A national negro theater that never was - a history of African American theater production, performance and drama in the US - includes a directory of national and regional African American theater companies

While no group in the United States has been so invidiously represented onstage and so relentlessly prevented from working backstage or enjoying the vantage of the orchestra as have African Americans, neither has any other ethnic group in America been so centrally staged. Precisely because black entertainment was so deeply embedded in U.S. culture--indeed, it came to define what was unique about U.S. culture--and also because it was so deeply inscribed by racism, black cultural critics of the early 1900s turned their attention to the theater as a crucible for a new nationalism, a new Negro national theater.

Ethnic theater in the United States, which flourished in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, operated for most groups not only as a way of identifying with a particular subculture, but also as a process of Americanization. An ethnic theater for African Americans, however, was incredibly difficult to start up and maintain against the commercial and popular forces lined up, ready and able to take it over.

Surely there was a difference between Yiddish theater, which (at least for a time) was safe from coopting mainstream commercial forces because it was predicated on a language other than English, and "black" theater, which had never been designed for black people, but was peopled by whites and (even) blacks in blackface. For African-American intellectuals in the early part of the 20th century (and for scholars throughout the century), the question was whether this kind of alienating cultural experience for blacks made impossible an alternative culture. Could an authentic black theater only exist apart from the popular and racist theatrical history, or was there something in that popular culture, racist though it was, that could be used again, authenticated, made to be genuine and genuinely unique?

Would it be possible to use forms contaminated by racism to transform racism? Black intellectuals were divided on this question. Some believed that popular culture was thoroughly debased and that a segregated theater devoted to racial pride and race history--a theater of uplift and moral seriousness--could create a weighty alternative; others thought that forms of dancing, singing and music found in minstrelsy could be rescued from racist content and incorporated into a folk tradition worthy of a Negro national theater.

Black critics, those talented tenth who did so much to foster the creative burst of energy by African Americans just before and after World War I--W.E.B. Du Bois, Charles Johnson, Theophilus Lewis, George Schuyler, Alain Locke--were, if not exactly innocent, then certainly optimistic about the possibilities of establishing a separate, national Negro theater. In his manifesto of 1926, for instance, Du Bois called for a theater "of, by, for, and near" blacks.

African-American theater might be said to have begun on the slave ships that brought the first Africans to the Americas. Those "performances" were compulsory, indeed a sign that freedom had been taken from them. Slave masters forced slaves to dance and sing on the passage as a way of making them seem cheerful and therefore controllable.

Before the Civil War, few blacks stood on the stage at all. There were some antislavery plays written in the 19th century, and at least six companies toured the country from midcentury through 1900 performing adaptations of Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel Uncle Tom's Cabin. But here, as in most early plays in the United States that included black parts, the black roles were acted by whites in blackface.

The one short-lived but heralded exception to blackface performance before the Civil War was the African Grove theater in New York City. Not much is known about this theater of the early 1820s. It opened in lower Manhattan; black actors played various sorts of theatrical fare--some Shakespeare, some realistic dramas, and popular songs--to mixed audiences. Newspaper reviews indicate the interest, condescension and hostility whites expressed at seeing black performers play roles deemed inappropriate because they did not conform to stereotypes. After much harassment, the theater shut down, and Ira Aldridge, the black actor who had performed in Othello and Richard III, moved to England, where he would successfully tour Europe in other Shakespearean productions.

Back in the United States, the minstrel show, performed by whites in blackface, was the most popular drama. At the height of its popularity, just before and after the Civil War, 30 full-time companies toured the country. After the war, some minstrel companies were black. In this original American art form, a chorus and two end men sang songs and told jokes, creating the black man as an American icon of theatricality. (It wasn't until black burlesque troupes at the end of the 19th century began to tour that black women were included onstage.)

James Weldon Johnson and W.E.B. Du Bois believed that minstrelsy "originated on the plantation and constituted the 'only completely original contribution' of America to the theater." But even if derived from blacks, minstrelsy was not subsequently owned by black people. Frederick Douglass thundered that white blackface actors were "the filthy scum of white society, who have stolen from us a complexion denied to them by nature, in which to make money, and pander to the corrupt taste of their white fellow citizens."

Who owned minstrelsy and whom did it serve? When whites were said to be imitating blacks, were they merely creating a white image of black behavior? When blacks began to take over the parts, were they able covertly to critique the "genuineness" of the roles they were forced to play to white and black audiences?

Bert Williams and George Walker are probably the best known of the black minstrels from the late 19th and early 20th centuries (see "Black Skin, Black Mask: The Inconvenient Grace of Bert Williams," American Visions, June/July 1992). They billed themselves as "Two Real Coons" and played for white and black audiences. They introduced a plot to the minstrel structure and pioneered the musical comedy form. They performed, as did whites, in blackface, painting their faces even blacker.

Critics then and now continue to debate the success of the duo's revisionary tactics: How truly revisionary could they be, given the history of the racist form? By calling attention to their "reality" in the Two Real Coons billing, perhaps Williams and Walker signified that they were more than aware of the inauthenticity of white men playing in blackface. Even more pointedly, the title may have signified that Williams and Walker were aware of the inauthenticity of their roles.

The proliferation of other forms of theatrical entertainment at the turn of the century--burlesque, variety, vaudeville--did not lessen the restricted stereotypes put upon black performers. No love scenes were possible, and nothing depicting middle- or upper-class social values was allowed.

Many theaters for blacks were started during this period, with different ideas about what true representation would mean. Anita Bush, a dancer and actress who had toured with Williams and Walker, formed a company in 1915 at the Lincoln Theater and then the Lafayette Theatre in Harlem. The Lafayette Players lasted until 1932, performing popular plays from Broadway retooled for a black audience.

The Gilpin Players in Cleveland, founded by white liberals, was an interracial group from the beginning. The Pekin Theatre in Chicago and the Lafayette Theatre in Harlem, both "me-too" organizations, proved that black actors could act the plays they weren't allowed to be in on Broadway. The Pekin, also located in the black community, presented new plays every two weeks to mostly black audiences. The Pekin was so successful that white managers in Chicago began opening theaters catering to blacks.

For a short time between 1900 and 1910, black ownership of independent theaters increased, and the first black syndicates were formed. Black shows, some 30 in all, were produced in black neighborhoods and on Broadway between 1890 and 1915.

But the window of opportunity was open only a short time. The same forces that caused white theater to suffer also hurt independent black theaters: higher transportation costs and low-cost movies. In addition, black theaters were faced with racism, resulting in a lack of financial sponsorship for black shows and second-class bookings. Finally, the deaths of many of the first-class black performers caused independent black theaters to suffer even more. Between 1910 and 1917, no black performers except Bert Williams performed on Broadway.

After 1917, serious attempts to write dramas about blacks, mostly by whites, led to some Broadway parts for actors, in Edward Sheldon's Nigger, Ridgely Torrence's three one-acts, Southern writer Paul Green's plays, and Eugene O'Neill's Emperor Jones and All God's Chillun Got Wings. One of the distinctive cultural features of the 1920s and '30s is this outpouring of whiteauthored books depicting black subjects: from Edna Ferber's novel Showboat, to DuBose Heyward's novel and George Gershwin's opera based on it, Porgy and Bess.

Although critics celebrated the abilities of the black actors who starred in these shows, these opportunities to play on Broadway siphoned off the best talent from the black community, where presumably the alternative national Negro theater was supposed to take hold. White producers could offer bigger salaries and a chance for fame that could not be matched in the black community. As Charles Gilpin and Paul Robeson made names for themselves in Eugene O'Neill's successful plays and Florence Mills became the toast of Broadway in Shuffle Along, it seemed more and more hopeless to think of luring them back to Harlem, back to community theaters, to appear in plays written for a black audience.

By the early 20th century, then, there were three kinds of black entertainment, including the limited number of Broadway roles. Variety and vaudeville acts and minstrelsy still proved the mainstay for all black actors. But these were slowly dying out, to be replaced by movies as the most popular form of entertainment, and thus black performers were hit especially hard by this change in popular forms.

Still, the minstrel show persisted well into the century. The Federal Theatre Project (FTP) of the Works Progress Administration produced Marionette Vaudeville with stringed puppets dancing to minstrel tunes. The Negro units of the FTP--highly controversial, cutting-edge expressions of New Deal philosophy at work--confronted the representation of racial difference. Helen Bannerman's Little Black Sambo, adapted by Shirley Graham for the Negro unit in Chicago, was performed by puppets with black faces and "thick red lips." In addition, the FTP sent around the country material called Fifty-Six Minstrels, which could be used by schoolchildren, Boy Scouts and clubs. Quite clearly, some people working within the Negro units had no qualms about producing such entertainment.

Noncommercial theaters--community theaters, university theaters, small amateur drama groups, and professional black companies--made up the smallest opportunities for black performers. Although their producers often had to struggle (and still do) to find an audience, they had (and still have) an intensely theoretical belief that through the theater an alternative culture could be created for all of their people.

When Congress slashed the budget of the FTP and its Negro units in 1939, the question of what part a Negro theater was to take in American life--part or whole, autonomous, segregated by choice or by fiat--was no closer to being resolved. In its short-lived four-year history, the FTP had achieved its twofold goal of putting theater professionals who were on relief to work and taking theater to the people by reaching beyond urban centers and making shows free. In addition, the Negro units of the FTP had given African-American theater professionals and amateurs new opportunities. Some for the first time gained technical training and joined craft unions, writers wrote plays that departed from minstrel stereotypes, and directors chose Shaw and Shakespeare for Negro units, allowing actors to play parts different from the usual maid or field hand.

By providing the opportunity for young actors to train and by giving older actors roles to match their talents, the FTP's Negro units had helped foster an ongoing black theater. But the idea of autonomous Negro units leading to a national Negro theater or a fully integrated theater in the United States, including whites and blacks equally, had threatened the status quo.

Whereas black nationalism has waned since the movements of the 1930s through the '60s, the focus on African-American culture and the African-American experience has not. The successful Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright August Wilson is an example of someone who attracts a mixed audience--black and white--with plays rooted in African-American history. Each of his plays, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, Fences, Joe Turner's Come and Gone, The Piano Lesson, Two Trains Running, covers a particular decade of African-American life as he focuses on stories that embody black history and family narratives.

But if some wonderful African-American writers and directors--George C. Wolfe, Anna Deavere Smith, Adrienne Kennedy, Ntozake Shange and Pearl Cleage--have joined August Wilson in deepening the life of the theater, theater itself has not become deeply embedded in daily life the way proponents of the FTP had hoped. The theater remains a middle-class institution, a treat, a rare and expensive night out.

Broadway, regional, experimental or political theater simply has not sunk into the everyday life of U.S. culture. The task of attracting audiences to any sort of theater remains. Finally, theater remains inhospitable on the most practical level to ethnic representation. A study in 1986 from Actors' Equity made this clear: Over 90 percent of all productions in the United States were filled by all-Caucasian casts. Operating in such a firmly entrenched colorcoded environment, theaters producing ethnic work today employ actors still locked out from the majority of productions in the United States and showcase the work of authors committed to telling their separate ethnic story.

Regional Theater Companies

Regional theaters are the true national theater of America. The following list comprises prominent theaters and theater companies that present African-American, multicultural or nontraditional fare.

Arena Players 801 McCulloh St. Baltimore, MD 21201 (410) 728-6500 Musicals, comedy and drama

Bullins/Woodward Theatre Workshop 1411 Shafter Ave. San Francisco, CA 94124 (415) 822-7894 Local workshop productions

Crossroads Theatre Company 7 Livingston Ave. New Brunswick, NJ 08901 Box office: (908) 249-5560 Drama, music and comedy; widely acknowledged as the premier black theater company

Cultural Odyssey 762 Fulton St., Suite 306 San Francisco, CA 94102 (415) 292-1850 Performs locally and nationally

Detroit Repertory Theatre 13103 Woodrow Wilson Detroit, Ml 48238-3686 Box office: (313) 868-1347 Primarily new plays incorporating nontraditional casting and attracting a 90 percent black audience

Freedom Theatre Inc. 1346 N. Broad St. Philadelphia, PA 19121 (215) 765-2793 Classics, works by established writers and new works, from October to March

Jomandi Productions 1444 Mayson St., NE Atlanta, GA 30324 (404) 876-6346 Box office: (404) 873-1099 Drama, comedy and musicals

Jubilee Theatre 506 Main St. Fort Worth, TX 76102 (817) 338-4411 Original musicals, comedies, dramas and adaptations of classics

Jump-Start Performance Company 108 Blue Star San Antonio, TX 78204 (210) 227-JUMP Multicultural fare

Karamu Performing Arts Theatre 2355 E. 89th St. Cleveland, Ohio 44106-9990 (216) 795-7077 Musicals, drama, classics and new works

Negro Ensemble Company 1600 Broadway, Suite 500 New York, NY 10019 (212) 582-5860 Serious black drama and occasional comedies

North Carolina Black Repertory Company 610 Coliseum Drive Winston-Salem, NC 27106 Box office: (910) 723-7907 Classics, comedy, dramas, musicals and new works

Oakland Ensemble Theatre 1428 Alice St., Suite 306 Oakland, CA 94612 (510) 763-7774 Variety of genres

Penumbra Theatre Company 270 N. Kent St. St. Paul, MN 55102 (612) 224-4601 Classics, comedy, drama and performance art

Rites and Reason 155 Angell St. P.O. Box 1148 Brown University Providence, RI 02912 (401) 863-3558 Variety of multicultural performances, from September to June

St. Louis Black Repertory Company 634 N. Grand Blvd. 10th Floor, Suite F St. Louis, MO 63103 Box office: (314) 534-3810 Theater, dance and other creative expressions

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