african american theatre today


He prefers to finesse the way that material is presented. You can easily create a free account. Since arriving, Sias has patched relationships with funders and patrons, increased the theatre’s budget, spent more on marketing, and emphasized an investment in the quality of the art onstage. When Barbara Ann Teer founded National Black Theatre in Harlem in 1968, the neighborhood was reeling from the riots that were wreaking havoc across many Black communities after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. Genre/Form: Criticism, interpretation, etc: Additional Physical Format: Online version: Banham, Martin. Most of the country’s African American theatres were founded to give Black actors an opportunity to play diverse roles and to offer Black playwrights the chance to tell honest, original stories about their communities. Please enter recipient e-mail address(es). I’ve seen, A just and thriving theatre ecology begins with information for all. When Jacobs thinks about what keeps him going, he reflects on a conversation he had with his mentor, Larry Leon Hamlin, who founded the National Black Theatre Festival at North Carolina Black Repertory Company. This is how African-American Shakespeare Company in San Francisco has operated since 1994, giving local talent the opportunity to tackle starring roles in The Tempest, Much Ado About Nothing, and The Winter’s Tale. In Harlem, Houston, and the Bay Area, sky-high rents and property taxes are displacing longtime members of the communities many of these theatres create art for. Alongside work by Shakespeare the theatre has also started producing African American classics: The Colored Museum, Jitney, For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf. The E-mail message field is required. The African American Experience Full-text digital resource exploring the history and culture of African Americans, as well as the greater Black Diaspora. I have seen other theatre companies falter because somebody bought the space they’ve been performing in for 20 or 30 years and now they’ve been priced out of the market.”. That is still true today. Founder and executive director Sherri Young and artistic director L. Peter Callender of the African-American Shakespeare Company. Please enter your name.
Post was not sent - check your email addresses! Forward contact information to us if you are aware of one that is not listed here. According to the Actors’ Equity 2017 Diversity Study, African Americans received just 8.63 percent of all principal contracts  in plays, and 2.3 percent of stage management contracts. “White organizations are getting funding for doing what Black organizations have been doing the whole time,” says Young. French equivalent / Équivalent français, http:\/\/www.worldcat.org\/oclc\/2587520>. OCLC’s WebJunction has pulled together information and resources to assist library staff as they consider how to handle coronavirus issues in their communities. There is no separating art from issues of social justice, because to create or support art is to make choices about what’s important (and what is not). They have raised $6.8 million so far, have already completed the education and outreach building, and plan to begin working on the theatre space at the end of this season. Thank you. United States Alabama Tuskegee Repertory Theatre Arizona Black Theatre Troupe California African-American Shakespeare Company Black Repertory Group Common Ground Theatre Image Theatre Company… “One of my goals before I retire, and I don’t know when that will be, is for African American Shakespeare Company to have their own building,” Young says. In fact, many Black actors went to theatre school and studied the Greek tragedies and Shakespearean classics, but had been relegated to playing servant and clown roles, if they were given parts at all. African American Performing Arts Community Theatre, Anthony Bean Community Theater & Acting School, Black Repertory Theatre of Kansas City (Equity), Paul Robeson Theatre at the African American Cultural Center, Ujima Company, Inc. aka Ujima Theatre Company, "I started this blog to raise the profile of African American artists and Black Theatre both here and abroad. Founded as a settlement house for European immigrants in 1915, the theatre became a safe haven for African American artists when Blacks moved into the neighborhood for industrial jobs in the 1940s. - Gary Anderson. The insecurity of being subject to a landlord’s whims and fancies can make it difficult to plan ahead, commission new work, and make upgrades that will attract new audiences. And as diversity trends upward, more funders are offering white theatres money for doing the same kinds of plays and education initiatives that African American theatres have been doing, usually without such largesse, for decades. It has been a runaway hit for the theatre. It’s helping to hone the unique historical resource that our institutions provide and no one else can do.”. “We must have a platform for the artists and for the diverse people of the world to have something to hold onto,” says Morris.

I saw it in Germany and it touched their hearts.”. 0273003488 9780273003489 0273002996 9780273002994. As we reckon with the impact of COVID-19, the theatre field needs committed and nuanced journalism. They also face a gap in donor education, as many African Americans are accustomed to supporting church, politics, and education, not the arts. It is not enough to put a Black Richard III or Mary Tyrone onstage; writing and producing original work and sharing that work with the community is an essential practice as well. She sees this as a blessing in disguise, because going to venues with that kind of cachet allowed them to reach more audiences, and an advertising sponsorship from the Bay Area Rapid Transit meant that existing audiences always knew where to find them. Hedgepig Has a List. “Diverse programming at other theatres often looks like diverse casting for a white story. Jones says that the drag-and-drop nature of just funding diversity when it comes from a majority white organization only heightens existing disparities. Hamlin told him that when white theatres stage Black-focused shows like Ain’t Misbehavin’, they have no real investment in the work beyond making money.
Thank you. “I could name 50 Black theatre companies right now, and it’s important that all of us exist,” Morris states. After Jennings’s retirement, Julie Leach took the helm and launched the theatre’s capital campaign to complete three phases of renovations on the space, which sits on 3.5 acres.