African American Performance and Theater History A Critical Reader

by Elam, Harry J.; Krasner, David

• ISBN13: 9780195127256
• ISBN10: 0195127250
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2001-01-18
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

African-American Performance and Theatre History is an anthology ofcritical writings that explores the intersections of race, theater, andperformance in America. Assembled by two of the most respected and prolificscholars in black theater and composed of essays from acknowledged authoritiesin the field (Joe Roach and Genevieve Fabre, among others), this volume isorganized into four sections representative of the ways black theater, drama,and performance past and present interact and enact continuous social, cultural,and political dialogues. The premise behind the book is that analyzingAfrican-American theater and performance traditions offers insight into how racehas operated and continues to operate in American society. The only one-volumecollection of its kind, this volume is likely to become the central referencefor those studying black theater.

Author Biography

Harry J. Elam, Jr. is Christensen Professor for the Humanities, Director of the Introduction to the Humanities, Director of Graduate Studies for Drama, and Director of the Committee on Black Performing Arts at Stanford University. David Krasner is Director of Undergraduate Theater Studies at Yale University, where he teaches theater history, acting, and directing. His book,Resistance, Parody, and Double Consciousness in African-American Theatre 1895-1910, won the Errol Hill award from ASTR.

Table of Contents

Contributors	xi
The Device of Race: An Introduction	3	(14)
Harry J. Elam, Jr.
PART I: SOCIAL PROTEST AND THE POLITICS OF REPRESENTATION	17	(82)
Uncle Tom's Women	19	(21)
Judith Williams
Political Radicalism and Artistic Innovation in the Works of Lorraine Hansberry	40	(16)
Margaret B. Wilkerson
The Black Arts Movement: Performance, Neo-Orality and, the Destruction of the ``White Thing''	56	(25)
Mike Sell
Beyond a Liberal Audience	81	(18)
William Sonnega
PART II: CULTURAL TRADITIONS, CULTURAL MEMORY and, PERFORMANCE	99	(70)
Deep Skin: Reconstructing Congo Square	101	(13)
Joseph R. Roach
``Calling on the Spirit'': The Performativity of Black Women's Faith in the Baptist Church Spiritual Traditions and Its Radical Possibilities for Resistance	114	(18)
Telia U. Anderson
The Chitlin Circuit	132	(17)
Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
Audience and Africanisms in August Wilson's Dramaturgy: A Case Study	149	(20)
Sandra G. Shannon
PART III: INTERSECTIONS OF RACE AND GENDER	169	(80)
Black Minstrelsy and Double Inversion, Circa 1890	171	(21)
Annemarie Bean
Black Salome: Exoticism, Dance and, Racial Myths	192	(20)
David Krasner
Uh Tiny Land Mass Just Outside of My Vocabulary: Expression of Creative Nomadism and Contemporary African American Playwrights	212	(23)
Kimberly D. Dixon
Attending Walt Whitman High: The Lessons of Pomo Afro Homos' Dark Fruit	235	(14)
Jay Plum
PART IV: AFRICAN AMERICAN PERFORMATIVITY AND THE PERFORMANCE OF RACE	249	(80)
Acting Out Miscegenation	251	(20)
Diana R. Paulin
Birmingham's Federal Theater Project Negro Unit: The Administration of Race	271	(17)
Tina Redd
The Black Performer and the Performance of Blackness: The Escape; or, A Leap to Freedom by William Wells Brown and No Place To Be Somebody by Charles Gordone	288	(18)
Harry J. Elam, Jr.
The Costs of Re-Membering: What's at Stake in Gayl Jones's Corregidora	306	(23)
Christina E. Sharpe
PART V: ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSION WITH SENIOR SCHOLARS	329	(16)
African American Theater: The State of the Profession, Past, Present and, Future	331	(14)
Roundtable discussion edited by
Harry J. Elam, Jr.
David Krasner
Afterword: Change Is Coming	345	(6)
David Krasner
Selected Bibliography	351	(6)
Index	357