Black Theatre in America:

An Introduction
Before we get into TopDog/UnderDog, I want to discuss
the history that it came from. Here in America, we have a
very fraught and painful history associated with theatre-
makers of color (and, more specifically to this play, black
theatre-makers) that I feel we need to understand at least a
corner of before we can dig in to the connotations this
piece.
 Minstrelsy
The first time we saw black performers on the American
stage were in nineteenth century Minstrel shows.
Minstrel shows were performed in blackface (the
performers darkened their skin with burnt cork, and often
used rogue on their lips to create exaggerated red lips).
The first minstrel performers were white, but gradually
black performers made their way onto the stage.
 The minstrel show was a comic act,
founded on racial stereotypes,
where caricatured stock characters
sang and danced making light of
slavery. The man in the middle was
the straight man, a genteel aristocrat
called the “interlocutor”, and the
“endmen” or “cornermen” were
“Bones” and “Tambo” (so called
because of their instruments – the
xylophone and tambourine).
 
Already, we have a problem of
representation; minstrelsy not only
put the racial oppression of slavery
onstage in a comedic light, but it
also created a situation where the
black performer was the subject of
a specifically white audience gaze.
Minstrelsy faded in popularity near
the turn of the twentieth century.
 James Hewlett
On the other extreme was a very specific
theatrical enterprise that was the exception
to the rule in the nineteenth century.
 
In 1820, in New York, a landmark theatre
was formed – the African Grove Theatre –
by a gentleman named William Brown.
William Brown, himself a black
businessman, created the theatre to cater
specifically to black audiences. White
audiences were barred from the theatre (at
a time when blacks were barred from
many white theatres). He used black
actors, and created productions of
Shakespeare (his first production was
Richard III – slide). This is leading actor
James Hewlett in the character of Richard.
 
I want to emphasize that Minstrelsy and the African
Grove theatre were occurring during the same time
period. We’re seeing here a segment of history that’s
deeply conflicted, and contradictory. Tellingly, minstrelsy
was generally considered to be for white audiences, while
the African grove theatre was open to black audiences
only for most of its tenure as a theatre.
 IMPORTANT: Cast your minds in American History. Remember
that theatre does not happen in a vacuum. What’s going on, or about
to go on, in American history at this time having a HUGE impact on
the relationship between black performers and white audiences?
Slavery in the United States

Slavery isn’t abolished in the United

States until the 13th amendment was
passed in 1865. The civil war had a huge
impact on theatre in general in the US,
but especially black theatre as well as its
audience.
 In 1858, the first play by an African American was
William Wells Brown published – it was called The Escape or A Leap for
Freedom and written by William Wells Brown. He
was a conductor on the underground railroad,
having been born into slavery but escaped and spent
several years in England before purchasing his
freedom. Important to note: Minstrelsy was still
going on in these years, but there were now other
legitimate African American performers and
performances.
 
Brown, in fact, relied on the minstrel tradition in his
play, including a comic relief character (a slave
named “Cato”) who spoke in dialect taken directly
out of minstrelsy.
 
The play was written for abolitionists in the North.
Brown read his play aloud for the first time on
Wednesday February 4, 1857 at the town hall in
Salem Massachusetts, and reviewers enjoyed it.
The play, however, was not performed until 1971
(Emerson College in Boston). Here’s what Brown
had to say about his play:
 The Escape, playwright’s
preface
“This play was written for my own amusement, and not with the remotest thought that it
would ever be seen by the public eye. I read it privately, however, to a circle of my
friends, and through them was invited to read it to a Literary Society. Since then, the
drama has been given in various parts of the country. By the earnest solicitation of some
in whose judgment I have the greatest confidence, I now present it in a printed form to
the public. As I never aspired to be a dramatist, I ask no favor for it, and have little or no
solicitude for its fate. If it is not readable, no word of mine can make it so; if it is, to ask
favor for it would be needless.

The main features in the drama are true. Glenn and Melinda are actual characters, and
still reside in Canada. Many of the incidents are drawn from my own experience of
eighteen years at the South. The marriage ceremony, as performed in the second act, is
still adhered to in many of the Southern states, especially in the farming districts.

The ignorance of the slave, as seen in the case of Big Sally, is common wherever chattel
slavery exists. The difficulties created in the domestic circle by the presence of beautiful
slave women, as found in Dr. Gaines’s family is well understood by all who have ever
visited the valley of the Mississippi.

The play, no doubt, abounds in defects, but as I was born in slavery, and never had a
day’s schooling in my life, I owe the public no apology for errors.”
 Angelina Weld Grimké
The first African American woman to
publish a play in the United States was
Angelina Weld Grimke. Her play, Rachel,
produced in 1916 and published in 1920,
concerned a young woman named Rachel
who comes to an understanding of the
realities of racism in America and vows
thereby never to have children, rejecting
the love of several men who court her
over the course of the play. Rachel was
first produced under the auspices of the
NAACP at the Myrtill Miner Normal
school in Washington DC.

In the program, there was a note…

 Rachel program note:
“This is the first attempt to use the stage
for race propaganda in order to enlighten
the American people relative to the
lamentable condition of the millions of
Colored citizens in this free republic."
Rachel, unfortunately, received very few reviews and was
not seen by a mass audience.

However, the play’s publication did seem to have an

impact on that. As a piece of published literature, Rachel
became a piece of debate and conversation by a larger
audience.

After its initial run, despite its prominence as a

conversation piece, the play wasn’t produced again until
1990.
In the 1920s, the Harlem Renaissance saw
black theatre flourishing. Perhaps the most
famous performer of the period was Paul
Robeson.
Paul Robeson
Trained as a lawyer, Robeson
met with incredible racism in
the profession of law and
turned to a career onstage. He
became well acclaimed
onstage and on film, both in
New York and London,
playing (most famously) in
Eugene O’Neill’s The
Emperor Jones and Othello.
His performance in Othello on
Broadway was the first time
an African American played
the role of Othello while
supported by a white cast.
 Paul Robeson as Othello
https://youtu.be/-DF7YQrC7HM

https://youtu.be/IynoOLAk3bM
During the great depression, as part of the works’ progress
administration several theatre companies were formed. These
companies were called the Federal Theatre Project, and included a
wing of black theatre unites called the Negro Theatre Project. There
were 23 set up throughout the united states, and they supplied
employment to black actors, directors, playwrights, and theatre
technicians. By far the most active was the New York Negro Unit,
and their most popular production was a Haitain (“Voodoo” Macbeth
staged in 1935; an adaptation of Shakespeare’s play set in the
Caribbean. It was directed and created by none other than Orson
Welles.

Think: What are some of the problems you’re seeing with this?
Voodoo Macbeth
Your reading discussed a bit about the
next important piece: In 1959, Lorraine
Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun became
the first play written by a black woman
to be produced on Broadway; also the
first Broadway play with a black
director (Lloyd Richards). It was
nominated for four Tony awards in
1960.
In the 1960s, the black arts movement saw some dramatic
changes to black theatre in America. Playwrights began
to experiment with function and form, creating plays that
were geared more towards black than white audiences and
searching for a more fundamental and honest cultural
voice.
 Amari Baraka
Perhaps the best known figure
from this era was Amari
Baraka, who won the 1964
Obie Award for best Off-
Broadway American play for
his piece, Dutchman. He
founded the Black Arts
Repertory Theatre in 1965.
Another thing we need to think about is the idea of who gets cast in
the theatre and who’s stories are told. Racial diversity on Broadway is
a huge problem.

Actors of color are extremely under-represented, and playwrights of

color even more so. According to a study by the Asian American
Performers Action Coalition, Caucasian playwrights wrote 86.8
percent of all shows produced in the 2016-17 Broadway and off-
Broadway season, season and that Caucasian directors were hired to
work on 87.1 percent of those productions. On Broadway alone, 95
percent of all plays and musicals were both written and directed by
Caucasian artists. 

African-American playwrights were represented at 4.1 percent.

According to the survey, the Broadway season featured no plays or
musicals by Latinx, Asian-American, or American Indian/Native/First
Nation playwrights, nor playwrights with disabilities.
One solution to this problem that has long been held to be
“acceptable” is so-called “color-blind casting” where plays are cast
with no attention to the race of the actor playing a role. This has other
pitfalls, though.

August Wilson, a playwright who won two Pulitzer prizes for his ten-
cycle series of plays “The Pittsburg Cycle” which depicted comic and
tragic elements of African-American life in the 20th century, breaks
down the problem for us in an address he gave in 1996:
 August Wilson, The Ground on
Which I Stand (1996)
"Colorblind casting is an aberrant idea that has never had any validity
other than as a tool of Cultural Imperialists who view American culture ,
rooted in the icons of European culture, as beyond reproach in its
perfection . . . To mount an all-black production of a 
Death of a Salesman or any other play conceived for white actors as an
investigation of the human condition through the specifics of white
culture is to deny us our own humanity, our own history, and the need to
make our own investigation from the cultural ground on which we stand
as black Americans. It is an assault on our present, our difficult but
honorable history in America; is an insult to our intelligence, our
playwrights, and our many and varied contributions to the society and the
world at large." Wilson proposes that more support be given to black
theatres and other cultural institutions. "We do not need colorblind
casting," he wrote, "we need some theatres to develop our playwrights."
In your response on UBLearns, please discuss some things a theatre
community might consider implementing in order to address the
racial gap I have identified in the contemporary theatre.

How can we encourage an increase in roles for actors of non-white

ethnicities?

How can we encourage an increase in playwrighting/production

opportunities for theatre-makers of non-white ethnicities?

Keep in mind the economic systems at play here; audiences and

markets are an important part of theatrical function. Is our current
theatre only playing to one audience? How can we encourage a more
inclusive audience?