Author Description

This is the first definitive history of African-American theatre. The text embraces a wide geography investigating companies from coast to coast as well as the anglophone Caribbean and African-American companies touring Europe, Australia, and Africa. This history represents a catholicity of styles--from African ritual to European forms, from amateur to professional, and from political nationalism to integration. It covers nearly two and a half centuries of black performance and production with issues of gender, class, and race ever in attendance. The volume covers all aspects of performance, including minstrel, vaudeville, cabaret acts, musicals, and opera. Shows by White playwrights that used black casts, particularly in music and dance, are included, as are productions of western classics and a host of Shakespeare plays. The breadth and vitality of black theatre history, from the individual performance to large-scale company productions, from political nationalism to integration, are conveyed in this volume. -- Publisher description