In 1917, a landmark event shattered the conventions of American theater?the first Broadway production in which African Americans portrayed black characters in a serious drama, as opposed to minstrel shows or superficial comedies. Ridgely Torrence's Three Plays for a Negro Theater, which opened at Madison Square Complex's Garden Theatre, consisted of three experimental playlets?The Rider of Dreams, Granny Maumee and Simon, the Cyrenian. Among the all-black cast were well-known thespians like Inez Clough and Opal Cooper; audience members on opening night included W.E.B. DuBois and James Weldon Johnson, plus influential critics like Heywood Broun and Alexander Woollcott. The drama drew critical raves, and its sympathetic portrayal of blacks as complex individuals struck a chord especially with black theatergoers. So why did Three Plays close after a brief run and lapse into obscurity? Most chroniclers blame the U.S. entry into WW I, one day after the play opened, but Curtis, a Purdue professor of history and American studies, places the blame with mainstream white audiences, who weren't ready or willing to seriously consider the play's implicit critique of racial inequality. The production's three white principals?Torrence, producer Emilie Hapgood and Harvard-trained director Robert Jones?saw themselves as members of a progressive avant-garde struggling to create a democratic, participatory theater, but Curtis finds their ideas tinged with racist condescension and deep ambivalence about advancing a black agenda for social justice. This meticulous, scholarly work concludes with a look at Eugene O'Neill's The Emperor Jones (1920), one of the first plays to bring the distinguished achievements of black actors to the attention of mainstream audiences. Photos.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
Curtis (history/American studies, Purdue Univ.) has made a major contribution to our understanding of theater history. While researching a book on Scott Joplin (Dancing to a Black Man's Tune, LJ 4/15/94), Curtis became intrigued by a trio of long-forgotten plays by Ridgely Torrence. In 1917, these were presented at the Garden Theater in New York under the title Three Plays for a Negro Theater. The review in the New York Times was so different from that in the New York Age that Curtis was intrigued?how could even the plots be described so differently? And why were these early "serious" plays about American Negro life so quickly forgotten? The resulting text is an excellent example of how history, theater, and cultural studies can be brought together to offer a fascinating story of people whose contribution is now being given the credit it deserves. The chapter notes and bibliography are excellent. Recommended for all libraries, especially those with strong collections in theater or African American studies. (Photos not seen.)?Susan L. Peters, Emory Univ. Lib., Atlanta
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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