#african american theatre

[afrotumble]

Glory Van Scott next to Elizabeth Catlett's sculpture, Glory.

[twixnmix]

Lena Horne and her father Teddy Horne backstage at the Stanley Theatre in Pittsburgh, 1944.

Photos by Charles Harris

[tomorrowusa]

The Donald "Dozy Donny" Trump trial has been pushing other items out of the news. But it is not the only news story making history in New York.

Zeita Merchant just became the first woman of color to reach the rank of admiral in the US Coast Guard.

Her promotion ceremony took place at the NYC theater which hosts the play Hamilton. Alexander Hamilton happens to be the father of the Coast Guard.

Adm. Merchant decided to join the Coast Guard at the last minute. It turned out to be a good choice and she became a career officer, rising through the ranks to admiral.

By coincidence, I visited Alexander Hamilton after the solar eclipse earlier this month. He probably would have been pleased by this connection to him in the 21st century.

[story-on-stage]

I'm thinking of starting a series to highlight different theatrical works to help bring awareness to plays and musicals that maybe don't get as much notice, but also to help fill in people's knowledge gaps.

Are there shows you want to know more about? Or want me to highlight one of your faves? Ask box is open.

[do-you-know-this-play]

[personal-blog243]

The Book of Mormon musical:

. Portrays black people as stupid, uneducated, dirty, unhygienic, violent, baby-raping, primitive, savages, who thing raping babies is a magical cure for AIDS and have maggots in their scrotums and have never heard of Disney or texting even though white western missionaries visit their town EVERY. SINGLE. FUCKING. YEAR.

. Makes fun of African accents.

. Portrays white supremacist colonialists and imperialists as harmless, innocent, charming, lovable, naïve, well-meaning, nice, goofballs, with individuality and complex personalities and character arcs. (And significantly more lines and stage time).

. Is directed and produced by an almost entirely white crew who did not hire a single African consultant.

. Doesn’t properly subvert the white savior narrative and instead just plays the traditional trope vaguely “ironically”

. Only includes cis-het, abled, white men in all advertisements so you don’t know it’s about Africans until you’ve already bought your ticket. Instead the ads just have a picture of a random doorknob???

Eclipsed: play by Danai Gurira

. Is a powerful play about the Liberian civil war told from the perspective of Liberian women (writtten by Danai Gurira of The Walking Dead and Black Panther). Starring Lupita Nyong’o from Black Panther, The Woman King, 12 years ago slave, and US; it’s historically and culturally accurate and has a message about the ethics of different strategies of activism.

[jazzreloaded]

Play On! By Talawa Theatre @Belgrade Theatre 26 / 09/ 24

Review by Vidal Montgomery

The press night performance of Play On! - A Broadway Blues with a twist on "Twelfth Night" - was not undersold in terms of bums on seats ( because it was a full house, and based on this showing it deserves a full house everywhere it goes!), but in terms of spectacle; because for the near-three hours running time, it was thoroughly engaging, spectacularly entertaining and, despite dealing with some serious subject matters ( such as how a misogynistic Harlem resists change, made all the more relevant with the recent revelations around Music Moghul Sean Comb's recent indictment), it was joyful for the audience from start to end, evidenced by the raucous laughter, gasps and applause throughout.

The title "Play On!" may also refer to the four year development process to get a work of this magnitude and depth and craft and intimacy and nuance in front of a live audience; it is no mean feat that this splendid work of Ellingtonian excellence by Liam Godwin and Benjamin Burell is finally in front of an audience, and with a truly magnificent cast from top to bottom:

Although the dramaturgy obviously has its focal characters, the dancers / understudies / supporting cast acquit themselves equally well, and the audience is gifted with over a dozen amazing voices ( of which Lifford Shillingford was my personal favourite ), who perform comparably, shouldering the responsibility of energetic dance, tense drama and soulful song, and carrying the narrative along. This for me is the most captivating thing about this show. Tanya Edwards as Miss Mary and Llewellyn Jamal as Jester deliver stylish and soulful performances late on into the second act just I thought the show had probably reached its peak - boy was I wrong!

The core story of Play On! revolves around the day Duke Ellington loses his muse, and the lengths- and distance! - one lucky lady will go to to help him get it back; Earl Gregory, Koko Alexandra, Tsemaye Bob Egbe, and Cameron Bernard Jones play the four pillars of the love quadrangle that is "The Duke", his old flame ( lady Liv ) , his new muse ( Viola "Vyman" ) and Rev, the manager of the Cotton Club clutching at straws and clasping his hands in his hopes of keeping the four together as exemplars of Ellingtonian Excellence - and also keeping the show on the road...

Sadly the live band - directed by the unassuming Ashton Moore and delightfully driven by the delicate drumming of Empirical's own Shane Forbes - are not featured as characters in their own right - I am sure that later productions in the three month run will attend to this oversight.

Despite this, the mix of moods and blues and beats and grooves from the bandstand become the main character, and for me ( as a musician! ) this is the star of the show: Ellingtonian Classics like Mood Indigo, I got it Bad, It Don't mean a thing, Black Butterfly Rocks In My Bed and In a Mellow Tone are turned inside out and taken back from the trash heap of Abersold Appropriation,and are played in a way that suits the strengths of individual artists, and balances temperaments of their characters as a whole as they play moves towards reaches its climactic reveal; at this moment the only other disappointment was that the band was not as big as, say, the English Touring Opera's for the recent run of "The Rakes Progress" : With this amount of dramatic tension in the stage, and with the audience in the palm of the band's hands the Ellington Big band, really needs to be a BIG band.

As it was, on the night Kaz Hamilton and Alexander Polack acquited themselves very well, making a myriad of moods that were both historically authentic and stylistically de jour. And the commitment to shared seat of Chris Hyde / Josh Vadivello on Double bass ( NO electric big band era please! ) brings gravitas authenticity and sensuality to the greatest american songbook in a way that only a Double Bass can. This show is all about that bass!

Having recently sat through the often turgid and salacious KAOS, a reworking of the mythology of Orpheus and Euridice, ( which was not a patch on Marcel Camus Seminal 1950's classic ) and also attended the afforementioned reworking of Igor Stravinsky's "Rake's Progress" ( often not my sense of humour, albeit markedly less turgid and salacious than Charlie Covell's Netflix Production ) I was far from convinced that , per se, " A reworking of Twelfth Night " was going to as vivacious, contemporary , and nourishing to the soul as it turned out to be. But on this occasion I was rewarded for my bravery ( And by "bravery" I mean only braving the inclement British weather ) , and I will forever regard Play On! as somewhat of a late birthday present - ( or maybe early Christmas gift? )

Ironically, whilst sipping free Prosecco and listening to a(nother) jazz function band in the reception area after the show , I had the good fortune to speak with one the trustees of the Talawa Theatre and we discussed how important it may be to not label Play On! as ( simply ) a "jazz show", because of how many people may miss out on an amazing contemporary socially and culturally relevant human experience, simply because they do not know or have not yet been sold the depth and breadth of the jazz canon.

But Play On! is "Jazz Hands" in safe hands. And I can say with confidence that Talawa Theatre have a winner on their hands; it is Black Joy. And "Black Joy" may turn out to be a better euphemism for the vibrancy we expect "Jazz" to bring to us. Congratulations on the fully immersive experience that Director Michael Buffong brought to the Belgrade Theatre tonight.

PS: As with many theatre shows, the stupidly difficult train schedule doesn't really support the 2+ hour format, but I can only say that on this occasion it was worth missing our last train to catch the "A Train" one more time...

Talawa’s Black Joy season presents:

Play On!

A new Jazz musical

Based on Shakespeare’s

“Twelfth Night”

Conceived by Sheldon Epps

Book by Cheryl L.West

Music by Duke Ellington

Produced by Talawa Theatre Company and The Belgrade Theatre

Co-produced with Birmingham Hippodrome, Bristol Old Vic, Liverpool Everyman & Playhouse, Lyric Hammersmith Theatre and Wiltshire Creative

Artwork by Feast Creative

For the full programme, click or scan the image below:

[kemetic-dreams]

Marian Anderson (1897-1993)

Though she’s considered one of the greatest contralto singers in the world, Anderson was often denied the opportunity to show off her unique vocal range because of her race. However, in 1955, she became the first African American to perform at the Metropolitan Opera, and in 1957, she went on a 12-nation tour sponsored by the Department of State and the American National Theatre and Academy. She documented the experience in her autobiography, My Lord What a Morning. In 1963, she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Her last major accomplishment before her death was receiving the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Grammys in 1991.

[writemarcus]

Dev Bondarin is directing a reading of my kitchen-sink dramedy TUMBLEWEED with the UP Theater Company (www.uptheater.org). The reading will take place on Sunday, January 21st at 3pm at Ft. Washington Collegiate Church located at 729 W. 181st St. (1 train to 181st).

Kirby Fields, artistic director of the UP Theatre Company recently spoke with the Manhattan News recently about their Dead of Winter series: ‘Fields says it is particularly gratifying to establish relationships with writers. Marcus Scott, who wrote the third play in the series, “Tumbleweed,” came to a staged reading last year. Then he sent Fields a number of his own plays.

“This guy is just bursting with ideas,” said Fields. “He’s pulling from philosophy, pop culture…he’s culling from all different racial dynamics on stage and putting them all together.” Directed by Dev Bondarin, the play revolves around a young Black woman with “hair like a tumbleweed” who tries to reconcile different standards of beauty.’

👩🏾‍🦱👩🏿‍🦱👩🏽‍🦱👩🏾‍🦱👩🏿‍🦱👩🏽‍🦱👩🏾‍🦱👩🏿‍🦱👩🏽‍🦱👩🏾‍🦱👩🏿‍🦱👩🏽‍🦱👩🏾‍🦱👩🏿‍🦱👩🏽‍🦱👩🏾‍🦱👩🏿‍🦱👩🏽‍🦱

Read the story: Manhattan Times

[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)

[africanamericanreports]

CJay Philip, founder and creative director of Dance & Bmore theatre programs in Baltimore, Md., has been selected as the 2024 winner of the Excellence in Theatre Education Award. The award, co-founded by the American Theatre Wing, The Broadway League and Carnegie Mellon University, will be presented at the 77th Annual Tony Awards in New York City on Sunday, June 16.

[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. ♡

[thenerdsofcolor]

'Rise' is an Inspired Story of Love and Legacy

Theater is a wide and wonderful world; a place of imagination, depth, and hundreds, if not thousands, of years of historical relevancy. It’s given us the gift of Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest, Shakespeare’s Hamlet, August Wilson’s Fences, and Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun, among so many other classics that have affected not just audience sensibilities but have helped frame…

[lenbryant]

Here's this week's Variety interview with playwright Jeremy O. Harris at Cannes.

[sylviareviar]

Make a Blinkie for your Character(s)!

Tagged by: @the-flower-karasu

Tagging: steal from me <3

[ukdamo]

The Lyric Theatre: Lyceum of Dreams

Nick Finney - On the occasion of the reopening of the Lyric Theatre, 1940s Black dream house, Lexington, Kentucky

On the East End, we shine our own shoes, dress our own legs,

smooth down willful hair, let all new trouble float. Done-up.

We promenade and pass, Deweese (DoAsYouPlease) & 3rd, where

Winkfield & Murphy once hoofed & flew backwards, black-winged,

on horseback. Under the blazing marquee we hand our shiny quarter

over, glide toward, then across, our eight-point star, rose-tile light

of regeneration. In the dark theatre, the salt-cod sweat of work, now left

behind, names hurled our way all day, now set aside, pay cheques that never

match our labour folded away now. House lights dim: Paul Robeson is

Othello. Miss Ella strikes & swings. The Duke & Count jazz-juice the night,

royalty speaks to royalty. The Ink Spots spill all with Sarah Vaughan, Miss Mahalia

orchestrates & moans and moonbeams, Candy Johnson & his Peppermint Sticks

fill every inch of stage. Marian Anderson poses her hands in alto-soprano.

Woody Strode, our Black cowboy, wild-rides the open oat fields & range.

Our dusty eyes drink in Beah Richards, Dorothy Dandridge, Lena Horne.

Intermission at the Lyric: Lights up! Freda Jones tries on a brand-new

hat and no one is arrested. Bernard Lewis licks his ice cream cone on every

melting side, no one is booked for licking or loitering. Morgan and

Marvin Smith, the famous picture- taking twins, take our picture too.

At the Lyric we pose, bright futures we portray. At the Lyric we fall in love

with our lips: Lucinda kisses Big Tank clear through the opening act. Julia

can’t see the show for looking at the ocean of their mouths; open, close.

We cry at the Lyric, laugh out loud at the Lyric. Whisper Quiet! Here comes

the principal! Miss Lucy Harth Smith proudly takes her seat. At the Lyric,

William Wells Brown pulls out his indelible pen to write us down. Isaac

Scott Hathaway shapes our faces in a mustard-amber clay on new money.

We come to the Lyric to rise, rejuvenate, see ourselves win, watch ourselves lifted

up in lights, hit the home run, be hero champion of the world. Only to file

back out live & alive, stroll back across the rays of the eight-point star, rose-tile

light of return, sink back into the race- track of the East End with everything

we have now become. Sweet Lyric, lyceum of dreams, where once we came

to rise into who Mama, not dime-store magazines, promised us we were.