A LOOK INTO BLACK THEATER
Search Terms: “Black Theater” + “1960s”, “Black Theater” + 1970s”, “Black Theater” + “1990s”, “Black Theater” - “Black Theater Alliance,” “Black Theater.”
Black Theater has advanced over the decades in the U.S. More audiences were exposed to plays such as “The Color Purple,” “A Raisin in the Sun,” “Fences,” “Gospel at Colonus” and many more. But there was a time in which African Americans had to fight to get that representation onto the stage. This was the main focus of my research for this week. I wanted to get a better understanding of “What is Black Theater?” and How has the attention on it throughout the years changed. Using the search terms up above, this led me to many informative interviews that I believe are pertinent to my point at hand.
Woodie King Jr.
I was led to an interview with Woodie King Jr., a stage and theater director who founded the New Federal Theater and the National Black Touring Circuit in New York City. In his interview, he discusses the importance of the “Black World” and its impact helped with the communication of theater companies, “Black world was our organ. It was a way of communicating across America….in something called the [National] Black Theater Festival in Winston-Salem, North Carolina… You may see twenty-five or thirty-five thousand people coming to the one place to reacquaint themselves with each other and with black theater.” It should be mentioned that the Black World newspaper was headed by Black people who knew the emphasis needed on the black arts. In his point, he implies that this newspaper always had the attention of black communities. With that attention, they could get people to show up to the Black Theater Festival and have people learn or relearn what they knew about black theater.
Paul Carter Harrison
While Woodie King Jr’s interview focused on getting attention back on Black arts, Paul Harrison discusses plays that are examples of Black Theater. Paul Harrison (1936-2021) was a playwright and theater professor and has published books, including classic plays from The Negro Ensemble (1995) and Black Theatre: Ritual Performance in the African Diaspora (2003). In his interview, he talks about how a lot of black plays are often seen as “not black enough” he states, “Suzan-Lori Parks, a very fragile little play. It is not depth sounding, has no depth sounding in the way of an Adrienne Kennedy play. And Adrienne Kennedy is one of the greatest of our writers. And yet, in the 60s [1960s] and 70s [1970s], black folks said, well, she’s not black enough…. In the 70s [1970s], particularly blacks were not — young blacks writers, ‘revolutionaries’ were not willing to see anything more than replicating our confrontation with the establishment, the system.” His interview was extremely eye-opening, in the way that most think black theater mostly focuses on appearance, but it also has to do with sound, writing, and the emotions carried throughout the play.
Barbra Teer
When you use the search terms above, you will find many interviews discussing the Black Theater Alliance and the Black Arts Movement. It would be remiss of me to discuss the impact those two movements had on the Black arts and progressed to today. I was led to an interview by Shawn Wilson with Barbra Ann Teer. Barbra Teer (1937-2008) was the founder and chief of the National Black Theater. In her interview, Teer discussed her role and the overall role of the Black Arts Movement, “I trained all my performers in technology….technology of the soul. It’s a technology and ritualistic at its best… but when those seventy performers hit any environment because I took away the distance, the psychic distance between audience and stage…You don’t get academy awards - now maybe - for anything lyrical or loving. It’s always bitches and, and, and prostitutes, and tearing down scenry, and screaming and yelling.” The overall sense that Teer gives is that the Black Arts movement wanted to focus on lyricism, not dramatism. The movement and herself wanted a bond between the audience and the scenes on the stage, not in the way of shock but rather in the way of moving emotions.
After all the research I did this week, I have a newfound appreciation for black theater and black arts in general. This has made me realize that it is a lot more than simply having black performers on stage, but rather what is the writing style of the play, were there black playwrights and the overall “depth” and “sound” as Mr. Harrison stated in his interview. There still is more work to do in the area of black arts such as funding and exposure but they have come a long way from where they first started.
AMBASSADOR UPDATE:
This week has consisted of heavy packing for my return to college, but over the weekend, my family and I visited the Black Museum and Cultural Center in Virginia. The museum had many different interactive exhibits and though on the smaller side, was still highly informative. On the museum's second floor, you can find a whole area dedicated to local activists, which I think is a great way to honor local heroes. I would highly recommend that people go and check it out!
SOURCES:
Barbara Ann Teer (The HistoryMakers A2005.126), interviewed by Shawn Wilson, June 6, 2005, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 3, story 9, Barbara Ann Teer reflects upon her role in the Black Arts Movement in the 1960s
Paul Carter Harrison (The HistoryMakers A2004.160), interviewed by Larry Crowe, September 14, 2004, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 7, story 4, Paul Carter Harrison offers examples of plays that define black theatre, pt. 1
Woodie King, Jr. (The HistoryMakers A2003.083), interviewed by Larry Crowe, April 18, 2003, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 3, story 2, Woodie King, Jr. discusses black theater and the founders of other theater companies in the U.S.
