Black Broadway Theatre History ~ Our Moments and Circumstances 

From 1916 to 1940: The Flourishing of Black Theater

The first wave of the Great Migration, which started in 1916, saw around 1.6 million African Americans move northwards to the cities of the Northwest and Midwest. In Harlem, New York, this movement became combined with a separate immigration of people of African descent coming over from the Caribbean.

As the white middle classes moved away northwards, Harlem became an African American neighborhood and the birthplace of the New Negro Movement, a flourishing of Black middle-class literature later termed the Harlem Renaissance.

This period saw African Americans create numerous experimental groups and theater companies in major cities like Chicago, Washington D.C., And, of course, New York. The Harlem Renaissance also saw Broadway present the first play to feature an all-Black cast: Ridgely Torrence’s ‘Three Plays for a Negro Theatre’(1917). The plays were performed at both New York’s Garden City and Garrick theaters.

According to author and civil rights activist James Weldon Johnson, this was the single most important event in the entire history of black theatre.  In 1921, Eubie Blake and Noble Lee Sissle presented ‘Shuffle Along’ to a Broadway audience. The musical was hugely popular and showed more than 500 times. It introduced Paul Robeson, an influential artist, and civil rights activist, to the world.

Flournoy Miller (top center) and Aubrey Lyles (bottom center) along with Eubie Blake and Noble Sissle. Together, the four would write Shuffle Along. Photo courtesy of American Theatre.

 

Nevertheless, it was another six years before Garland Anderson’s ‘Appearances’(1925) became the first play of black authorship to make the Broadway stage. African American poet Langston Hughes ‘Mulatto: A Tragedy of the Deep South (1935), produced and directed by Martin Jones, was the first play of Black authorship to receive widespread success.

Over the next two decades, African Americans continued to set up various professional and community theaters and launch the careers of exciting new actors such as Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee. The short-lived Ethiopian Art Theatre (1922-1925) presented European theatrical works written by African American playwrights.

One of the Theatre Guild’s Pulitzer Prize-winning plays of 1926 “In Abraham’s Bosom” by Paul Green. It was one of the first times anywhere in American theatre for Black actors in the dramatic theatre to command the serious attention of the critics and of the general press and public. Seen here in an emotional first-act scene are Rose McClendon and Frank Wilson.

 

The Federal Theatre Project, launched in 1935 with the aim of supporting racial integration, facilitated the opening of the American Negro Theater (ANT) by the actors Abram Hill and Frederik O’Neal. The ANT produced 19 plays in 9 years. The FTP’s Negro Unit also supported left-leaning political playwright Theodore Ward as he created his first full-length production, ‘Big White Fog’(1938), in Chicago.

Concerned by the increasingly controversial themes of its productions, Congress shut down the FTP, prompting Ward to move his play Off-Broadway to Harlem’s Lincoln Theatre as the first play under his new project: the Negro Playwrights’ Company.

A year later, America entered World War II and African Americans were drawing uncomfortable parallels between the Nazism America was fighting abroad and the racism that they experienced at home. The Black theater of the post-World War period would increasingly challenge this contradiction.

 

American theatre designer Perry Watkins (1907-1974). He is credited as being the first Black scenic designer on Broadway for Mamba’s Daughters in 1939. He was also the first Black designer to be admitted into the United Scenic Artists union, also in 1939.

Post World War II: A Change in Style

Following the war, African Americans were beginning to move towards a more progressive and radical – even militant – stance towards the majority White culture. This was reflected in the 1940s and 1950s Black theater with plays such as Lorraine Hasburg’s ‘A Raisin in the Sun’ commenting on the difficulties of preserving identity in a racist culture.

At the same time, there was a brief boom in Broadway musicals featuring all Black casts. This started back in 1940 when Vernon Duke put on ‘Cabin in the Sky’, a parable of life for African Americans in the South. Then, in 1943, Oscar Hammerstein presented a successful version of the opera ‘Carmen’(‘Carmen Jones’), also set in the American South.

In 1946, the revue ‘Call Me Mister’focused on returning American troops and featured a song bemoaning the racism that prevented a successful serviceman from being employed in his own country. That same year, Harold Arlen and Jonny Mercer presented ‘St Louis Woman’, a musical based on the novel ‘God Sends Sunday which was written by African American author Arna Bontemps. The production was beset with problems from the outset though, receiving criticism from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored Peoples (NAACP) for offering roles that ‘detracted from the dignity of our race.’ The leading lady, Lena Horne, agreed with the assessment and pulled out of the musical. The show flopped yet ironically, Arlen’s song ‘Come Rain or Come Shine’ was so popular it broke into the top 20 of the pop charts.

In 1947, German composer Kurt Weill and Langston Hughes worked together on the first major interracial Broadway collaboration: ‘Street Scene’(1947). To ensure the authenticity of the music, Hughes took Weill to Harlem nightclubs and introduced him to the latest jazz and blues idioms. The Black-themed musicals ‘Finian’s Rainbow’(1947) and ‘Lost in the Stars (1949), another Weill production, also made the Broadway stage in this period.

Unfortunately, the black musical vogue passed and Broadway became White-dominated again for the next few decades.

BLACK THEATRE PIONEERS
In 1950 Nick and Edna Stewart founded the Los Angeles Ebony Showcase Theatre. The first Black theatre in the LA community, the Ebony Showcase provided a venue for performers such as Al Freeman Jr., John Amos, Nichelle Nichols, Isabel Sanford, and other LA-based artists. Nick Stewart began as an actor and was limited to playing mostly stereotypical roles in early film and television, but he was always a man (and artist) ahead of his time. He wrote his own musical play “Carnival Island” and hosted a CBS special from the stage of the Ebony Showcase Theatre. Nick and Edna Stewart (and they were always referred to as one!) were early and true Black Theatre Pioneers. They were also cultural pioneers championing social equality. Their production of NORMAN IS THAT YOU (Originally a play about a Jewish family’s son coming out as gay and introducing his Black boyfriend) became – at the Ebony – a Black family and their son’s coming out. As Wikipedia says: “Also in 1971, a version at the Ebony Showcase Theater in Los Angeles, substitutes an African American family for a Jewish family.[4] It ran at the Ebony for SEVEN YEARS, becoming one of the longest-running plays in Los Angeles theatre history.” Meaning that in a Black community with church-based homophobia often espoused, Nick and Edna were courageous enough to successfully challenge perspectives. (The current Nate Holden Theatre now stands on the ultimate location of the EBONY SHOWCASE THEATRE.)

Taking on the Mainstream Culture in the 1960s and 1970s

An increasingly angry Black rights movement found its natural home in the growing Off-Broadway movement where experimental and controversial plays could be more easily shown.

Two of the biggest names in Black theater from the 1960s and 1970s were Everett LeRoi Jones and Ed Bullins who both became fierce proponents of the Black Arts Movement following the assassination of civil rights activist Malcolm X in 1965. Prior to this, Jones had won an Off-Broadway (Obie) award for his hard-hitting play ‘Dutchman and the Slave’ (1964) which is set on a New York subway and centers on a dialogue between a White woman Lulu and a Black man Clay.

Following Malcolm X’s assassination, Jones moved to Harlem, changed his name to Amiri Baraka, and set up the Black Arts Repertory Theater as the home for a new Black Arts Movement (BAM), the so-called ‘aesthetic and spiritual sister’ to the Black Power political movement.

While companies such as the Negro Ensemble Company (NEC) continued to look to integration as the solution to racial tensions, Baraka and his fellow BAM playwrights believed that equality could only come about through creating a strong and powerful Black aesthetic that stood in opposition to the dominant White culture.

As such, activists would often protest against NEC plays, accusing the company of ‘taking white money’ and producing the work of White playwrights.

Inspired by ‘Dutchman’, Ed Bullins joined the BAM cause and became one of the most prolific playwrights of the 1960s and 1970s. His plays, which often incorporated street lyricism and focused on racial and political tensions, include ‘In the Wine Time’ (1968), ‘Goin a Buffalo’(1968), ‘The Gentleman Caller’(1969), and ‘The Taking of Miss Janie’ (1975).

Much of the output of the BAM (including ‘The Taking of Miss Janie’) exploited the imagery of sexual aggression against women which complicated the relationship Black women had with the feminist movement. This issue was dramatized in Adrienne Kennedy’s 1964 play, ‘Funnyhouse of a Negro.’

The 1970s saw black musicals return to Broadway with Melvin Van Peebles’ ‘Ain’t Supposed to Die a Natural Death’(1971) and Charlie Smalls’ ‘The Wiz’(1975) among the most popular. ‘The Wiz’, based on Frank Baum’s ‘Wizard of Oz’ran for four years and won seven Tony awards, including that year’s best musical.

Black Theatre from the 80s to the 90s 

 

During the late 1960s, BAM activist August Wilson co-founded the Black Horizons Theatre in Pittsburgh. It took until 1984 for Wilson to present a play on Broadway. ‘Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom’showed at the Cort Theatre as the first of Wilson’s 10-play Pittsburgh Cycle which charted the lives of various characters from the 1920s to the 1990s.

Wilson’s most successful Broadway plays were ‘Fences’(1987), which was set in the 1950s and focused on a conflict between father and son, and ‘The Piano Lesson’(1990), set in the 1930s and featuring a family’s mixed feelings over an heirloom. Both plays were awarded Pulitzers.
The August Wilson Theatre became the first Broadway theater to bear an African-American’s name when the Virginia Theatre was renamed after him in 2005, two weeks after his death.
Another highly acclaimed African-American playwright to make his mark on Broadway towards the end of the 20th century was George Wolfe. His first Broadway play, ‘Jelly’s Last Jam’ (1992) was performed at the Virginia Theatre. Wolfe has mainly associated with his Tony award-winning plays ‘Angels in America: Millennium Approaches (1993) and ‘Bring in ‘da Noise, Bring in ‘da Funk’(1996).

The State of Black Theatre in the 21stCentury
The turn of the century finally saw an African-American woman win a Pulitzer with Suzan Lori-Parks’ play ‘Top Dog/Underdog’ (2001).

More recently, black actors have been playing leading roles that have been traditionally portrayed by whites. These include Noma Dumezweni as Hermione Grainger in ‘Harry Potter and the Cursed Child’ (2015); Christiani Pitts as Ann Darrow in ‘King Kong’(2018); Jelani Alladin as Kristoff in ‘Frozen’(2018) and Brittney Johnson as the first black woman to play Glinda the Good Witch in ‘Wicked’(2019), another adaptation of ‘Wizard of Oz.’

However, a critic of Black representation on Broadway has pointed out that only three plays in the 2018/19 season directly spoke to the Black experience.

 

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iforcolor

ARCHIVIST, EDUCATOR, HISTORIAN, and ARTiST
Dale Ricardo Shields is highly accomplished African American actor, director, producer, and educator with a distinguished career in theatre and academia.

Here's a summary of his background and achievements:

Early Life and Family:
Born on November 4, 1952, in Cleveland, Ohio.
His family has a strong musical background; his grandfather and father were founding members of the Shields Brothers Gospel Quartet of Ohio, and his mother was part of the Turner Gospel Singers.
He is a cousin of boxing promoter Don King.
Education:
Graduated from John F. Kennedy High School in 1970.
Holds both a BFA (1975) and MFA (1995) from Ohio University.

Career and Contributions
Theatre Professional:
Actor: Has appeared on Broadway, Off-Broadway, Off-Off-Broadway, and in regional productions. His television credits include The Cosby Show, Another World, Guiding Light, Saturday Night Live, and the ITV series Special Needs. He has also appeared in commercials and films.
Director and Stage Manager: Has extensive professional credits in these roles, including projects at Lincoln Center, The Henry Street Settlement House (New Federal Theatre), The Negro Ensemble Company, and The Joseph Papp Public Theatre.
Assistant Director: Served as assistant to Lloyd Richards and assistant director for the New Federal Theatre premiere of Ossie Davis's play A Last Dance With Sybil starring Ruby Dee and Earl Hyman.

Educator:
Professor: He is a Professor of Acting, Directing, Black Theatre, Black Studies, and Stage Management. He has taught at various institutions, including Ohio University, The College of Wooster, Denison University, Macalester College, Susquehanna University (as artist-in-residence), and SUNY Potsdam.
Workshops and Programs: Conducted workshops for Joseph Papp's Playwriting in the Schools Program (PITS) at The Public Theatre for six seasons and represented the United States at the ASSITEJ Theatre Festival in London, England, in 1988.
Artistic Activist and Historian:

Iforcolor.org: Creator and archivist for the Black History website Iforcolor.org, dedicated to preserving and sharing information about African Americans and artists of color. He also maintains the "Black Theatre/African American Voices" website on Facebook.
Project1VOICE Liaison: Serves as the Project1VOICE Liaison for the state of Ohio, directing "One Play One Day" events in Cleveland since 2011.

Awards and Recognition:
The Kennedy Center/Stephen Sondheim Inspirational Teacher Award: Recipient in 2017.
Paul Robeson Award: Recipient in 2021 (jointly presented by the Actors' Equity Association and Actors' Equity Foundation).
AUDELCO/"VIV" Special Achievement Award: Received in 2017.
Tony Award Nominee: Nominated for the "Excellence in Theatre Education Award" in 2015 and 2017.
Ebony Bobcat Network (EBN) Legend Award: Received from Ohio University in 2022.
ENCORE AWARD / The Actors Fund: Received in 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2024.
Outstanding Professor Awards: Has received two of these and three "Educational Program of the Year" awards as a university professor.
The HistoryMakers archives: Interviewed and included in The HistoryMakers archives, permanently housed in the Library of Congress.
Dale Ricardo Shields is recognized for his profound impact on the lives of his students and his unwavering dedication to preserving and promoting Black theatre history and culture.