Transcript The History of African American Theatre

The History of African American
Theatre
“Escape, or Leap for Freedom”
by
William Wells Brown
The Pulpit as Performance Space
William Wells Brown (1814-1884)
•
•
Landmarks in African American Literary History
William Wells Brown was the first African-American to publish a novel, a play, a travel book, a military study of his people, and a
study of black sociology. Throughout his life he was committed to the abolition of slavery. He made eloquent speeches putting
forward ideas for reform. Later in life he took up the cause of the temperance movement.
•
•
Primary Works
Narrative of William W. Brown, A Fugitive Slave, Written by Himself, 1847Three Years in Europe; or Places I Have Seen and
People I Have Met, 1852; Clotel; or, The President's Daughter: A Narrative of Slave Life in the United States, 1853; The Escape; or,
A Leap of Freedom. A Drama in Five Acts, 1858; Memoir of WWB, An American Bondman. Written by Himself, 1859; The Black
Man. His Antecedents, His Genius, and His Achievements, 1863; The Negro in the American Rebellion. His Heroism and His
Fidelity, 1867; The Rising Son; or, The Antecedents and Advancement of the Colored Race, 1873; and My Southern Home: or, The
South and Its People, 1880.
•
•
•
Recent Scholarship
Chaney, Michael A. Fugitive Vision: Slave Image and Black Identity in Antebellum Narrative. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 2007.
Ernest, John. Liberation Historiography: African American Writers and the Challenge of History, 1794-1861. Chapel Hill: U of
North Carolina P, 2004.
- - -. The Escape; Or, A Leap for Freedom: A Drama in Five Acts. Knoxville: U of Tennessee P, 2001.
James, Jennifer C. A Freedom Bought with Blood: African American War Literature from the Civil War to World War II. Chapel
Hill: U of North Carolina P, 2007.
Levine, Robert S. ed. Clotel, or the President's Daughter. Boston: Bedford, 2000.
Nelson, Emmanuel S. ed. African American Autobiographers: A Sourcebook. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 2002.
- - -. African American Authors, 1745-1945: A Bio-Bibliographical Critical Sourcebook. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 2000.
Stadler, Gustavus. Troubling Minds: The Cultural Politics of Genius in the United States, 1840-1890. Minneapolis: U of Minnesota
P, 2006.
•
•
•
•
•
•
A Brief Biography of Brown
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William Wells Brown (1814-1884): A Brief Biography
William Wells Brown was the first African-American to write a novel, a play, and a travel book. He was born in Lexington,
Kentucky in 1815. His father was the white owner of the plantation on which Brown was born.
Brown held many diverse jobs as a youth which provided him with firsthand knowledge of the slave era South which aided him
in his writing. Brown escaped from slavery in January 1834. During his escape he received help from an Ohio Quaker named
Wells Brown (whose name he adopted when he became a free man). After his refuge he taught himself how to read and write.
Brown became an active abolitionist and activist in the anti-slavery movement while working for a journalist for the abolitionist
cause.
He was also important in THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD, which helped slaves escape to freedom in Canada. It was during this
time that Brown married Elizabeth Schooner, a free black woman. They had three children together. After moving to Buffalo,
Brown continued to participate in the UNDERGROUND RAILROAD and also spoke publicly on abolition, women's rights, peace,
and temperance.
In 1843 Brown was invited to lecture for the Anti-Slavery Society and gained renown as a public figure. The American Peace
Society chose him as their representative to the Peace Congress in Europe in 1849.
While Brown was in Europe he delivered over a thousand speeches and wrote some of his most important work, including the
first African American novel Clotel; or The President's Daughter: A Narrative of Slave Life in the United States.
He left Europe in 1854. In 1858 he published the first play by an African-American.
While Brown was in Europe his wife died.
In 1860 he married Annie Elizabeth Grey. Brown continued his political and literary activities. He was a major supporter of black
recruitment efforts during the CIVIL WAR.
He continued to write many literary and historical works including The Black Man: His Antecedents, His Genius, and His
Achievements, and The Negro In American Rebellion: His Heroism and His Fidelity. His final book My Southern Home, or The
South and Its People, appeared in 1880.
It is important to note that Brown's importance in African-American literacy is not only based on his interesting stylistic blends
of melodrama, documentary, abolitionist tract, political critique but also in his willingness to address the issues of sexual
exploitation of female slaves. Interestingly enough, the novel implicates Thomas Jefferson in this practice. The novel also
challenges the inconsistencies that fail to protect the human rights of millions of African-Americans. Brown was able to address
such issues in his literary works that reached a broad audience.
In addition to writing his own works Brown was a contributor to Frederick Douglass’s paper, the Liberator, and to the National
Anti-Slavery Standard and the London Daily News. Brown died on Nov. 6, 1884 in his home in Chelsea, Massachusettes.
French Romanticism
French romanticism is a highly eclectic phenomenon. It includes an interest in the historical novel, the romance,
traditional myths (and nationalism) and the "roman noir" (or Gothic novel), lyricism, sentimentalism, descriptions
of the natural world (such as elegies by lakes) and the common man, exoticism and orientalism, and the myth of
the romantic hero. Foreign influences played a big part in this, especially those of Shakespeare, Sir Walter Scott,
Byron, Goethe, and Friedrich Schiller. French Romanticism had ideals diametrically opposed to French classicism
and the classical unities (see French literature of the 17th century), but it could also express a profound loss for
aspects of the pre-revolutionary world in a society now dominated by money and fame, rather than honor.
Key ideas from early French Romanticism:
"le vague des passions" (waves of sentiment and passion) - Chateaubriand maintained that while the imagination
was rich, the world was cold and empty, and rationalism and civilization had only robbed men of their illusions;
nevertheless, a notion of sentiment and passion continued to haunt men.
"le mal du siècle" (the pain of the century) - a sense of loss, disillusion, and aporia, typified by melancholy and
lassitude.
The major battle of romanticism in France was fought in the theater. The early years of the century were marked by a
revival of classicism and classical-inspired tragedies, often with themes of national sacrifice or patriotic heroism in
keeping with the spirit of the Revolution, but the production of Victor Hugo's Hernani in 1830 marked the triumph
of the romantic movement on the stage (a description of the turbulent opening night can be found in Théophile
Gautier). The dramatic unities of time and place were abolished, tragic and comic elements appeared together
and metrical freedom was won. Marked by the plays of Friedrich Schiller, the romantics often chose subjects from
historic periods (the French Renaissance, the reign of Louis XIII of France) and doomed noble characters (rebel
princes and outlaws) or misunderstood artists (Vigny's play based on the life of Thomas Chatterton).
Minstrelsy and Tricksters (American Genius?):
Cato and Sampey
The History of African American
Theatre
William Wells Brown’s
The Escape, or, Leap for Freedom
William Wells Brown (1814-1884)
•
•
Landmarks in African American Literary History
William Wells Brown was the first African-American to publish a novel, a play, a travel book, a military study of his people, and a
study of black sociology. Throughout his life he was committed to the abolition of slavery. He made eloquent speeches putting
forward ideas for reform. Later in life he took up the cause of the temperance movement.
•
•
Primary Works
Narrative of William W. Brown, A Fugitive Slave, Written by Himself, 1847Three Years in Europe; or Places I Have Seen and
People I Have Met, 1852; Clotel; or, The President's Daughter: A Narrative of Slave Life in the United States, 1853; The Escape; or,
A Leap of Freedom. A Drama in Five Acts, 1858; Memoir of WWB, An American Bondman. Written by Himself, 1859; The Black
Man. His Antecedents, His Genius, and His Achievements, 1863; The Negro in the American Rebellion. His Heroism and His
Fidelity, 1867; The Rising Son; or, The Antecedents and Advancement of the Colored Race, 1873; and My Southern Home: or, The
South and Its People, 1880.
•
•
•
Recent Sholarship
Chaney, Michael A. Fugitive Vision: Slave Image and Black Identity in Antebellum Narrative. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 2007.
Ernest, John. Liberation Historiography: African American Writers and the Challenge of History, 1794-1861. Chapel Hill: U of
North Carolina P, 2004.
- - -. The Escape; Or, A Leap for Freedom: A Drama in Five Acts. Knoxville: U of Tennessee P, 2001.
James, Jennifer C. A Freedom Bought with Blood: African American War Literature from the Civil War to World War II. Chapel
Hill: U of North Carolina P, 2007.
Levine, Robert S. ed. Clotel, or the President's Daughter. Boston: Bedford, 2000.
Nelson, Emmanuel S. ed. African American Autobiographers: A Sourcebook. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 2002.
- - -. African American Authors, 1745-1945: A Bio-Bibliographical Critical Sourcebook. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 2000.
Stadler, Gustavus. Troubling Minds: The Cultural Politics of Genius in the United States, 1840-1890. Minneapolis: U of Minnesota
P, 2006.
•
•
•
•
•
•
A Brief Biography of Brown












William Wells Brown (1814-1884): A Brief Biography
William Wells Brown was the first African-American to write a novel, a play, and a travel book. He was born in Lexington,
Kentucky in 1815. His father was the white owner of the plantation on which Brown was born.
Brown held many diverse jobs as a youth which provided him with firsthand knowledge of the slave era South which aided him
in his writing. Brown escaped from slavery in January 1834. During his escape he received help from an Ohio Quaker named
Wells Brown (whose name he adopted when he became a free man). After his refuge he taught himself how to read and write.
Brown became an active abolitionist and activist in the anti-slavery movement while working for a journalist for the abolitionist
cause.
He was also important in THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD, which helped slaves escape to freedom in Canada. It was during this
time that Brown married Elizabeth Schooner, a free black woman. They had three children together. After moving to Buffalo,
Brown continued to participate in the UNDERGROUND RAILROAD and also spoke publicly on abolition, women's rights, peace,
and temperance.
In 1843 Brown was invited to lecture for the Anti-Slavery Society and gained renown as a public figure. The American Peace
Society chose him as their representative to the Peace Congress in Europe in 1849.
While Brown was in Europe he delivered over a thousand speeches and wrote some of his most important work, including the
first African American novel Clotel; or The President's Daughter: A Narrative of Slave Life in the United States.
He left Europe in 1854. In 1858 he published the first play by an African-American.
While Brown was in Europe his wife died.
In 1860 he married Annie Elizabeth Grey. Brown continued his political and literary activities. He was a major supporter of black
recruitment efforts during the CIVIL WAR.
He continued to write many literary and historical works including The Black Man: His Antecedents, His Genius, and His
Achievements, and The Negro In American Rebellion: His Heroism and His Fidelity. His final book My Southern Home, or The
South and Its People, appeared in 1880.
It is important to note that Brown's importance in African-American literacy is not only based on his interesting stylistic blends
of melodrama, documentary, abolitionist tract, political critique but also in his willingness to address the issues of sexual
exploitation of female slaves. Interestingly enough, the novel implicates Thomas Jefferson in this practice. The novel also
challenges the inconsistencies that fail to protect the human rights of millions of African-Americans. Brown was able to address
such issues in his literary works that reached a broad audience.
In addition to writing his own works Brown was a contributor to Frederick Douglass’s paper, the Liberator, and to the National
Anti-Slavery Standard and the London Daily News. Brown died on Nov. 6, 1884 in his home in Chelsea, Massachusetts.
French Romanticism and Melodrama
French Melodrama’s Basics
The basic characteristics of French melodrama can be
summarized briefly: a virtuous hero or heroine is
relentlessly hounded by a villain and is rescued
from seemingly insurmountable difficulties only to
undergo a series of threats to life, reputation, or
happiness; an episodic story unfolds after a short
expository scene; each act ends with a strong
climax; all important events occur on stage and
often involve elaborate spectacle (such as battles,
floods, or earthquakes) and local color (such as
festivals, dances, or picturesque working
conditions); the typical plot involves disguise,
abduction, concealed identity, and fortunate
coincidence; strict poetic justice is meted out, for,
although they may succeed until the final scene, the
villains are always defeated; comic relief is provided
by a servant or companion to one of the principal
characters; song, dance, and music provide
additional entertainment or underscore the
emotional value of scenes.
Brown’s Text
Brown takes advantage of all the conventions
afforded by French Melodrama (spectacle,
disguise, abduction, concealed identity,
etc.) to set forth his abolitionist agenda,
positioning Melinda and Glen as the hero
and heroine; Mr. and Mrs. Gaines as the
villains; the brutalities of slavery and
slave-catchers as seemingly
insurmountable difficulties; and American
plantation life for “local color” (allowing
for, in Brown’s case, an African-American
ritual to be incorporated into the play).
Cato provides most f the comic relief and
also leads the CHORUS in song.
Performance History
The Escape was never meant for performance on a proscenium stage. Since neither
slavery nor freedom welcomed blacks to the stage, The Escape was performed
from the pulpit and other alternative arenas that allowed Brown’s voice to be
heard. He transformed spaces with the power of his words, enacting over twenty
character parts to audiences dedicated to the abolitionist movement. At a time
when Christians abhorred the theater as an arena of ungodliness, Brown was a
major catalyst in overturning this taboo for the abolitionist cause.
Cato the Trickster
CATO Yes, massa; I'll tend to 'em.
(exit Dr. GAINES, left) I allers knowed I was a doctor, an' now de ole boss has put me at it, I muss change
my coat. Ef any niggers comes in, I want to look suspectable . Dis jacket don't suit a doctor; I'll change it .
(exit CATO -- immediately returning in a long coat) Ah! now I looks like a doctor. Now I can bleed, pull teef,
or cut off a leg. Oh! well, well, ef I aint put de pill stuff an' de intment stuff togedder. By golly, dat ole cuss
will be mad when he finds it out, won't he? Nebber mind, I'll make it up in pills, and when de flour is on
dem, he won't know what's in 'em; an' I'll make some new intment. Ah! yonder comes Mr. Campbell's
Pete an' Ned; dems de ones massa sed was comin'. I'll see ef I looks right.
(goes to the looking-glass and views himself) I em some punkins, ain't I?
(knock at the door) Come in.
(Enter PETE and NED, right)
PETE Whar is de doctor?
CATO Here I is; don't you see me?
The Specter of Miscegenation
Act 3 Scene 3
MAJ. MOORE Yes, madam, I am. I rather like the Colonel's situation here.
MRS. GAINES It is thought to be a fine location.
(enter SAMPEY, right) Hand me my fan, will you, Sampey?
(SAMPEY gets the fan and passes near the MAJOR, who mistakes the boy for the Colonel's son. He reaches out his
hand)
MAJ. MOORE How do you do, Bob? Madam I should have known that this was the Colonel's son, if I had met
him in California; for he looks so much like his papa.
MRS. GAINES
(to the boy) Get out of here this minute. Go to the kitchen.
(exit SAMPEY, right) That is one of the niggers, sir.
MAJ. MOORE I beg your pardon, madam; I beg your pardon.
MRS. GAINES No offence, sir; mistakes will be made. Ah! here comes the Colonel.
(Enter Dr. GAINES, center)
DR. GAINES Bless my soul, how are you, Major? I'm exceedingly pleased to see you. Be seated, be seated,
Major.
MRS. GAINES Please excuse me, gentlemen; I must go and look after dinner, for I've no doubt that the Major
will have an appetite for dinner, by the time it is ready.
(exit Mrs. GAINES, right)
Speeches of Justification
Glens Speech of Justification and…. Sampey Speaks!
(Interior of a dungeon -- GLEN in chains)
GLEN When I think of my unmerited sufferings, it almost drives me mad. I struck
the doctor, and for that, I must remain here loaded with chains. But why did he
strike me? He takes my wife from me, sends her off, and then comes and beats me
over the head with his cane. I did right to strike him back again. I would I had killed
him. Oh! there is a volcano pent up in the hearts of the slaves of these Southern
States that will burst forth ere long. When that day comes, wo to those whom its
unpitying fury may devour! I would be willing to die, if I could smite down with
these chains every man who attempts to enslave his fellow-man.
(Enter SAMPEY, right)
SAMPEY Glen, I jess bin hear massa call de oberseer , and I spec somebody is
gwine to be whipped. Anudder ting: I know whar massa took Linda to. He took her
to de poplar farm, an' he went away las' night, an' missis she follow after massa, an'
she ain't come back yet. I tell you, Glen, de debil will be to pay on dis place, but
don't you tell anybody dat I tole you.
(exit SAMPEY, right)
Jumping the Broom
Is a ceremony dating back to the 1600s and derived from Africa. Dating back to slave days, jumping the broom together
has been part of weddings for couples who want to honor that tradition. It also has roots in the Celtic culture and
including but not limited to Welsh, Celtics, Druids, and Gypsies and some aboriginal or shamanistic cultures.
Some couples choose to incorporate it into traditional and non-traditional ceremonies. Broom jumping is a brief
ceremony usually within the wedding ceremony toward the end. The jumping of the broom is symbolic of binding
a couple in marriage and also can be used to symbolize fertility and prosperity of the couple.
The "Jumping the Broom" is a ceremony in which the bride and groom, either at the ceremony or at the reception,
signify their entrance into a new life and their creation of a new family by symbolically "sweeping away" their
former single lives, former problems and concerns, and jumping over the broom to enter upon a new adventure as
wife and husband.
Jumping the broom or in some cases jumping over an imaginary line is an African ritual, or tradition still being practiced
in some parts of West Africa. Jumping the broom is not associated with slavery. Enslaved Africans, as an
affirmation of their cultural heritage practiced it during slavery in North America.
This "leap" into a new life (marriage as wife and husband is performed in the presence of families and friends. You can
be as creative as you want when planning for this special ceremony.
The broom has both symbolic and spiritual importance in the African culture. The ritual itself was created by our
ancestors during slavery. Because slaves could not legally marry, they created their own rituals to honor their
unions. Some say broom jumping comes from an African tribal marriage ritual of placing sticks on the ground
representing the couple's new home.
The straws of the broom represent family; the handle represents the Almighty; the ribbon represents the tie that binds
the couple together.
Close Readings
Act 3 Scene 2
Act 3, Scene 2
(The kitchen -- slaves at work. Enter HANNAH, right)
HANNAH Oh, Cato, do go and tell missis dat you don't want to jump de broomstick wid me, -dat's a good man! Do, Cato; kase I nebber can love you. It was only las week dat massa sold my
Sammy, and I don't want any udder man. Do go tell missis dat you don't want me.
CATO No, Hannah, I ain't a gwine to tell missis no such think, kase I dose want you, and I ain't agwine to tell a lie for you ner nobody else. Dar, now you's got it! I don't see why you need to
make so much fuss. I is better lookin' den Sam; an' I is a house servant, an' Sam was only a fiel
hand; so you ought to feel proud of a change. So go and do as missis tells you.
(exit HANNAH, left) Hannah needn't try to get me to tell a lie; I ain't a-gwine to do it, kase I dose want
her, an' I is bin wantin' her dis long time, an' soon as massa sold Sam, I knowed I would get her.
By golly, I is gwine to be a married man. Won't I be happy! Now, ef I could only jess run away
from ole massa, an' get to Canada wid Hannah, den I'd show 'em who I was. Ah! dat reminds me
of my song 'bout ole massa and Canada, an' I'll sing it fer yer. Dis is my moriginal hyme. It comed
into my head one night when I was fass asleep under an apple tree, looking up at de moon. Now
for my song : -AIR -- "Dandy Jim" Come all ye bondmen far and near, Let's put a song in massa's ear, It is a song for
our poor race, Who're whipped and trampled with disgrace.
[CHORUS] My old massa tells me, Oh, This is a land of freedom, Oh; Let's look about and see if it's
so, Just as massa tells me, Oh. He tells us of that glorious one, I think his name was Washington,
How he did fight for liberty, To save a threepence tax on tea.
(Chorus) But now we look about and see That we poor blacks are not so free; We're whipped and
thrashed about like fools, And have no chance at common schools.
(Chorus) They take our wives, insult and mock, And sell our children on the block, They choke us if we
say a word, And say that "niggers" shan't be heard.
(Chorus) Our preachers, too, with whip and cord, Command obedience in the Lord; They say they
learn it from the big book, But for ourselves, we dare not look.
(Chorus) There is a country far away, I think they call it Canada, And if we reach Victoria's shore, They
say that we are slaves no more. Now haste, all bondmen, let us go, And leave this Christian
country, Oh; Haste to the land of the British Queen, Where whips for negroes are not seen.
Now, if we go, we must take the night, And never let them come in sight; The bloodhounds will
be on our track, And wo to us if they fetch us back. Now haste all bondmen, let us go, And leave
this Christian country, Oh; God help us to Victoria's shore, Where we are free and slaves no
more!
(Enter Mrs. GAINES, left )
Talking Points
1)
The secrecy of
staged ritual
2)
Critiquing the
U.S.
3)
U.S. as
conman
4)
From
Washington to
Doctor: the
metaphor of
decline
5)
The
incorporation
of ritual on
stage
6)
Christianity
7)
Chorus
Melodrama and Ritual Subversion
Swept off Her Feet
Talking Points
MRS. GAINES Yes, Melinda, I will see that you are taken
away, but it shall be after a fashion that you won't like. I
know that your master loves you, and I intend to put a stop
to it. Here, drink the contents of this vial, -- drink it!
MELINDA Oh, you will not take my life, -- you will not!
MRS. GAINES Drink the poison this moment !
MELINDA I cannot drink it.
MRS. GAINES I tell you to drink this poison at once. Drink
it, or I will thrust this knife to your heart! The poison or the
dagger, this instant!
(she draws a dagger; MELINDA retreats to the back of the
room, and seizes a broom .)
MELINDA I will not drink the poison!
(they fight; MELINDA sweeps off Mrs. GAINES, -- cap, combs
and curls. Curtain falls)
1)
The nature of the conflict
2)
Miscegenation
3)
The symbol of the dagger
4)
The symbol of the broom
5)
Brown’s decision to use a broom as the
instrument of resistance, and its
significance with respect to “Standards
and Practices…”
Close Reading:
Act 5 Scene 3
OFFICER Get out of the way! Gentlemen, we'll go up the shore.
(exit, left)
(Enter CATO, right)
CATO I is loss fum de cumpny, but dis is de ferry, and I spec dey'll soon come. But didn't we have a
good time las' night in Buffalo? Dem dar Buffalo gals make my heart flutter, dat dey did. But, tanks
be to de Lord, I is got religion. I got it las' night in de meetin'. Before I got religion, I was a great
sinner; I got drunk, an' took de name of de Lord in vain. But now I is a conwerted man; I is bound
for hebben; I toats de witness in my bosom; I feel dat my name is rote in de book of life. But dem
niggers in de Vine Street Church las' night shout an' make sich a fuss, dey give me de headache.
But, tank de Lord, I is got religion, an' now I'll be a preacher, and den dey'll call me de Rev .
Alexander Washinton Napoleon Pompey Caesar. Now I'll preach and pull teef, bofe at de same time.
Oh, how I wish I had Hannah wid me! Cuss ole massa, fer ef it warn't for him, I could have my wife
wid me. Ef I hadn't religion, I'd say "Damn ole massa !" but as I is a religious man, an' belongs to de
church, I won't say no sich a thing. But who is dat I see comin'? Oh, it's a whole heap of people.
Good Lord! what is de matter?
(Enter GLEN and MELINDA, left, followed by OFFICERS)
GLEN Let them come; I am ready for them. He that lays hands on me or my wife shall feel the
weight of this club.
Talking Points
1)
Religion and
Slavery
2)
Word Play:
Minstrelsy
and
Conversion
3)
The symbolic
resonance of
Cato’s New
Name
4)
Fusing
elements of
melodrama,
Romanticism,
and minstelsy
5)
Mr.White
6)
Performative
or Didactic or
both and
why?
MELINDA Oh, Glen, let's die here, rather than again go into slavery.
OFFICER I am the United States Marshal. I have a warrant from the Commissioner to take you, and
bring you before him. I command assistance.
(Enter Dr. GAINES, SCRAGG, and OFFICER, right)
DR. GAINES Here they are. Down with the villain! down with him! but don't hurt the gal!
(Enter Mr. WHITE, right)
MR. WHITE Why, bless me! these are the slaveholding fellows. I'll fight for freedom!
(takes hold of his umbrella with both hands. -- The fight commences, in which GLEN, CATO, Dr. GAINES,
SCRAGG, WHITE, and the OFFICERS, take part. -- FERRYMAN enters, and runs to his boat. -- Dr.
GAINES, SCRAGG and the OFFICERS are knocked down, GLEN, MELINDA and CATO jump into the
boat, and as it leaves the shore and floats away, GLEN and CATO wave their hats, and shout loudly
for freedom. -- Curtain falls )
The Escape…
Combining Traditions
Biography
Theatrical Conventions of French Romanticism and
Melodrama
The Rituals and Artistic Production of Plantation Life
Minstrelsy
A Hybrid Black Theatre with a Dual Purpose
In Dahomey
Minstrelsy
Vaudeville
Popular Art
Folklore
Musical Comedy/ Light Opera
Farce designed to Lampoon “Repatriation” as a solution to
the “Race Problem”
The History of the Minstrel Show
1) 1769- Lewis Hallman performs is blackface in the play The
Padlock
2) 1769-1843- Performers of so-called “Negro Music”
increasingly use blackface in their performances and are
dubbed “minstrels”
3) 1843- The Virginia Minstrels perform at the New York Bowery
Ampitheatre
4) 1843- E.P. Christy founds the Christy Minstrels, who establish
the template for minstrel show for the next three decades
5) 1843-1865- The rise of minstrelsy coincides with the growing
abolitionist movement in the U.S., and isoften used as
propaganda to promote the image of the contented slave
6) 1860s- Blackface begins to serve as a sort of fool’s mask,
allowing the performers to lampoon virtually anything
without offending the audience.
7) 1860s- The minstrel show increasingly becomes associated
with social criticism during the Civil War, advocating for
abolition, women’s rights, and temperance. Black performers
begin to use blackface
8) 1890s- Vaudeville gradually replaces minstrelsy as America’s
favorite genre of theatrical comedy
The Structure of the Minstrel Show
PART 1- The entire troupe danced onto stage singing a popular song. Upon the instruction of the
interlocutor, a sort of host, they sat in a semicircle. Various stock characters always took the same positions:
the genteel interlocutor in the middle, flanked by Tambo and Bones, who served as the endmen or
cornermen. The interlocutor acted as a master of ceremonies and as a dignified, if pompous, straight man
while the endmen exchanged jokes and performed a variety of humorous songs. Over time, the first act
came to include maudlin numbers not always in dialect. One minstrel, usually a tenor, came to specialize in
this part; such singers often became celebrities, especially with women. Initially, an upbeat plantation song
and dance ended the act; later it was more common for the first act to end with a walkaround, including
dances in the style of a cakewalk
PART 2- The “olio”-” had of a variety show structure. Performers danced, played instruments, did acrobatics,
and demonstrated other amusing talents. Troupes offered parodies of European-style entertainments, and
European troupes themselves sometimes performed.
PART 3/FINALE- Uusually one actor, typically one of the endmen , delivered a faux-black-dialect stump
speech, a long oration about anything from nonsense to science, society, or politics, during which the dimwitted character tried to speak eloquently, only to deliver countless malapropisms, jokes, and unintentional
puns. All the while, the speaker moved about like a clown, standing on his head and almost always falling off
his stump at some point. With blackface makeup serving as fool’s mask, these stump speakers could deliver
biting social criticism without offending the audience, although the focus was usually on sending up
unpopular issues and making fun of blacks' ability to make sense of them.
Musical Number
Stump Speech
Endmen Comedy Routine
Endmen Dancing
Vaudeville:
“The Heart of American Show Business”
1) Vaudeville was a theatrical genre of variety
entertainment in the United States and
Canada from the early 1880s until the early
1930s.
2) Each performance was made up of a series of
separate, unrelated acts grouped together on
a common bill.
3) Types of acts included popular and classical
musicians, dancers, comedians, trained
animals, magicians, female and male
impersonators, acrobats, jugglers, one-act
plays or scenes from plays, minstrels and
movies .
4) Although its origins may lie in Voix de Ville, it is
a distinctly American form of polite,
bourgeoisie entertainment.
In Dahomey?
The origins of Dahomey (present day Benin) can be
traced back to a group of Aja from the coastal kingdom
of Allada who moved northward and settled among
the Fon People of the interior. By about 1650, the Aja
managed to dominate the Fon, and Wegbaja declared
himself king of their joint territory. Based in his capital
of Agbome, Wegbaja and his successors succeeded in
establishing a highly centralized state with a deeprooted kingship cult of sacrificial offerings. These
included an emphasis on human sacrifices in large
numbers, to the ancestors of the monarch
Economically, however, Wegbaja and his successors
profited mainly from the slave trade and relations with
slavers along the coast. As Dahomey's kings embarked
on wars to expand their territory, they began using
rifles and other firearms traded with French and
Spanish slave traders for young men captured in battle,
who fetched a very high price from the European slave
merchants.
Key Terms and Ideas
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Minstrelsy
Atavistic Primitivism
Cultural Production as Cultural Fabric
Early Pan-Africanism: The Agenda of Origin
Black Nationalism and Internationalism
Hybridity
The (in)compatability of European Forms and African-American
Expression
8) Using Theatre to Redress Issues and Concerns that, in part, are the
creation of the theatre of times past (turning to minstrelsy to help
solve the race promlem)
9) Meta-theatricality
10) The idea that the origin of African-American identity lies in the
cultural production of the Southern plantation
Williams and Walker:
A More Sophisticated Black Theatre?
• George Walker and Egbert Austin
Williams were a vaudeville comedy team
and had one of the most renowned and
successful stage partnerships in
American theatrical history. They
decided to team up when they met in
San Francisco in the early 1890's.
Williams and Walker pioneered a new
kind of "Black" humor and eventually
developed their own company. With
musical shows such as "Clorindy, the
Origin of the Cakewalk," "Sons of Ham,"
and "In Dahomey," they opened the door
for other African-American actors,
singers, dancers, and musicians, and
sought to redefine the boundaries of
Black Theater.
Paul Lawrence Dunbar (18721906)
1)The first African-American poet to garner national critical acclaim.
2)Dunbar penned a large body of dialect poems, standard English poems, essays,
novels and short stories before he died at the age of 33.
3)His work often addressed the difficulties encountered by members of his race and
the efforts of African-Americans to achieve equality in America. He was praised both
by the prominent literary critics of his time and his literary contemporaries.
4) Dunbar decided to publish a book of poems. Oak and Ivy, his first collection, was
published in 1892.
5) In 1893, he was invited to recite at the World's Fair, where he met Frederick
Douglass, the renowned abolitionist who rose from slavery to political and literary
prominence in America. Douglass called Dunbar "the most promising young colored
man in America."
6)Dunbar's second book, Majors and Minors propelled him to national fame.
7)In 1897, Dunbar traveled to England to recite his works on the London literary
circuit.
8)In 1902, Dunbar and his wife separated.
9)He ultimately produced 12 books of poetry, four books of short stories, a play and
five novels. His work appeared in Harper's Weekly, the Sunday Evening Post, the
Denver Post, Current Literature and a number of other magazines and journals.
Will Marion Cook (1869-1944)
1) The first great African-American composer for the musical stage.
2) Trained at the Oberlin Conservatory, the National Conservatory of Music in New York under Anton Dvorak
and in Berlin, Germany at Hochschule fur Musik.
3) IN 1890, he begins to compose that drew on the idioms and themes of African-American folklore and
music.
4) Throughout the 1890s and 1900s, he composed for the stage shows of Bert Williams, the leading black
comic and vaudevillian. I
5) In 1889 Cook produced and wrote the music for Clorindy, the Origin of the Cakewalk. This debut in the
theater world was a series of skits. The skits were written in an hour-long session between Cook and the
celebrated African American dialect poet Paul Lawrence Dunbar. It was the first musical comedy written,
directed, and performed entirely by African-American artists. The show opened at the Casino Theater
Roof Garden in New York to rave reviews and enjoyed success on Broadway and in London. The beauty
of the lead dancer Ada Overton Walker prompted the cakewalk dance craze among even the highsociety of New York.
6) Named Composer-in-Chief and Musical Director for William Walker's Broadway shows. He went on to
compose the music for a number of popular black musicals, including In Dahomey (1903)
7) Cook composed Abyssinia in 1906, but his reliance on ragtime left him behind the changing tastes. He led
his Southern Syncopated Orchestra, a huge ragtime and concert ensemble, and composed "I'm Coming,
Virginia" and "Mammy" in the 1910s.
8) His last European tour by his orchestra was in 1919. It was then that critics noted that he had developed
an emerging jazz style
Jesse Shipp
Writer, Director, Lyricist
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ON BROADWAY
Productions Dates of Production
Kilpatrick's Old-Time Minstrels [Original, Musical, Minstrel]
Staged by Jesse A. Shipp
Apr 19, 1930 - Apr 26, 1930
The Green Pastures [Original, Play, Play with music]
Performer: Jesse A. Shipp [Abraham];
Performer: Jesse A. Shipp [Archangel]
Feb 26, 1930 - Aug 29, 1931
Mr. Lode of Koal [Original, Musical]
Book by Jesse A. Shipp;
Lyrics by Jesse A. Shipp
Nov 1, 1909 - Dec 4, 1909
Bandanna Land [Original, Musical, Comedy]
Starring: Jesse A. Shipp [Mose Blackstone];
Staged by Jesse A. Shipp;
Book by Jesse A. Shipp;
Lyrics by Jesse A. Shipp
Feb 3, 1908 - Apr 18, 1908
Abyssinia [Original, Musical, Comedy]
Performer: Jesse A. Shipp [The Affa Negus Tegulet];
Staged by Jesse A. Shipp;
Dahomey [Original, Musical, Farce]
Performer: Jesse A. Shipp [Hustling Charley];
Book by Jesse A. Shipp
Feb 18, 1903 - Apr 4, 1903
Sons of Ham [Revival, Musical, Comedy]
Performer: Jesse A. Shipp [Professor Switchen];
Staged by Jesse A. Shipp;
Book by Jesse A. Shipp
Apr 29, 1901 - May 4,
The Policy Players [Original, Musical, Comedy, Farce]
Directed by Jesse A. Shipp
Oct 16, 1899 - Apr 9, 1900