Panelists will include Autumn Womack, an assistant professor in Princeton’s Departments of English and African American Studies, whose research focuses on the intersection of late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century African American literary culture, visual studies, and print culture Kinohi Nishikawa, an associate professor in the Departments of English and African American Studies, who specializes in twentieth-century African American literature, book history, and popular culture and Arminda Thomas of CLASSIX, a dramaturg, theater director, producer and archivist. The recorded play readings serve as a jumping off point for a live discussion on this largely suppressed cultural history and how these plays written in the 1930s remain relevant today. New York-based director, writer and filmmaker Kimille Howard directs this reading. Written as a series of vignettes, Liberty Deferred is a stinging and bold journey through history. The themes of voter suppression and lynching in this experimental and satirical play continue to resonate to this day. Liberty Deferred was a Living Newspaper, a theatrical form presenting factual information on current events to a popular audience, written by Abram Hill and John D. This reading is directed by Brooklyn-based theater artist Christina Franklin. Theodore Browne was the assistant director and resident playwright of the Seattle Negro Unit. In 1941, the piece was produced in New York by the American Negro Theatre in Harlem, without much of the original music. Originally written as a folk opera, the story is an adaptation of the legend of John Henry and is set in the 1880s. Natural Man by Theodore Browne premiered in 1937 as part of the Seattle Negro Unit. The author takes a movement which has been passed off as a ludicrous effort by Negroes to ape British royalty and reveals in it that dignity of human groping which is characteristic of all oppressed peoples.” CLASSIX artist Dominque Rider directs this reading. Ralph Ellison wrote, “ Big White Fog is like no other Negro play. The play premiered in the Chicago Unit in 1938 and was produced in New York in 1940. Photo courtesy the Library of Congress Archiveīig White Fog by Theodore Ward is set in 1922 and explores the divisions in a family through debates around Garveyism and socialism. Units in 23 cities throughout the country focused on Black writers, performers, musicians and communities.Įxcerpts from three plays written as part of the Negro Units’ projects will be read by professional actors during the event.Ī poster from an early production of Theodore Ward’s play Big White Fog, one of the plays written and produced as part of the Federal Theatre Project Negro Units that premiered in 1938 in Chicago. While inequities existed many people from underrepresented groups found employment with the WPA, among them those involved in the Negro Units. When FDR took office in 1933, he promised a “New Deal” for everyone. Familiar among these projects are murals still present in public buildings throughout the nation. Federal Project Number One, championed by Eleanor Roosevelt, focused on the arts and was intended to also entertain and inspire the larger population by creating hope amidst the economic turmoil. The Federal Theatre Project was one of several New Deal arts programs that put tens of thousands of artists to work as part of Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s 1935 Work Projects Administration to help America recover from the Great Depression. “We want the audience to know that these plays exist, that in moments where we are tasked with articulating how devastating national events affect people and communities, that there is a vibrant tradition of theatrical writing that asked these questions nearly 100 years ago,” adds Awoye Timpo, a Brooklyn-based director and producer who is one of the five artists who lead CLASSIX. “So many important plays by Black authors haven’t been published or reprinted, and they deserve to be read and performed.” “The history of Black theater is not readily accessible,” says Jane Cox, who is director of the Lewis Center’s Program in Theater. Many significant plays are not available to the general public. While the work of some Black playwrights, like Lorraine Hansberry and August Wilson, are often studied and performed, the works of other seminal Black playwrights are largely unknown. Photo courtesy the Library of Congress ArchiveĬLASSIX is a collective of artists and scholars dedicated to expanding the classical theater canon through an exploration of dramatic works by Black writers. “The Conjure-Man Dies,” a play based on Rudolph Fisher’s novel, considered the first detective novel by a Black author, produced in 1936 by the Federal Theatre Project’s Harlem Unit.
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