Essay on African American Representation in Show Boat

Today I ran into Josephine Baker, the famous flapper in Harlem N.Y. She carried herself well,very poised and polished, however, she overflowed with eccentricity. Socially, people love her, she can act, dance, and sing. Josephine is Harlem’s most entertaining entertainer! Not to mention, Langston Hughes wrote a poem about her called “Negro Dancers”, he wasn’t fooling anybody with his metaphors and symbolism! I remember seeing her perform “The Chocolate Dandies” for the first time at the Colonial Theater on 1887 Broadway, 62nd St. New York! It was the year 1924, I was given a advertisement flier to attend one of the first, black musical performances! I was completely shocked because this was a life changing time for black people around the nation,

August Wilson’s 1996 address entitled “The Ground on Which I Stand”, sparked a vigorous debate in the world of theater over the idea of “colorblind casting” and he presented the need for a Black Theatre. Mr. Wilson was outraged by the fact that of the 66 major companies belonging to the League of Resident Theaters, only one was black. He felt that the supporters of black theatre used their funds to increase black hiring in primarily white theatres as opposed to creating a theatre for the black community. Hw wanted to have more black theaters established to cater to the black actors as well as draw in black audiences. He attacks the increasingly popular trend of “colorblind casting” which basically meant casting black actors in roles traditionally

the training ground and inspiration for the birth of the American musical. As the primary

This paper is a critique of a production of Show Boat, a musical classic with compositions by Jerome Kern and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, which was performed and produced by NETworks Presentations LLC at Emens Auditorium on the 14th of February 2001. Clayton Phillips, the director of the production, attempted to test the waters of racial discrimination by exploring controversial themes such as prejudice and interracial relationships. Show Boat takes an enlightened approach to ethnic controversy by using both music and drama to express the feelings and hopes of the characters to the audience. Even though I enjoyed the production, I felt that it was lacking in terms of its plot and may have overused its melodic reprises. However, Show

Three sources analyze the racial conflicts of white actors playing colored parts, and all agreed that it was not a trivial situation, for audiences, or actors. Racial tensions are very popular with the media. While there is some minor tension today, the movies and plays of Othello top the charts for most racial conflicts. First, The article, “Othello: the role that entices and engages actors of all skin colours,” by Andrew Dickson shows the history of the actors that played Othello, and when the actors were black, they were either not cast, due to segregationists, or were criticized in their performance for the same reason. Also, this article uses diction to convey the seriousness of white vs. minority crisis. Next, the video, “SHAKESPEARE UNCOVERED White Actors Playing Othello” by PBS, shows the performances of many Othello actors that were white. Additionally, the video shows one white actor who used makeup to make himself more than than black. The video uses hyperbole to describe the absurdity of Othello movies. For example, Laurence Olivier, the 1964 Othello was black-top showing how far film industries will go to cover-up racial tensions, and the narrator describes the makeup as ridiculous,and dramatic. Finally, the last article, “Aladdin: putting a white character in Disney’s live-action remake is offensive,” by Hannah Flint displays that film industries feel obligated to please a white audience, keeping the minorities second fiddle by adding characters white people

This year, to celebrate Black History Month, we pay tribute to the contributions made by African-Americans in Musical Theater. The medium of musical performance theater has always been a vibrant and unique entity enriched by ancient West African folklore, and European theatrical practices. A continuum of the African folk traditions of storytelling that uses music, song, and dance to help us understand our difference, as well as celebrate the sameness of who we are as people.

George Gershwin‘s opera Porgy and Bess is said to have been racist and outdated even in the time that it was written in 1935. There are many aspects of this work that are incorrect and prolong stereotypes about African Americans by depicting them as violent and religious. Gershwin classified this opera as a folk opera, a term which was offensive to African Americans. George Gershwin, arguably a great composer, composed an opera that is considered to be controversial due to its negative representation of African Americans. Porgy and Bess is a cultural artifact and when discussing it we bring up complex issues of race from the time it was written and even to this day in the United States.

While theatregoers are generally familiar with the names of such pioneers as George M. Cohan, Irving Berlin and Jerome Kern, the names of their black counterparts - Will Marion Cook, George Walker and Bob Cole, among others - are virtually unknown today. Allen Woll aims to remedy that neglect in this book, offering a thoroughly researched account of the evolution of black musical theatre from the turn of the century to the present day. In his discussion of the careers of Ethel Walters, Eubie Blake and Lena Horne, to name just a few of the luminaries considered here and in his outlines and analyses of "A Trip to Coontown", "Shuffle Along", "Porgy and Bess", "Ain't Misbehavin'", "The Wiz", "Dreamgirls" and dozens of other shows, Woll brings the works vividly to life. "Black Musical Theatre" should become an essential reference and guide for anyone interested in theatre and African American

In conclusion, African Americans have been treated less than a human, and it is not fair. African American has been beaten on, pushed around, murdered, and now thrown behind bars. There are so many sophisticated young black people , but society does not give them the opportunity to prove themselves. The only way African Americans can make it in society is to walk around in a suit and tie, and have money. People wonder why African Americans make up most of the jail system, and the reasons that were discussed was racial profiling, unfair sentencing, unemployment, drug usage, communities being targeted, and white privilege. These things have caused many black men , children , and woman to sit behind bars for the majority of their lives. America has never been fair towards the African American community because it was built for Caucasian people to live in, and black people are just tolerated and locked away.

I am a pretty big fan of reality TV because it entertains me. To see the lives of different celebrities, and to see what they do and go through on a day to day basis, in my opinion, is worth tuning in to once a week. Sometimes the stuff shown on reality TV be funny, but other times they can be rather disappointing. TV station, VH1, is home to an abundance of reality television shows, however, very few of those shows are more popular than the series Love and Hip Hop. Love and Hip Hop has been going on for several seasons now, which obviously indicates there are many people that consistently watch the show. The show may be very entertaining to watch, but the problem is how African Americans are portrayed on the show.

The history of African-Americans in theatre in performing arts and how they evolved is absolutely outstanding. African-Americans been entertaining audiences since the 1800s until this very day. It has made a colossal impact on the black theater community in today. The history of this topic is a combination of legendary years leading up to this very day. It’s mostly about how blacks, in the 1820s, finally got to take their theatre and performance name from the whites. Then took it upon themselves to stride for greatness.

that impersonating another person ’s culture in the form of parody was wrong and racist on many levels. Performance, in this regard, popularized racist ideologies across America and continued to exist due to the impact a white person would gain from watching these performances. African Americans would, once again, create resistance to this new wave of racist culture by creating theatre performances of

Over the course of approximately one-hundred years there has been a discernible metamorphosis within the realm of African-American cinema. African-Americans have overcome the heavy weight of oppression in forms such as of politics, citizenship and most importantly equal human rights. One of the most evident forms that were withheld from African-Americans came in the structure of the performing arts; specifically film. The common population did not allow blacks to drink from the same water fountain let alone share the same television waves or stage. But over time the strength of the expectant black actors and actresses overwhelmed the majority force to stop blacks from appearing on film. For the longest time the performing arts were

The exclusion of multi-racial performers in musicals is a problem, we certainly have come a long way from minstrelsy but you can say there is still progress to make. When I was speaking to Jeanine Tesori, renowned American composer and music arranger the first thing she said was “there is a difference between color blind casting and color conscious casting.” There's a very fine line between the two which is often confused. Color blind casting is casting a role regardless of race and color conscious casting is acknowledging a race and cast anyway. Jeanine Tesori used an example regarding shakespeare, she said when you cast a black actor in a part in shakespeare “do you have to say this part should be played by an african american? It doesn’t

Eugene O’Neill is considered one of the most well-known and significant American playwrights. He is often referred to as the founder of modern drama in the United States”, and was the first American playwright to receive the Nobel Prize in literature (SOURCE). His most influential play and the one that brought him public awareness is The Emperor Jones. It was the first major role for an African American actor on the Broadway stage, which still racially segregated its audience. O’Neill tells the story of Brutus Jones, a murder who escapes to the West Indies. Through deceit and manipulation, Jones anoints himself dictator over the other black natives of the island. O’Neill centers the plot on a black man returning to a primitive state. He even describes Jones as the “typically negroid, yet there is something decidedly distinctive about his face- and underlying strength of will, a hardy, self-reliant confidence in himself that inspires respect” (O’Neill 799). His use of racial slurs seem evidence enough that this play heavily contains a belief of white superiority that is offensive, especially by today’s standards. The Emperor Jones creates a racial stereotyping that only function to reinforce flawed beliefs widely held by the white American audience in the 1920’s.