New Wave of African American Theater: Hip-hop Theater and the Urban Theater Circuit

This week we will discuss new developments in African American Theater. Recent debates in American Theatre Magazine (2004) about the state of Hip-hop Theater as part of what Paul Carter Harris calls the "African continuum" have sparked contorversy as many believe that Hip-hop cannot be limited to African American cultural production.
Likewise, Hip-hop Theater then has been defined by one if its pioneers, Danny Hoch as theater "by, about and for the Hip-hop generation" which borrows directly from W.E.B. Dubois'definition of Black Theater. In addition, building on earlier arguments by Alain Locke for black theater that addresses the "folk" tradition of everyday African American life, the Urban Theater Circut has been critiqued for presenting stories that often reify existing stereotypes of African Americans. .
In our discussions of Hip-hop Theater and the Urban Theater Circuit (formerly known as the Chitlin' Circuit),can peoplewho are not African American perform theater works inspired from African American life? Is Hip-hop Theater "black" theater even when other races and ethnicities perform its works? What are your thoughts?

Shange's For Colored Girls Wolfe's The Colored Musuem

Both Shange and Wolfe present issues that have shaped African American experiences in the United States such as slavery,racism, feminism,sexism,homosexuality, spousal abuse and quests for racial "authenticity." Both authors ask why and how African Americans and white mainstream theater audiences buy into various stereotypes of blackness as repesentative of the larger black American collective. Can you find current critiques of African American life presented in popular culture today?

Kennedy's Funnyhouse of a Negro and Genet's The Blacks

Both Kennedy and Genet present complex ideas about racism, color politics and power in these works. How might these plays be reflective of personal and collective conflicts between blacks and whites throughout the African Diaspora? Do you find differences in the ways that blackness is represented by a white author (Genet) versus a black author(Kennedy) in presenting black experiences of racism? Where do the similarities lie in these plays if any....

Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun Baldwin's Amen Corner

Last week, one of our class colleagues asked when, if ever, the subjects we have discussed in relationship to African American Theater would change? I think this was a prolific inquiry and one that we must grapple with when examining the works of Hansberry and Baldwin. What is "new" in the discussions of African American life we see presented in these works? How to they present new perspectives or subversive characteristics which address issues of racism and insitutionalized inequality for African Americans? What stories and/or stereotypes persist?

Angelina Weld Grimke's Rachel Langston Hughes' Mulatto

Our reading of Angelina Grimke's Rachel and Langston Hughes' Mulatto engendered several discussions about the multiple ways that "blackness" can be written for the stage. Particularly, both playwrights use language as a way to indicate the level of "blackness" lived by their characters. For example, both Grimke and Hughes use speech that is presented as "educated"and "uneducated" to create chracterizations of light skinned and dark skinned blacks respectively.

Keeping this in mind, how do Both Grimke and Hughes use language and color to differentiate the ways in which black Americans of various skin tones are afforded or denied certain privleges according to their phenotypical relationship to whiteness? In what ways to Grimke and Hughes begin to solicit a conversation about black identity as a simultaneous racial, social and poltical identification? Conversley, is Hughes successful at writing "whiteness" in Mulatto?

In Dahomey, Minstresly and Stereotypes in Black Theater

I apologize for the late post. I had some publishing issues with Blogger which prevented me from posting.

Our discussions have focused broadly on the stereotypes used to portray blacks on the American Theater stage. We have learned that while whites mimicking "black life" on stage circulated essentialized representations of black men and women, that blacks also participated in circulating these unfavorbale images. In what ways, if at all, do any of the characters we have encountered in Aikens' Uncle Tom's Cabin, Browns' The Escape and Cook's In Dahomey present new representations of black subjects that disrupt these stereotypes of "Uncle Tom," "Coon," "Topsy, and "Tragic mulatto," etc. that we have seen thus far?

Introduction to African American Theater-Uncle Tom's Cabin

Harry Elam argues in the introduction of African American Theater and Performance History that "race reamins a device with very real meanings"(2001,6). Thinking about the ways the characters in Aikens' Uncle Tom's Cabin are represented, how do you understand race to operate as a device in this play? In what ways can you make sense of the idea of race as social construction that changes its meaning over time? What situations between characters can you isolate that repersentative of "race relations" in this particular historical context?

Welcome to African American Theatre at USC Fall 2007

Welcome to the blog for African American Theater at USC, Fall 2007. This is the site for you to log your personal responses to the plays and critical texts we read in the course. Please use your name so that I can identify you and give you credit for your participation. I look forward to exchanging ideas with you in this course. Please begin to log in and blog by week 2 of the course.

Where do you see African American Theater in tne next five years?

In this course we read a wide range of plays and ciritcal texts and viewed several film versions of African American plays. Now that you can create a definition of what African American Theater was in the past and is currently, what projections can you make for a future African American Theater audience in the next five years? What do you think that writers and producers can do to cultivate new plays by African Americans and a new audience for African American Theater?

Dael Orlandersmith's Yellowman and Tyler Perry's Diary of a Mad Black Woman

In what way do you see the color politics between light skinned and dark skinned African Americans tie back to early discussions of "plantation mentatlity" in both of these works? Do Orlandersmith and Perry disrupt or complicate any Black stereotypes? How would you situate Orlandersmith's play and Perrys' film (based on his play) within Henry Louis Gates' "legitimate" and "illegitimate" theater binary?

Danny Hoch's Jails, Hospitals and Hip-hop and The Hip-hop Theater Manifesto

After reviewing Hoch's play and his Hip-hop Theater manifesto, we discussed the ways that Hoch relies upon many African American historical and cultural contribitions to define what Hip-hop Theater is. Many of you argued that much of Hoch's work resonates as self-important and elite. Hoch's goal is actually to serve the Hip-hop community by making theater accessible and grounded in the experiences of the Hip-hop generation. Why do you think his Hoch's texts may betray his intent? Hoch argues Hip-hop is a polycultural art form. If this is true, how does Hip-hop and a theater produced by it sustain itself artistically if its practioners, producers and consumers are all of diverse racial, ethnic, cultural and national backgrounds? What is the relationship between race and culture that creates a measuring stick for Hip-hop authenticity, and if so what does it look like?

Suzan-Lori Parks' The America Play and Henry Louis Gates, Jr.'s The Chitlin Circuit

What is "Black" and "American" about Suzan- Lori Parks' The America Play? What contradictions do you see in Parks' work when placed into the larger context of African American Theater? Does she write a play "by, about , for and near" Black people? Does her play reflect some of the issues in African American theater practices that Gates presents in his article that suggest a "legitimate" and illegitimate" Black Theater? If we are striving towards racial equality in the American Theater, does Parks contribute to this goal? Why or why not?

August Wilson's Fences aand Charles Fullers' A Soldier's Play ( and Story)

Many of you said that you felt these plays by Wilson and Fuller were"universal." How do the representations of Black men presented in these plays stand as "universal" characters if at all? If the military, music and sports are key avenues for self-empowerment presented by the playwrights, how do you see these institutions operating across racial lines today? Are they sites for all men to find opportunities for achievement outside of prescribed racial roles or do they target men based on racial stereotype still today?

George Wolfe's The Colored Museum Ntozake Shange's For Colored Girls

Both Wolfe and Shange challenged the existing representations of African American life at the time of their productions. How does their work suggest new possibilties for agency in African American Theater? What limitations do you see in their critiques? How do the reify or subvert exisiting stereotypes? What examples can you give of contemporary critiques presented by artists ( various media--art, film, television, theater, etc) that mirror the issues explored by Wolfe and Shange?

Adrienne Kennedy's Funnyhouse of a Negro and Jean Genet's The Blacks

My apologies for the late post.

This week, we discussed how both Genet and Kennedy challenge the social, cultural and political limitations of what it means to "be" Black in an international context. Both playwrights explode racial stereotypes in order to reveal the psychological and material injuries that Blacks of all nationalities have suffered in relationship to Whiteness over time. By using mirror images of stereotypes that both Whites and Blacks have of one another, Genet attempts to use the stage as a place for Whites to reflect on their personal and collective relationship to the oppression of Blacks. Kennedy challenges how Blackness is determined when one's skin color and world-view are indeed "White." Hopefully both playwrights help us understand the complex social relationships that must be considered when we think about race as a lived identity.

With these ideas and our class discussion in mind, how do you feel one lives a racial identity? What is it that determines "Blackness," "Whiteness" or "otherness"? How are we socialized to know when we are in the presence of something that is effectively "Black" or "White" and how does nationality shape this discussion. As usual, you can refer to your everyday lives and popular culture.

Leroi Jones' Dutchman

This week we discussed the significance of Jones' Dutchman as an exploration of many of the themes of the Black Arts Movement. Lee's Obie winning play presents a series of counter arguments to many passive and non-violent approaches to social change presented in art in the mid 1960s. The Black Arts Movement was often defined as a "sister" movement to the Black Power movement because of the ways that it stressed the political, cultural and economic components that consituted a"Black" identity as well as the "by any means necessary" approach preached by Malcolm X. Considering Jones' "militant" presentation of "blackness" in this play, in what ways do you feel the play resonates today if at all? In what way is the play "dated"? In what way do the characters of Clay and Lula operate as "composites" of race realtions between Blacks and Whites in the 1960s?

James Baldwin's The Amen Corner and Ossie Davis' Purlie Victorious

This week, we discussed how both The Amen Corner and Purlie Victorious as "civil rights" plays of the give us important information about the significance of the Black Church and the performance of a Black subjectivity. We also discussed various themes and ideas that reference theBlack Church which can help us understand how the relationship between the religious and the secular becomes a recurring theme in African American Theater. Keeping this in mind, how can you see alternative performances of Blackness, in our current moment, that disrupt the heteronormative behaviors of Blacks and Whites that we have read? Can you think of ways that you can challenge how Black men and women are written for the stage? Can you make any links to television, film or music that perpetuate a heteronormative performance of Blackness? What suggestions would you make to playwrights, actors and/or directors when creating seemingly "authentic" representations of Black Americans that exclusively address heterosexuality? You can answer any variation of these questions or respond to one another.

Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun

Hi all- A Raisin in the Sun as a watershed play in American Theater history because of its representation of African American life. How do the roles, plots and themes resonate today? Does the play resonate as "modern" today? Why or why not?

Langston Hughes' Mulatto

Hi All- I apologize for the late post--I had trouble with blogger last night.
Yesterday in class, we discussed Langston Hughes' 1930s play Mulatto. In the play, Hughes troubles the tragic mulatto stereotype. He also makes particular commentary about the Jim Crow south that stress the tensions and contradictions in relationships we have studied between Blacks and Whites in the United States. This week, take into consideration the ways in which which the Federal Theater Project attempted to change the way "Americans" were presented in the American Theater by creating opportunities for diverse racial and ethnic groups to create and perform in their own stories. How does Hughes' play fit into the goals of the Negro Units and the larger FTP project? Even though most of Hughes' plays were not not funded by the FTP --it was on Broadway at beginning of the Federal Theater Project and stars one of the key players in the Negro Units, Rose McClendon.

Angeleina Weld Grimke's Rachel

This week's discussion addressed Grimke's Rachel as a propaganda play about the emotional violence of lynching written in response to the D.W. Griffith film Birth of a Nation. We also discussed how the play embodies the similarities and contradictions between Alain Locke and W.E.B. Dubois' views of Black Theater. Thinking of Dubois' call for propaganda theater and Lockes call for art theater, what links can you make to Black cultural production today that address social, cultural and poltical issues in the African American community? Do these productions operate as propaganda and/or art?

In Dahomey, Minstresly and "Double Inversion"

It appears that this week's critical readings have most students confused versus enlightened. This is where our interpretation of theory, even my explanation of theory, can fail if we do not have a context to apply it to our everyday lives. I want you to think about Annemarie Bean's concept of "double inversion" as an act of "recycling". Think of In Dahomey as a play where Black actors "recycle" and then "reuse" images of Blacks as conceived by Whites. Actors such as Bert Williams an Aida Overton Walker refashioned, or "inverted" these images into attempts to subvert the negative images presented by White minstrels. In terms of gender, and the concept of "double inversion", Bean refers to the performance of "color" vs race--White minstrels taking on the gender and "color" identities of black women and men. Black women minstrels would take on the role of "double inversion" --through their performance of "male" characters. Their performances were an attempt was to invert ( thus inversion) the previous representations of Black men and women.

Keeping these ideas in mind--how might you relate these concepts to contemporary popular "race and gender" performances ? Examples includeMarlon and Shawn Wayans playing White women, Eddie Murphy's performanc eof African American women in Norbit and White men in Nutty Professor , Martin Lawrence's performance of Black Women in Big Mama's House, C Thomas Howel's performance of a Black man in Soul Man, Theyk White Rapper showetc? How theater come to influence these types of performances? Do you see traces of minstrelsy in these works at all? How do they differ from both White and Black minstrelsy? Are their any "inversions"?

William Wells BrownThe Escape or A Leap For Freedom

After reading William Wells Brown's The Escape or A Leap For Freedom, you have experienced a former slave's perspective of the plight of slavery and his quest for freedom. How can you relate Brown's performance as a playwright to current theatrical platforms used by African American men and women such as acting, directing, Emceeing? Do you see any contemporary references to the pursuit of "freedom" in contemporary discussions about performance? How can we make sense of what Harry Elam calls "the continued presence of the past in African American thetaer and performance"(2001,3).

George Aiken's Uncle Tom's Cabin

On Tuesday(1/16) we discussed racial stereotypes and a "plantation mentality" of the South that persists in racial relations in the United States today. George Aiken's play Uncle Tom's Cabin uses several streotypes of Blacks in the South. What stereotypes of Whites did you find? Thinking about both Black and White stereotypes in the play, do you see any similar figures operating in contemporary theater and performance? What types of connections can you make? For example, we mentioned the resurfacing of the "Mammy" figure with Queen Latifah's various film roles, particularly 'Bringin Down the House." What other theater and film examples can you cite to push this discussion forward?

Welcome to African American Theatre at USC

Welcome to African American Theater 476. Blog posts for all students in this course begin Thursday, January 18th! By posting your comments to this blog, you will have the opportunity to discuss African American Theater with your peers and to create a forum which engages the plays and critical texts we read in the course on a more personal level. You will also receive class participation credit. I look forward to your comments on the plays we read.
Best-
Nicole Hodges Persley
Assistant Lecturer, USC School of Theater