Leticia Ridley: Welcome to Daughters of Lorraine, a podcast out of your pleasant neighborhood Black feminists, exploring the legacies, current, and futures of Black theatre. We are your hosts, Leticia Ridley—
Jordan Ealey: And Jordan Ealey. On this podcast produced for HowlRound Theatre Commons, a free and open platform for theatremakers worldwide, we talk about Black theatre historical past; conduct interviews with native and nationwide Black theatre artists, students, and practitioners; and talk about performs by Black playwrights which have our minds buzzing.
In 1926, the Krigwa Players had their first season on the one hundred and thirty fifth Street Bridge of the New York Public Library. Featuring performs by distinguished playwrights Willis Richardson and Ruth Gaines-Shelton, the theatre firm was a vital and business success. As a part of the Krigwa Players’ mission, founder W. E. B. DuBois drafted the theatre’s mission to middle Black individuals via being about us, by us, for us, and close to us. This assertion by DuBois so resonates even in modern settings as Black theatre artists and students proceed to think about and rethink what makes one thing Black theatre.
Leticia: In the spirit of DuBois’ pathbreaking revelation, at the moment’s episode is targeted on one main query: What is Black theatre? Following DuBois, we look at varied theorists, artists, and critics’ personal philosophies and rules of Black theatre and efficiency, cowl the historic and ongoing debates on Black theatre’s mission, and put forth our personal idea of what makes one thing Black theatre.
Welcome again to Daughters of Lorraine! We are lastly again with season 4. How are you feeling, Jordan? It’s been a minute.
Jordan: It has been an absolute too lengthy of a time. I’m so excited to be beginning our fourth season. Who knew that we might get to season 4, Leticia?
Leticia: I do know. It’s fairly wild. For these of you who’ve been questioning the place we’ve been, now we have had lots of change previously 12 months.
Jordan: Yeah.
Leticia: Where are you now, Jordan, or ought to I seek advice from you as Dr. Ealey?
Jordan: Yes. Yes, that’s proper. Since I don’t have lots of social media and stuff anymore, I haven’t actually been in a position to make a public announcement. But sure, I did full my PhD on the University of Maryland, and I’ve now begun a brand new place as an assistant professor within the Department of Black Studies on the University of Rochester. So, I now stay in Rochester, New York, and I’m actually enthusiastic about that. Dr. Ridley, I feel you even have a bit of replace for these listening at residence about your whereabouts nowadays, too.
Leticia: Yes. I’ve crossed some waters to now be in Toronto, Canada. So, I’ve moved to Canada, and I’m now an assistant professor on the University of Toronto Mississauga, which is considered one of their satellite tv for pc campuses. Then I do graduate research work on the downtown campus. So, actually excited to be right here, excited to see what Canadian theatre gives, and maybe helps us increase Daughters of Lorraine a bit to consider how Black theatre internationally seems.
Jordan: Yeah, we goin’ worldwide! Okay. Daughters of Lorraine, we’re on the worldwide map and likewise so glad that we’re solely two hours aside. So, that is superior.
Leticia: I do know. So shut. It’s like grad faculty once more, however not fairly as shut. So, Jordan, we’re again with episode considered one of season 4. What is on our docket at the moment?
Jordan: So as we lined within the introduction, this episode is all about desirous about this idea of Black theatre. So, for these of you who’ve been listening with us for the previous three seasons, this might sound a backwards step, however Leticia and I’ve each been pondering so much these days about revisiting a few of these essays of criticism that basically talk about the rules, philosophies, dramaturgy of Black theatre, and thought it could be a extremely good thing for us to speak about on this episode. It’s additionally very apropos as a result of each of us are educating courses in Black theatre this semester. Leticia is protecting African American theatre historical past, I consider. Yeah.
Leticia: Yes, I’m.
Jordan: I’m protecting modern Black theatre. So, we have been simply speaking about, as we normally do, doing syllabus exchanges and actually attempting to residence in on what we wished to cowl this semester. We each have been actually enthusiastic about delving again into these essays that basically speak about this historical past.
Leticia: I feel what makes this such a vital and necessary matter for us to only talk about on the podcast and provide some perception and actually hint this philosophical theoretical historical past of what Black theatre is and might do is that it exhibits the lengthy legacy of the utility of Black theatre throughout the push for Black life, Black freedom, however extra so I feel it simply exhibits that among the most crucial theorists of our time was all the time engaged and thinking about what Black theatre needed to say. So, I’m actually thinking about having the ability to, one, provide individuals an summary of those essays, but additionally to have the ability to interrogate it a bit and see about the place will we land on a few of these arguments past simply desirous about, such as you stated within the episode preview, the “for us, by us, near us, about us” that DuBois provided that, I’m simply going to say now, I don’t hate it.
Later on within the season, we’re going to speak in regards to the Negro Ensemble Company, and I feel they’re an fascinating theatre firm to consider these rules alongside as a result of the “near us” is in competition. Instead of us actually beginning the episode off with essentially the most generally recognized W. E. B. DuBois’ perception on theatre or on Black theatre and what it’s, so we’re going to start out with W. E. B. DuBois’ “Criteria [of] Negro Art.” Jordan, give us a fast rundown of what DuBois’ principal arguments or perception is on this essay.
Jordan: Yeah, so one of many main debates that individuals nonetheless write about, that speak about nowadays, is Black theatre being both artwork or propaganda. So, this dichotomy between ought to Black theatre be merely a couple of inventive expression—artwork for artwork’s sake, if you’ll—or ought to or not it’s used as a political device? DuBois was notoriously very a lot in favor of the latter, propaganda in desirous about artwork as politics. Black theatre, theatre generally, ought to be used as a corrective house for Black individuals. So, utilizing the stage as a solution to intervene politically. So, this essay by DuBois, “Criteria [of] Negro Art,” which is one which we each cowl in our Black theatre courses, is one that’s actually desirous about Black theatre as propaganda.
So, he writes that “Thus all art is propaganda and ever must be. Despite the wailing of purists, I stand in utter shamelessness and say that whatever art I have for writing has always been used for propaganda, for getting the rights of Black folk to love and enjoy.” Excuse me. I don’t assume that he’s essentially completely rejecting the concept that artwork ought to be used for creative expression, however he actually may be very, very clear that artwork is meant to be about its political potential alongside the inventive work.
Leticia: I actually like your use of the phrase potential, “the political potential.” I feel that you simply hit this nail on the top that I feel generally people who’re partaking with DuBois’ statements round Black theatre overemphasize that he’s solely on this thought of artwork as propaganda. I feel it’s undoubtedly critically necessary to him that artwork could be propaganda and ought to be propaganda, I might even gander to say, however I feel that oftentimes individuals don’t think about how he’s truly desirous about magnificence as critically hooked up to this concept of propaganda. I’m going to cite from DuBois right here:
On the opposite hand, the younger and slowly rising Black public nonetheless desires its income virtually equally unfree. We are certain by all types of customs which have come down as secondhand soul garments of white patrons. We are ashamed of intercourse and we decrease our eyes when individuals will speak of it. Our faith holds us in superstition. Our worst facet has been so shamelessly emphasised that we’re denying now we have or ever had a worse facet. In all types of how, we’re hemmed in. Our new younger artists have gotten to struggle their solution to freedom.
I quote that at size, as a result of I feel it simply speaks to DuBois advocating for a free Black artwork that isn’t shaming one thing like intercourse or not shunning away the superstitions of Black religions.
I feel he’s truly actually right here in having a various Black artwork that exhibits the multiplicities of what Black life is. For me, this actually opens up what we take into consideration Black theatre, as a result of I feel once we put that alongside his different assertion about what Black theatre is, I feel it actually broadens what DuBois is attempting to supply us in desirous about what Black theatre can do.
If all artwork or all Black artwork ought to all the time be propaganda, then does it place us ready of response all the time?
Jordan: I feel that, actually declaring this ignored a part of the “Criteria [of] Negro Art” is that the best way that DuBois will get taken up oftentimes inside whether or not it’s Black research or in Black theatre is that DuBois is called being this very conservative determine. I feel that that’s a good assertion contemplating the proficient ideology that he’s put forth and his work on The Philadelphia Negro, which has been challenged by leftists, Black thinkers, and Black feminist thinkers particularly due to how he talks about women and girls in that textual content.
But in desirous about that quote you simply learn and desirous about the variety of Black artwork and ones that aren’t shying away from “taboo subjects” is… We began to see the seeds of this radicalism that’s to return with DuBois. I additionally want to add, too, is that he’s beginning to assume extra critically about what cultural expression can provide us when it comes to these subjects. That is smart contemplating he’s a sociologist. I feel it’s actually fascinating, and such as you stated, it will get actually ignored.
Leticia: I actually respect your consideration to declaring his different works to place in context with “Criteria [of] Negro Art” and take into consideration how his conservatism or the criticism of him is well-founded, however the potential of progress that we see with him particularly with one thing like artwork. I’m wondering if maybe, and that is simply me speculating right here, is that if artwork provided DuBois the power to have some freedom round a few of his political concepts, proper?
Jordan: Absolutely. Just pondering now that we’re speaking about DuBois, now we have this different side of the argument which is round artwork. So, Black theatre as being this… Not as this political place or this corrective as DuBois may argue, however slightly artwork for artwork’s sake. Black persons are creating issues that individuals could be entertained by and joyful with. A few people who’re on the opposite facet of this debate are Alain Locke and Eulalie Spence. So, Leticia, do you wish to speak to us a bit of bit about Alain Locke and what he believed?
Leticia: Yeah. Alain Locke is somebody merely put who’s like, “Art? Bet. That’s what it should be for: art for art’s sake. Propaganda, that’s a distraction. I’m really interested in allowing Black artists to have the freedom to create Black art just for it to exist. It doesn’t need to have a political point. It doesn’t need to move the race forward. I’m actually really interested in collapsing that as a priority and a requirement for Black artists.” So, Alain Locke is straight, I feel, taking a shot at DuBois, actually the creation of this debate actually effervescent up. This is why we’re speaking about it on the podcast, is that usually these two figures, DuBois and Locke, get pitted towards one another due to their place of what artwork ought to be used for.
Jordan: Yeah. So, we’re particularly his essay “Art or Propaganda,” which was revealed in 1928, for individuals who are maintaining observe. Alain Locke, somebody who is called the Dean of the Harlem Renaissance. Numerous the explanation why now we have the research of Black theatre, the reason why me and also you, Leticia, can say that we’re finding out and writing Black theatre is due to all of the work that Alain Locke did at Howard University to determine this as a viable factor that you would be able to research inside greater training settings and usually all of the work that Black theatre artists did in DC throughout this time interval as nicely.
But Alain Locke, he says on this essay that:
My chief objection to propaganda aside from its besetting sin of monotony and disproportion is that it perpetuates the place of group inferiority even in crying out towards it for it lives and speaks below the shadow of a dominant majority whom it harangues, cajoles, threatens, or supplicates. In a phrase, we should select artwork and put apart propaganda.
So, once more, he’s actually desirous about, “Why do we want to go to theatre and be threatened by the images that we see on stage and have to contend with these images in this way?” and actually advocating that this ought to be used as a solution to overlook about that, not less than for a second.
Leticia: This is the place I typically assume that I’m on the DuBois facet of like, “Yes, art should be propaganda.” I feel one of many bigger questions that we will of ask ourselves is, “Can Black art ever just be Black art?” Even if the artist’s intention of claiming, “No, I’m just actually creating this play or this drama to be art” is that if others received’t place political which means on it regardless.
But what I do like about what Locke is getting us to think about on this essay is that this response of being like, “Does saying that all Black art needs to be propaganda putting us or placing us in the position that we’re always responding to a dominant majority or that we’re always responding to whiteness, that it actually then contains us and keeps us in a bubble and not allows us to explode it and see what else can possibly Black art can do?” So, I do are inclined to lean in and agree on that as a result of I feel that the hazard inside even DuBois’ formulation is that if all artwork or all Black artwork ought to all the time be propaganda, then does it place us ready of response all the time?
Jordan: Absolutely. That’s a extremely, actually superb level. I feel it’s one which we’re nonetheless contending with at the moment the place now we have, particularly with the proliferation of one thing just like the Black Lives Matter motion, the place there’s a stress by Black playwrights to supply these works which might be responding on to problems with policing, problems with white supremacy, in actually direct methods slightly than focusing possibly on interracial divides. It was superb a few seasons in the past now the place one thing like Chicken and Biscuits is making it to Broadway, which is a comedy by a Black playwright, which we don’t get a ton of comedic works by Black playwrights due to this stress to all the time have to reply, reply, reply as you simply stated.
So, somebody like Alain Locke advocating for that is nice. Also, once more, like I discussed, one other particular person on this “art for art’s sake” tip is Eulalie Spence. Eulalie Spence is usually a playwright that I might simply say typically doesn’t get sufficient flowers. She will get actually not noted of those conversations round Black theatre and efficiency, however she was very, very influential. People could or could not know that Eulalie Spence’s play, The Fool’s Errand, which was produced by the Krigwa Players, is the primary play by a Black playwright to be performed in a Broadway home. Eulalie Spence was extraordinarily, extraordinarily influential in placing Black theatre on the map. So, she’s undoubtedly simply somebody once more, generally, that I simply consider deserves her flowers.
She truly was a mentor, for individuals who could not know, to Joseph Papp—sure, that Joseph Papp, who began the Public Theater. So, Eulalie Spence was mentoring the subsequent era of theatremakers, and he or she was actually ushering Black theatre into the brand new wave. So, I simply wished to shout out my lady, Eulalie, as a result of she did so much. Now when it comes to her essay, which we’re pulling from her essay, which is named “A Criticism of the Negro Drama as It Relates to the Negro Dramatists and Artists.” Mouthful, however I feel it will get to the purpose.
Leticia: Well, these playwrights again within the day have been fairly—
Jordan: Wordy.
Leticia: Long-winded.
Jordan: Exactly. But truly, she wrote lots of one-acts, lots of brief performs. It was like they have been wordy in some methods after which environment friendly in others, which was actually humorous. But one thing that she says on this essay that I feel is kind of humorous but additionally actually telling about her philosophy with regards to Black theatre is she says,
What then is left to the Negro dramatist? Let him painting the lifetime of his individuals, their foibles if he’ll, and their sorrows and ambition and defeats. Oh sure, allow us to have all of those instructed with tenderness and ability and a data of the theatre and the strategy of the occasions. But so long as we count on our public, white and coloured, to assist our drama, we’re clever to steer distant from the previous topics, a bit of extra laughter for those who please, and fewer spirituals.
Leticia: Eulalie stated, “Not too much on them spirituals, y’all. I think we had enough ‘Wade in the Water’s’ that my lifetime can take.” Eulalie stated, “We’re good.”
Jordan: No extra singing in… It jogs my memory of that scene in Dreamwomen the place Jimmy, he’s like, “Oh, I can’t be singing them sad songs.” Then he does the rap at their little anniversary present of the report firm. But anyhow, again to the purpose.
But yeah, so Eulalie Spence, and in that essay, she additionally talks in regards to the work that DuBose Heyward, who’s the e-book author for Porgy and Bess, does for desirous about the creative potential of theatre and simply issues like that the place she’s actually simply attempting to consider connecting to the human situation outdoors of those political ills of racism and phobias and all these different various things.
What occurs if we reframe our concepts round Black theatre as not a spot, not a constructing, however individuals, a group?
Leticia: Exactly. I feel additionally what’s very very important about this essay. we talked about Locke, we talked about DuBois, however right here she’s very pointed in speaking about drama and theatre. Even all through the essay, she’s always going again thus far that everybody thinks that they’ll write a play. So, this concept that there is no such thing as a mastery, there is no such thing as a ability in the direction of having the ability to write dramas; and he or she’s truly saying, “No, everyone can’t do what I do or other Black playwrights do.” I feel that’s truly fairly an necessary level, particularly if we take a look at Black theatre.
There’s lots of Black playwrights who usually are not simply Black playwrights, and that’s not saying that novelists or poets can’t discover and cross genres. I simply assume what she is saying that she actually desires to emphasise the playwright as one thing that’s one, very important to Black artwork, but additionally that it requires a sure degree of ability that permits a unique tackle what Black life can appear like on stage. So, I do actually respect her for that. She would most likely be firmly locked into Locke’s camp of not being thinking about—
Jordan: “Locked in.”
Leticia: That was not on function. That was not on function.
She could be in his camp, however I feel the vital distinction for me with Eulalie Spence and the way she’s desirous about propaganda is I don’t know if she’s not saying that it shouldn’t be part of Black drama. I feel she’s simply drained and fed up with it as a result of I feel she has felt like that’s all that’s been produced by what she refers to because the “negro dramatist.” I feel she understands the utility of it, however for her, she feels prefer it’s limiting. It’s most likely just like Locke, however that she simply sees extra potential for the stage. I don’t know. What do you assume?
Jordan: Yeah, and I additionally assume, once more, declaring in that essay, she does draw so much from white playwrights comparable to DuBois Heyward… or DuBose, sorry, we’re speaking lots of “DuBois.” So, DuBose Heyward and Eugene O’Neill, and he or she’s drawing from their portraits of humanity as fashions maybe for Black playwrights to have the ability to emulate in their very own work.
I feel that there might be a bent to be like, “Oh, she’s just talking about white people and trying to get Black people to do that,” however I feel that zooming out from that, I’m not saying that that’s not a legitimate critique or criticism of the essay in that means, however zooming out from that and it from a unique perspective is that I feel that it’s a bigger exploration of how white artists or white playwrights are sometimes not encumbered with the identical sort of the burden of illustration, proper? It’s escaping me whose idea that’s proper now. But the burden of illustration the place individuals of colour, any artist with a marginalized identification, has this social cost to characterize your entire group and their work, to have the ability to say one thing excellent about no matter marginalization they’ve.
I feel with Eulalie Spence, wanting on the fashions from white male playwrights who’re most likely one of the unencumbered teams with regards to politics, as a result of nobody expects for white males to talk for all white males. There’s this fashion that it’s important to entry any humanity via the white male expertise anyway. So, there’s this fashion that they’ll transfer via their works unmarked in ways in which a Black feminine playwright, for instance, is all the time going to be talking for Black womanhood, for Black individuals, for Blackness generally. So, by somebody like O’Neill or Heyward, she’s in a position to say, “We should be able to unencumber ourselves in the same way that they are.” That we will write from all these completely different views and completely different factors of view and never have this stress, not less than that’s the best way I learn it, not have this stress to must characterize every little thing that we will write a play for leisure.
Again, for individuals who may wish to get into Eulalie Spencer’s work, she wrote ghost tales. She wrote comedies. She wrote performs that aren’t essentially attempting to do what maybe people within the sixties are doing or people within the now try to do. That she was writing performs that have been for pure leisure, which included a ghost story.
Leticia: I feel that’s necessary. Actually, simply listening to you converse, I’m like, “Man, I really got to read me some more Eulalie Spence plays.” Is there an edited assortment? I assume I ought to look it up, or I assume it’s most likely public area maybe.
Jordan: Yeah, yeah. I feel truly the place I first encountered her work is within the anthology by Kathy Perkins on Black girls playwrights. I consider Her and The Fool’s Errand is perhaps in that assortment. I learn Her in that assortment, which is the ghost story. So, I simply assume somebody like Eulalie Spence is attempting to get us to assume in a extra common means. Not on this complete each story is for everyone factor, however slightly that Black playwrights can simply write about different issues. I feel that leads us into our subsequent particular person, Alice Childress, a bit of bit, I feel.
Leticia: Yes, sure. Great segue.
Jordan: Thank you.
Leticia: Great segue. Yes, completely. Speaking of one other nice lady dramatist, now we have Alice Childress’ essay, which was truly initially revealed in a newspaper, referred to as “For A Strong Negro People’s Theatre” in 1951. So, we’re actually leaping about fifteen years. I’m a theatre professor. I’m not good at math, so I didn’t do the mathematics actual fast.
Jordan: Yeah, twenty-ish years, twenty-ish years.
Leticia: Twenty-ish years. We jumped to 1951. I assume it’s extra of an op-ed than an essay, however it’s out there for individuals to learn it in the event that they wish to. She opens up with this query that considered one of her pals requested her about, I assume a query about: Do we want a Negro theatre? Do we want a Black theatre establishment? When she was first requested this query, her response was, “Sounds like a Jim Crow institution to me.” This essay is her actually truly retreating from that authentic assertion and actually meditating on that query a bit of bit extra. She involves the conclusion that really the perform of a Negro individuals’s theatre is definitely fairly necessary to Negro life and to Negro individuals as a result of the theatre itself permits the scene and viewing of a varietyness of what Blackness appears to be like like.
So, she talks about Black tradition lies not in simply the spectacularness that Blackness could present up in, but it surely exhibits up within the on a regular basis individuals within the prepare station, the factories, the tenements. For her, she’s saying, “Yes, we need Negro people’s theatre, but it must not be a little theatre. Its work is too heavy. Its task is too large to be anything other than a great movement. It must be powerful enough to inspire, lift, and eventually create a complete desire for the liberation of all oppressed peoples.”
I feel what’s actually necessary about that last line, “desire for the liberation of all oppressed people,” I feel, even aligns with once we take into consideration Black feminist concept, of this concept that if Black persons are free or Black girls are free, that then it could necessitate that every one oppressed individuals are also free. So, I feel oftentimes Alice Childress generally will get located as somebody who’s a universalist in her desirous about Black theatre. But I feel right here, this specific essay is actually firmly pushing us to consider her huge concepts across the utility of Black theatre, of theatre itself as an establishment, but additionally Black theatre itself as a individuals, like a physique of individuals, which I feel is such an fascinating idea if we’re desirous about our personal definitions of what Black theatre is.
What occurs if we reframe our concepts round Black theatre as not a spot, not a constructing, however individuals, a group, and the way that maybe permits us to return to completely different concepts or a unique definition that aligns with the targets of what all of us consider Black theatre can do?
Jordan: Absolutely. Also, I can perceive based mostly on among the issues that have been stated that you simply quoted, her being like, “This is a Jim Crow institution,” issues like that, the place the universalist claims may really feel very based, that they could be earned, however not an excessive amount of on Alice Childress. This is a lady who wouldn’t change the ending of Trouble in Mind to get produced on Broadway. If you realize that play, that play shouldn’t be shy in calling out white supremacy and calling out patriarchy, all these various things. But I additionally assume that we have to take a look at the context of she was a leftist, she was a real leftist.
In the identical means of somebody like Lorraine Hansberry, who Lorraine Hansberry wrote performs like Le Blanc and The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window, which aren’t performs which might be solely centered on the Black expertise. They are all about other people. They’re about Jewish individuals, they’re about queer individuals. It’s about people not essentially solely Black struggles and definitely not solely African American struggles even inside that. I feel that now we have to consider their political coalitions because the methods through which they’re desirous about these concepts.
So, it’s not nearly, “Oh, Alice Childress didn’t want Black theatres to exist,” however extra in order that I feel that due to her curiosity in Marxism, in communism, in desirous about class wrestle and international wrestle is that lends itself for her to consider a extra common human situation and never merely couching it solely in Blackness, however slightly saying that the problems that Black individuals face, we will discover similarity. We can discover true and real political coalition with different communities who’re centered on the identical issues.
So, when she talks about it’s not nearly creating Black writers, it’s about creating the author generally. I feel it’s her attempting to effective tune these political coalitions for my part. Again, not saying I essentially agree. I feel that there’s a utility in theatre establishments which might be centered on Black writers, Black artists generally. But I feel that after you take a look at her historical past, if you take a look at her background, you may see why she may come to those conclusions.
Leticia: That’s an important level. Before we transition to the final essay we’re going to speak about, I feel simply to notice, what’s additionally very important about this essay is that we get Alice Childress speaking about approach and maybe even canon. She notes that Black actors, scenic designers, playwrights, and administrators are taught solely the strategies which might be developed by white artists. She actually emphasizes a necessity for white and Black actors and artists and playwrights and administrators and scenic designers to have the data and strategies of Black tradition. So, I feel that that’s additionally a observe that that is additionally a distinction from among the earlier essays that we talked about, and maybe Spence provides us a bit of little bit of this, however the thought of approach being necessary to consider once we take into consideration coaching of theatre artists.
Jordan: Our final essay.
Leticia: Our final essay, we’re going to finish on considered one of our faves. We are transferring on to 1979 with Queen Mother, Ntozake Shange’s essay, “Unrecovered Losses/Black Theatre Traditions,” and this can be a favourite of yours, Jordan. You truly launched me to this essay.
Jordan: Yes, that is completely considered one of my favourite essays, considered one of my favourite items of Black theatre criticism that I’ve maybe ever learn. What I actually love about this essay is that it additionally focuses… Because as I’ve talked about on this podcast earlier than, I analysis on Black musical theatre, particularly musicals authored and composed by Black girls. The factor that Ntozake Shange, she’s truly very vital of the type of musical theatre on this essay. So, mainly, the gist of this essay is that she is confronting… So, we’re within the seventies and lots of Black musicals are being produced throughout this time, considered one of which is Ain’t Misbehavin’, which is a jukebox musical that options music by Fats Waller, if people are conversant in that musical.
That musical was an enormous success. I imply so many productions have been happening with it. I feel Sidney Mahon talks about that musical having some wild quantity, I consider like fifteen or so concurrent productions due to its success and folks wanting a “Black play,” numerous work and having the ability to produce this work. Ntozake Shange on this essay is definitely fairly vital of the idea of the jukebox musical as a result of what she says is that it celebrates and shows the genius of Black music with no actual e-book that really engages the circumstances upon which that music can emerge.
So, one thing like Ain’t Misbehavin’ is, sure, it’s utilizing the music of Fats Waller, and also you’re in a position to hear there’s an exquisite music and take a look at the dancing and all of those various things and all of the Black expertise, however as a result of there’s no actual e-book, it doesn’t interact all of the issues that Fats Waller went via to have the ability to produce a few of that music, that we will get this superb, profound artwork, however not interact the circumstances upon which that artwork was made. So, I feel that’s such a pointy level, and it’s so good. It’s so good.
Leticia: I’m going to cite straight additionally from this essay as a result of who higher to talk than Shange herself?
We have built-in the notion {that a} drama have to be phrases with no music and no dance, as a result of that might take away the seriousness of the occasion. Because all of us keep in mind too nicely the chuckles and scoffs that the notion that every one might sing and dance, and most of us can sing and dance. The cause that so many performs written in silence and stasis fail is as a result of most Black individuals have some music and motion in our lives. We do sing and dance. This is a cultural actuality. This is why I discover essentially the most inspiring theatre amongst us to be within the realms of music and dance.
I quote that at size as a result of I simply love that she’s similar to, “You all like to say that Black people, all we do is sing and dance. Well, we do and what? Most of us can, what about it?”
But I feel one other vital level that she’s attempting to make or what she’s attempting to break down is this concept that musical theatre itself is… I feel she’s attempting to actually collapse this concept that musical theatre and what we might think about a straight play inside Black tradition exists. I truly assume she’s attempting to get us to consider it as the identical factor. That there’s truly no want for these boundaries of, “Well, musical theatre has dance and music; and a straight play may have some music in it, but it’s not that music over there.” I truly assume she’s attempting to push us to give you a brand new idea and thought of what a Black drama appears to be like like in all its capacities that features music and dance with out essentially needing to kind body it round these particularities or attempting to create distinctions inside it.
Jordan: Absolutely. Right. [As] somebody who researches musical theatre is that there’s a lot that isn’t thought-about to be musical theatre, and lots of it’s by Black writers. Questioning if Micki Grant’s work actual musicals as a result of it doesn’t have this, or is so-and-so’s work truly a musical as a result of it doesn’t have that? I feel that Ntozake Shange is getting us to assume critically about style. What makes one thing a musical, and why is one thing like musical theatre not inclusive of what the work that Black individuals have already been doing, which is incorporating vital motion and sound into our work already?
Why can’t my manuscript about Black girls’s music theatre have a chapter on for coloured women? Because it’s a choreopoem and it incorporates all of those components that persons are stated to explain the ontology of musical theatre. I don’t wish to simply be included within the canon, however why is it not part of these discussions once we take into consideration the idea of music theatre? It’s additionally simply such a robust dramaturgical essay. It’s like actually getting us to tug aside these dramaturgical constructions that usually preclude Black individuals and what we produce.
Compelling Black theater is theater that’s doing its greatest to be consultant of the specificity of the group you emerge from and never attempting to talk for the entire of Blackness.
Leticia: Right, precisely. I feel that she simply does such an important job. I truly actually like that she doesn’t go to among the Porgy and Bess for example of a musical theatre. Actually, there’s one thing actually fascinating that she goes with the jukebox musical. I’m simply desirous about my very own work round some jukebox musicals that I’m attempting to look at and desirous about the tendency of Black life particularly in what we might name musical theatre or music theatre being the frequent means that Black life exhibits up on that exact stage.
I feel it’s just like Childress. She’s additionally thinking about a Black theatre that’s rooted throughout the individuals and never simply these figureheads or these well-known artists and musicians, however that these artists and musicians are part of a group of Black individuals, the place this is part of our cultural actuality subject, I might say. That music on stage can be mirrored within the individuals’s day-to-day on a regular basis life, and that very same thought could be positioned in exhibits and dramas about these individuals as nicely.
Jordan: Exactly. Following within the footsteps of our good sister Zora Neale Hurston, and in desirous about the communal side of cultural expression and that this stuff come from someplace, is what I feel that Ntozake Shange is attempting to get to the center of in that essay is that Black individuals sing and dance not simply because one thing intuitive, however that it is part of the pedagogy of Blackness. You be taught these abilities. You be taught this communal illustration via the interplay together with your communities, and that’s actually the center of it. So, if you divorce that and simply put it on stage with no actual true engagement, then you definitely actually fail at understanding the basis of the place this stuff come from.
Leticia: Right. So, earlier than we shut and earlier than we get to our studying checklist for you all, I’ve one query for you, Jordan, that could be a laborious query. After we explored and examined, we reread a few of these essays, what’s Black theatre to you? How would you outline what Black theatre is? We’re talking in draft everybody.
Jordan: Well, you bought to learn my e-book. No, I’m simply kidding. I feel I’m within the Zora Hurston, Ntozake Shange camp in that Black theatre and efficiency is Black life, proper? We’ve talked about on the podcast earlier than that Black theatre is Black research, however I feel Black theatre and efficiency is Black life. That we ought to be seeking to the methods through which the theatricality, the performativity of Black individuals is rooted within the quotidian ways in which we work together with one another and with the world. So, I feel we will have the DuBoisian “FUBU,” if you’ll: “for us, by us.” We can have the DuBoisian FUBU, proper? We can have the controversy of whether or not it ought to be political versus what ought to or not it’s creative.
But I feel that compelling Black theatre is theatre that’s doing its greatest to be consultant of the specificity of the group you emerge from and never attempting to talk for the entire of Blackness. I’m a Black particular person from the South, and I’ve had specific experiences. So, the work that I really feel charged to put in writing and write about is taking that under consideration. I simply assume that compelling work by Black theatre artists is rooted within the specificity of your personal expertise. By being so particular, it’s also possible to make that time of reference to somebody who will not be sharing that very same lived expertise. I’d love to listen to your reply to this query, Leticia.
Leticia: See, the query was solely purported to be for you after which we have been purported to—
Jordan: No, no, no.
Leticia: Okay. Let me see right here. I truly actually agree together with your reply. I might echo every little thing you stated. For me, a Black theatre that I wish to be part of, that I wish to learn, that I wish to watch, that I wish to interact with is a Black theatre that’s rooted in Black life, just like you, the Black group. After rereading these essays, I feel my thought of Black theatre is definitely not inserting it into an establishment or a number of establishments or if a play will get put up right here or if it goes on Broadway, however truly actually desirous about… I’m thinking about a Black theatre that could be a Black theatre of the people who us the group makes up what Black theatre is. Like you stated, there’s a utility to the FUBU-ness of DuBois’ first insights.
I do assume that permitting the multiplicity of Blackness to indicate up is vital to a brand new definition of what Black theatre is and could be. I feel what Black theatre is ever-changing and always morphing in that we must always permit it to proceed to do its factor and to not be static in its definition. So, I’m within the Black theatre that continues to develop, transfer, and alter with the occasions, with the individuals, and with our collective targets for liberation and freedom.
Jordan: Beautiful. Beautiful.
Leticia: So we’re going to transfer on. Okay. So, we’re going to go to our studying checklist. As all the time, we advocate that you simply take a look at all of the essays that we talked about at the moment, and now we have some ideas for different theorists and philosophers and artists who we didn’t get an opportunity to speak on this episode of the podcast. Jordan, what are these people?
Jordan: Yeah. So, our first e-book is that this unimaginable anthology referred to as The New Negro: Readings on Race, Representation, and African American Culture, 1892-1938, which is edited by Henry Louis Gates and Gene Andrew Jarrett. I consider that this specific anthology, it focuses on Black mental historical past writ giant. It has all of those manifestos, articles, essays by Black thinkers that cowl quite a lot of topics, and one such topic they really deal with is theatre and drama. It’s divided by part. It’s a extremely nice useful resource for individuals who are simply within the growth of Black mental historical past within the United States however are in search of particular issues like whether or not it’s drama, whether or not it’s politics, whether or not it’s music. This specific assortment is protecting the breadth of mental concepts within the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. So, examine that out.
Then now we have a number of standalone essays that we’d prefer to advocate. This is only a begin. This is definitely not exhaustive, however undoubtedly attempting to be complete. So, a few of these essays are “Characteristics of Negro Expression” by Zora Hurston. We have “American Theatre: For Whites Only?” by Douglas Turner Ward, “The Revolutionary Theatre” by Amiri Baraka, and “Calling in the Spirits: How Theatre Can Help Us Tell the Truth” by Pearl Cleage, which truly is a HowlRound essay. So, it’s best to have the ability to entry that proper on HowlRound.
Leticia: Great. Well, we thanks all for becoming a member of us for our episode at the moment, and we hope that you simply follow us for season 4 of Daughters of Lorraine.
Jordan: Ah, we’re so excited. We have lots of actually superior interviews and subjects to cowl, so keep tuned.
Leticia: This has been one other episode of Daughters of Lorraine. We’re your hosts, Leticia Ridley—
Jordan: And Jordan Ealey. On our subsequent episode, we interview intimacy skilled director and actor Kaya Dunn. We have a lot in retailer for you this season that you simply undoubtedly won’t wish to miss. In the meantime, for those who’re seeking to join with us, please comply with us on Twitter, @dolorrainepod, P-O-D. You may also e-mail us at [email protected] for additional contact.
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