Kate Dossett. Radical Black Theatre in the New Deal

Radical Black Theatre in the New Deal focuses on the Negro Units of the Federal Theatre Project (1935–39). Dossett argues that Black performance communities consisting of Black theatre artists and the Black public sphere helped shaped the performance and reception of theatre manuscripts in the New Deal era.

Clifford Mason, Macbeth in Harlem: Black Theater in America from the Beginning to Raisin in the Sun

Ira Frederick Aldridge is often believed by historians to herald the zenith of Black theatre, but he may instead herald the nadir of Black theatre. So argues actor, director, dramatic critic, and playwright Clifford Mason in his book Macbeth in Harlem, which presents thoughtful and provocative interpretations of musicals and plays by and about Black people before, during, and after freedom.

Reimagining Black Art and Criminology

Martin Glynn explores the relevance black artistic contributions have for understanding crime and justice. Through art forms including black crime fiction, black theatre and black music, this book brings attention to marginalized perspectives within mainstream criminology.

An Inconvenient Black History of British Musical Theatre

A radically urgent intervention, An Inconvenient Black History of British Musical Theatre: 1900 - 1950 uncovers the hidden Black history of this most influential of artforms. Drawing on lost archive material and digitised newspapers from the turn of the century onwards, this exciting story has been re-traced and restored to its rightful place. A vital and significant part of British cultural history between 1900 and 1950, Black performance practice was fundamental to resisting and challenging racism in the UK. Join Mayes (a Broadway- and Toronto-based Music Director) and Whitfield (a musical theatre historian and researcher) as they take readers on a journey through a historically-inconvenient and brilliant reality that has long been overlooked. Get to know the Black theatre community in London’s Roaring 20s, and hear about the secret Florence Mills memorial concert they held in 1928. Acquaint yourself with Buddy Bradley, Black tap and ballet choreographer, who reshaped dance in British musicals - often to be found at Noël Coward’s apartment for late-night rehearsals, such was Bradley’s importance. Meet Jack Johnson, the first African American Heavyweight Boxing Champion, who toured Britain’s theatres during World War 1 and brought the sounds of Chicago to places like war-weary Dundee. Discover the most prolific Black theatre practitioner you’ve never heard of, William Garland, who worked for 40 years across multiple continents and championed Black British performers. Marvel at performers like cabaret star Mabel Mercer, born in Stafford in 1900, who sang and conducted theatre orchestras across the UK, as well as Black Birmingham comedian Eddie Emerson, who was Garland’s partner for decades. Many of their names and works have never been included in histories of the British musical - until now.

Equity in Black theatre history classrooms

This article reflects on the experiences of a white male faculty teaching Black theatre history at a predominantly white institution. It views the Black theatre history classroom as a potential haven for theatre students of colour, and highlights the critical role of a white faculty member in honouring and protecting that space. It argues for the importance of self-reflection and humility on the part of white faculty as we engage with topics surrounding Black history. This piece references the traditional power dynamics between students and faculty, and reimagines those power dynamics when white faculty members teach Black theatre history to Black students. In our current moment of racial upheaval and reckoning within the rehearsal rooms and on our stages, this reflection contends that we must also examine the ways in which our pedagogy in Black theatre history can be actively antiracist. Ultimately, this piece advocates that white faculty work to de-centre their own whiteness in their theatre history classrooms and commit to humility and a willingness to learn from their students of colour.

Introduction

The introduction explores the significance of Black theatre manuscripts for histories of the Federal Theatre Project, Black literary heritage and the Radical Black tradition. Black theatre manuscripts developed on the Federal Theatre Project were not always staged or published, but they document Black creativity and theatrical innovation in the 1930s and constitute a crucial if overlooked part of American cultural history. Theatre histories that only include plays staged or published will invariably be histories of what was interesting or acceptable to whites. This book examines what was important and necessary to African Americans. It develops the idea of the Black Performance Community, a temporary community which performance creates among spectators, performers, directors, writers and others whose backstage roles shape manuscripts and performance. It argues that histories of Black theatre need to consider variant manuscripts, the communities of unacknowledged collaborators that shaped them over time, and the role of the archives and anthologies in shaping knowledge production about Black theatre.

Free at Lass!

The final chapter examines the Harlem Negro Unit’s immensely popular production of Haiti. Authored by white New York journalist William Dubois, white theatre critics attempted to place Haiti within a white dramatic tradition of Black primitivism which included Emperor Jones and Orson Welles’ recent Voodoo version of Macbeth. By contrast, the Black performance community worked to transform Dubois’s racist play into a celebration of the Haitian Republic’s Black heroes. The success of Haiti helped the Black performance community push the Federal Theatre to invest in Black dramatists. On the eve of the FTP’s closure two new Black dramas were being prepared for production: Panyared, (1939) explores the origins of African slavery and was the first instalment of a historical trilogy by Hughes Allison; Theodore Browne’s Go Down Moses (1938), is a dramatization of Harriet Tubman’s life which examines Black agency in ending slavery. While neither drama made it to the stage, centering Black theatre manuscripts, and the performance communities who developed them, allows us to see how African Americans imagined radical paths to the future.