrations of black pride. For reasons that will become clear, I have also included portraits of members of my own family and memorabilia from my work as a writer and director. Throughout, I have aimed to offer mythic reminders of how the past still plays out in the world of African American theater.

Timeline of Significant Events

1847

Frederick Douglass begins publication of the anti-slavery newspaper North Star.

1850

The passing of the second Fugitive Slave Act in the United States.

1852

Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin is published.

1859

John Brown leads a raid on a weapons arsenal at Harper’s Ferry, Virginia.

1861

The American Civil War begins.

1863

The Emancipation Proclamation takes effect on January 1, declaring freedom for slaves in the rebelling territories. Black soldiers are allowed to join the Union army.

1865

The Civil War ends with a northern victory; Reconstruction begins; the 13th Amendment formally ends slavery. President Lincoln is assassinated.

1866–9

Black colleges open throughout the southern states including Fisk (Nashville, Tennessee), Morehouse (Atlanta, Georgia), and Hampton (Virginia), as well as Howard University (Washington, DC).

1870

Black men are given the right to vote.

1877

Reconstruction ends.

1895

Booker T. Washington delivers his “Atlanta Compromise” speech.

1896

Plessy vs. Ferguson, the case in which the US Supreme Court establishes the doctrine of “separate but equal.”

1896

The National Association of Colored Women is founded.

1896

Poems of Paul Laurence Dunbar are acclaimed by New York critics.

1903

W. E. B. DuBois publishes Souls of Black Folks,emerging as the leading opponent to the policies of Booker T. Washington.

1909

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is formed.

1914

The beginning of World War I.

1914–15

Black migration from the South to the North slowly increases.

1915

Karamu House is founded as a cultural center in Cleveland, Ohio. It includes a theater, the first specifically African American theater in the US.

1916

Marcus Garvey founds his Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA). The Chicago Defender calls on southern blacks to migrate to the North.

1920s

A second wave of the Great Migration brings roughly 700,000 more southern blacks to the North.

1921

Shuffle Along, the hit musical by Eubie Blake and Noble Sissle, opens on Broadway.

1925

Alain Locke publishes a collection of writings by African Americans, The New Negro. Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters is formed and selects A. Philip Randolph as its president.

1926

The New York Public Library purchases Arturo Schomburg’s collection of books and prints.

1935

National Council of Negro Women is founded by Mary McLeod Bethune.

1939

Marian Anderson, barred from Constitution Hall, gives an Easter concert on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC.

1942–5

Tuskegee Airmen and 92nd Buffalo Soldiers distinguish themselves in World War II.

1954

Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, the case in which the US Supreme Court overturns that of 1896 by arguing for equal educational opportunities.

1955

Emmett Till is murdered; the Montgomery Bus Boycott is initiated by Rosa Parks and Jo Ann Gibson Robinson.

1957

Thirteen students attempt to integrate Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas.

1960

The nationwide sit-in movement is sparked by four students in Greensboro, North Carolina.

1961

Integrated teams ride buses from North to South in what came to be known as the Freedom Rides.

1963

Martin Luther King leads the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.

1964

Civil Rights Act is passed.

1964

Martin Luther King receives the Nobel Peace Prize.

1965

Malcolm X is assassinated.

1966

Stokely Carmichael coins the phrase “black power” during the James Meredith March from Memphis, Tennessee, to Jackson, Mississippi.

1967

Thurgood Marshall is appointed to the US Supreme Court.

1967

Negro Ensemble Company is established in New York.

1968

Martin Luther King is assassinated. The Black Arts and Black Power Movements gather momentum.

1970

Charles Gordone receives the Pulitzer Prize for his play No Place to be Somebody.

1976

Ntozake Shange’s for colored girls opens on Broadway.

1977

The TV mini-series Roots draws record ratings.

1979

Lloyd Richards is named Dean of the Yale University School of Drama at New Haven, Connecticut.

1982

Richards directs premiere of August Wilson’s Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom at Yale (the play is the first in Wilson’s series of ten, The Pittsburgh Cycle, also known as Century Cycle).

1984

Richards directs Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom at its first season on Broadway.

1986

George C. Wolfe wins the Dramatists Guild Award for his play Colored Museum.

1991

Lynn Whitfield receives an Emmy Award for her title role performance in The Josephine Baker Story.

1992

Anna Deveare Smith’s Fires in the Mirror premieres.

1999

Halle Berry appears in Introducing Dorothy Dandridge.

2001

Suzan-Lori Parks receives the McArthur Genius Award.

2002

Denzel Washington and Halle Berry receive Academy Awards.

2004

Phylicia Rashad and Audra McDonald receive Tony Awards for the Broadway revival of A Raisin in the Sun.

2005

August Wilson dies, having completed Radio Golf, the tenth (and last) of his Century Cycle.

2006

Voting Rights Act is renewed.

2006

Lloyd Richards dies.

2007

Lynn Nottage receives the McArthur Genius Award.

2007

International celebrations of the bicentenary of the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act in Britain.

2008

Bicentenary (January 1) of the prohibition of importing slaves into the US.

Abbreviations

AFSCME

American Federation of State, County, Municipal Employees

AME

African Methodist Episcopal

ANT

American Negro Theatre

ANTA

American National Theatre and Academy

BAM

Black Arts Movement

CAN

Committee for the Negro in the Arts

CORE

Congress for Racial Equality

HBCU

Historically Black Colleges and Universities

FTP

Federal Theatre Project

MFA

Master of Fine Arts

MFDP

Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party

NAACP

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People

NEC

Negro Ensemble Company

NLT

New Lafayette Theatre

RACCA

Richard Allen Cultural Center

SCLC

Southern Christian Leadership Council

SNCC

Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee

UCLA

University of California, Los Angeles

UNIA

Universal Negro Improvement Association

WPC

Women’s Political Council

YWCA

Young Women’s Christian Association

Introduction

A Journey with the People who Forgot how to Fly

What I come through in life, if I go down in meself for it, I could make a book.

(J. W. White, a former slave, in Mellon, ed., xix)

This book is not a history of black theater. It is not an anthology of black plays. It is not a critical analysis. It is meant to be an interactive cultural companion. If you are a student taking a class in African American theater or a teacher of black theater or someone who enjoys studying the topic on your own, this book can be like a friend with whom you go on a journey. It will provide you with a guide to the cultural landscape that has historically surrounded the writers of plays. African American Theater: A Cultural Companion will also provide you with material to create your own monologues and scenes and with acting tips to bring this material alive. It is a combination of history, fiction, drama, and myth.

The metaphor of the people who could fly is the unifying thread of the book. The mythic tale describes the unnaturally suppressed inner lives of Africans brought to the American place to serve as slave labor. African American playwrights searched for ways to uncover, demonstrate, and celebrate that suppressed inner life. The story begins around 1850, when most African people were enslaved in America. The legacy of slavery has historically woven itself throughout African American drama and still plays out on the current landscape in the works of such writers as August Wilson and Suzan-Lori Parks. The dehumanizing effects of slavery and the pernicious stereotypes that denigrated black people have been of particular interest to playwrights since 1850 and have remained equally topical.