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.
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Nicole Hodges Persley
Assistant Lecturer, USC School of Theater