#BLACK THEATER

[black-is-beautiful18]

The term trauma porn has got to be removed from Black ppls vocabulary cuz a lot of the time y’all not even using it correctly. The Color Purple in all it’s forms is not trauma porn. If you didn’t get the message from the 3 versions of it that exist then that’s on you. I can’t do anything for you. Those experiences are very real for Black women and no it’s not propaganda against Black men. If you think that it’s somehow saying that all Black men are abusers then, again, that is a you problem. Figure it out but for the love of god stop talking about stuff you didn’t even know existed until yesterday.🧍🏾‍♀️🧍🏾‍♀️

[bdfurrow]

Via FlourishCulture

[cowgirl-frog]

Blackness and Theater: A Rant

Soo I know no one will see this and it's kinda random but I saw a post saying new tumblrs need to actually post things so imma ramble.

I haaate black "representation" in theater. Before anybody comes for my neck, I am black. But as a musical lover specifically, i am sick of slave stories and racism and one black character per production so you can meet your quota(*cough* dear evan hansen *cough*). All the groundbreaking representation people talk about is usually just black comedic side characters who talk about oppression every two seconds and are loud and angry and they fight and they only listen to rap music. There isn't anything wrong with characters like that, but it's so annoying to have that be the only representation of your race. People scream about how broadway is soooo diverse, but when you are any minority that isn't white (or white passing, or white adjacent), you and your culture will become the same monolithic, stereotypical representation that you could get anywhere else. It's just really frustrating. And honestly, I can't even really be mad at theater specifically, because it's EVERYWHERE. When you watch a horror movie, the black character always dies first. When you watch a drama or a comedy, there's always a sassy uppity black friend to give the white female lead advice, OR its a black show in which there is a wrongful imprisonment/police brutality incident/overtly racist white characters/absent father/gangs/drugs/robbery etc. I'm just so tired of it. Why can't black characters have fantastical stories free of racism in two parent households? Why can't black women have emotions? Why can't black men have hobbies? In Funny Girl, the issue isn't that Fanny Brice is Jewish, that's just a thing that she is. It might inform how she sees the world or how she interacts with it, but that's not the plot. In black stories, them being black IS the plot. The existence of blackness is enough of an issue to warrant a whole story being told, and I hate it. I wish black people could engage with escapism like everyone else. It's come to the point where I sometimes avoid watching shows with large black casts because I KNOW that it will become a tragedy by virtue of their blackness. When you look up articles about black theater, you get results like:

ALL of the works cited in BOTH of these articles are focused on slavery and or racism. And there's nowhere I can look to make that picture any better, because according to producers and writers, that's all my culture is and all it ever will be.

Tl:dr In both theater and and society at large, being black is boiled down to racism and tragedy, and a wrote a very long post to my other wise unproductive blog to ramble about how my culture's representation is awful. (Aka I'm trying to be an opinion journalist in an attempt to graduate from my wish I was white era)

[trouble-clef]

Omg Alex Newell has come so far since the glee project! They deserve it. They deserve it so much.

There are so many black people at and nominated for and winning Tonys, this gives me hope. Things are really changing.

[staticsnowfall]

michaela mabinty deprince (1995-2024)

🩰˚✧₊⁎

today, september 13th, 2024, the ballet world lost an extraordinary dancer and woman.

michaela mabinty deprince was born on january 6th, 1995, as mabinty bangura, in sierra-leone. she was orphaned, her parents passing to due to both direct and indirect causes of the civil war in her home country. she was demonized by her caretakers for her vitiligo, being called a “devil’s child”, and suffering from other forms of neglect and abuse. in 1999, deprince was adopted by an american couple along with another girl, and they were taken to new jersey, united states of america.

her hopes of becoming a ballerina had been planted when she found a ballerina on a magazine cover in her home country. she didn’t know of ballet at the time, but treasured the picture and dreamed of dancing. this dream blossomed into truth when she moved to the states, being put into ballet lessons soon after her arrival. deprince was a four-time participant in youth america grand prix, one of the largest ballet competitions in the united states. she was awarded a scholarship to study at the jaqueline kennedy onassis school of ballet, the associate school of american ballet theatre.

despite facing racial discrimination and other hardships in and out of the industry, deprince persisted in her dream of becoming a professional ballet dancer. in 2012, at the age of 16, she became the youngest member of dance theatre of harlem, and the next year, she joined the junior company of the dutch national ballet. she soon rose through the ranks, joining the main company and attaining the rank of soloist. she was the first dancer of african origin to ever join the company, and a shining advocate and role model for black women in ballet.

her other accomplishments include being an ambassador for war child holland, a dutch organization working to improve the wellbeing and resilience of children directly affected by war. she visited uganda and lebanon through the organization. she also appeared in beyoncé’s 2016 music video for ‘freedom’.

she will dance among all the stars in the sky. rest in peace beautiful michaela mabinty, you are already so missed. ♡

[twittercomfrnklin2001-blog]

Purlie Victorious

PURLIE VICTORIOUS by Ossie Davis directed by Kenny Leon: Kenny Leon wisely opens the first Broadway revival of Ossie Davis’ pioneering play with the actors helping each other into their costumes before posing for a picture. This demonstration of the way actors help each other regardless of race, gender, etc., allows us to laugh at (not with) the racism of the play’s era. Leslie Odom, Jr. stars as a self-taught preacher and con man out to claim his inheritance by passing a young woman (Kara Young) off to the wealthy white landowner (Jay O. Saunders) as heir to a $500 bequest that will save the black people’s church. Leon’s production is energetic, sometimes so much so that words get garbled. But there’s some inspired playing from all the actors, with Young doing some particularly impressive physical work as the uneducated kitchen worker who tries to pass herself off as a sophisticated college graduate. Davis’ script is full of good ideas and good comic writing, particularly for Odom’s brother (Billy Eugene Jones), who slips little double meanings into his more subservient moments. This was a great way to end my New York trip, and if this review is a little short, it’s because I’m exhausted and fighting a cold.

[zegalba]

Hans Poelzig: "The Great Theater" (1919)

[h2shonotes]

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A post shared by Tara Rubin Casting (@tararubincasting)

For the second time in a month both the @NYT and its theater critic @JesseKGreen have been called out for their overt racism in reviewing. First, it was actor Tonya Pinkins. This time by the producers of #KPOP.

November 12, A Raisin in the Sun star Tonya Pinkins wrote a lengthy letter to Green on Medium last month, arguing he viewed the play through a white lens with little regard for the lived Black experience and contributed to its early closure.

Lo and behold, Green is being accused of a redux but this time the object of his selective pale gaze is a musical told from the prism of Korean music.

In response to the producers of KPOP, the NYT editors convened and doubled down. (No indication was given regarding the diversity of this NYT internal panel.) They released a statement more-or-less affirming that the white gaze is their artistic editorial standard and they see nothing wrong with it.

"We saw the open letter written about The Times's review of KPOP and quickly convened a discussion among editors and members of our standards department. This group was in agreement that Jesse's review was fair. More importantly, we wholly disagree with the argument that Jesse's criticism is somehow racist. We always welcome feedback and reaction to our journalism, and have conveyed a similar reply to the producers who wrote the open letter."

So now we all know, officially. Reader beware.

[maxyartwork]

black widow (the avengers; 2012) commission 🩵

[inthedarktrees]

Ingrid Bergman plays actress Mary Grey who is playing Joan of Arc, in the play Joan of Lorraine, 1946. In this scene, Grey begins to truly understand her character as she awaits her execution in prison.

[lilacthebooklover]

i like to think that the lords in black chose to be called that for the lols. they show up at summonings like "it's us the lords in black <3" while dressed in bright neon and watch as confusion ensues. legends.

[black-is-beautiful18]

Y’all don’t want colorism to be discussed in a piece of work not only where it is involved but is written by the same author who coined the term….Do y’all hear how y’all sound?

[marvel]

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Just gonna leave this here for you all. A gift from the Wakanda Forever press tour.

[goformoony]

james potter, mary macdonald and peter pettigrew would be theater kids i don’t make the rules.

[trouble-clef]

Watching the Tonys and Topdog/Underdog just won for best revival and it makes me tear up to just see so many black people on that stage.

[psykhet]