Robert Townsend: Chicago's Experimental Black Actors Guild X-Bag Theatre

Black theater is as old as the first tribes in Africa who would dance with wooden masks to represent gods or legends (Kerr, p3). The playwrights of this time were the Griots, who were known as the keepers of history in African tribes and mark the beginning of African literary tradition (Freeman.) But when does the development of black playwright actually take off?

“Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player, that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more; it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.” – William Shakespeare

Broadway was one of the first forms of entertainment. Before there were television programs, or movies, there was Broadway. Broadway originated in New York in 1750, when actor-manager Walter Murray built a theatre company at the Theatre on Nassau Street. A musical would show about once every weekend. The shows were very male based, and would commonly show a relationship between young boys and their fathers. Women were slowly integrated into Broadway, and as society changed its point of view on women, so did theatre.

Theatre has evolved over the many years. As it has grown, it moved to include more diverse performers, crew, producers, and audiences. This is an exploration of the expansion of diverse theatre.

Our world is full of mysterious things. There are different places around us filled with mysterious history. “Keith Albee Theater”, was the popular theater of Huntington, West Virginia in 1940s and now as a performing arts center for Marshall University. Though it was popular for its beauty, it was one of the haunted theater during 1940s (Keith Albee Theater). It is said that “Do not judge book by its cover”,

The 19th century was a time period full of disagreements and wishful thinking. During this time, African Americans were trying to become free from slavery. This led to a Civil War. The 1800’s were a hard time for African Americans, after the Civil War many expressed their thoughts and feelings through plays like Minstrel Shows and other forms of theatre.

The author is talking about the political play ‘Autumn’, which introduced the audience to the inside world of politics. The story revolves around the character mayor Franklyn played by Jerome Preston Bates. Bates character is self-centered, greedy, and will go after anyone who opposes him to destroy their lives. Franklyn advisor Zack knows about the shady deals and is uncomfortable with the situation. In addition, Franklyn’s wife Melissa knows of her husband’s wrongdoings and is tired of his shenanigans.

The Union enjoyed overall success in the Western Theater in 1862, but the year also brought defeat and setbacks between the times of Grant’s River War and the Battle at Stones River during the Civil War. These events contradicted the Unions success with strategic embarrassments that demonstrated the Union’s youth in military strategy in handling two separate theaters and management of men and goods.

Rev Richard Allen was a freed African American male in the 18th century considered to be a teacher, social activist, philanthropist and politician. In what ways has he helped his fellow African Americans to be free? How did his religion play a factor? What were the reactions of non- African Americans?

There is one version of the story in the musical Chicago, that was done before the musical first officially aired. The non-musical play that was called Chicago, that was written in 1926, by Maurine Watkins had a lot of similarities with the musical Chicago (“Maslon, Laurence, and Michael Kantor”). In the play Chicago, the story is about two murder cases that happened in real life (Miller, Scott). The first murder case is about a character name Beulah Annan, who had an affair on her husband, then her husband threatened to leave her, but Annan then Kills her husband (Miller, Scott). In the musical Chicago, the character Rosie has many similarities with Beulah. In fact, when the character Rosie is on trial during the musical, a lot of the things she said is derived directly from Annan’s case (Miller, Scott). The second murder case is against Belva Gaertner, who shot and killed her husband in her car (Miller, Scott). The character that has a lot of similarities with Belva, is Velma. Velma and Belva in both stories claim that they were too drunk to remember how they both murdered their loved ones (Miller, Scott).

Portrayal of African Americans on television is frequently a controversial topic. Throughout its rather brief history, television, in its programming, has skewed predominantly white, (Pringozy, 2007). This was clearer in the 1950s and early 1960s, and it even remained true throughout the 1970s, when television shows with mainly all African American casts became hits, (Strausbaugh, 2006). The success of The Cosby Show in the 1980s helped to improve race relations somewhat, or at least on television, (McNeil, 1996). Still, controversy continued, and still does to this day, as to which shows present negative stereotypes of African Americans and which ones do not, (Strausbaugh, 2006). Therefore, when talking about the history of African

I could not agree more! I believe that the reason why Black stand-up comedians make jokes about people of their own race is because in the world of comedy, finding ways to relate to their own people means that they are thriving, especially when Black people in their audience have great sense of humors. From Bert Williams (also known as "Blackface") to Eddie Murphy and from Richard Pryor to Dave Chappelle...each one of them laughed with their audience, not at them. The same goes for Hispanic comedians such as George Lopez, Cheech Marin, Carlos Mencia and Angela Johnson. Bert Williams was one of the first Black comedians; his intent was to educate his predominantly white audience on his experiences as a Black man through comedy. He

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

Realism provides only amoral observation, while absurdism rejects even the possibility of debate. (Frances Babbage, Augusto Boal). The cynicism of this remark reflects the aberrant attitude towards absurdism, yet there is truth to it. Theatre of the absurd is an esoteric avant-garde style of theatre based on the principles of existentialism that looks at the world without any assumption of purpose. Existentialism and Theatre of the Absurd became identified with a cultural movement that flourished in Europe in the 1940s and 1950s, after the Second World War. The idea that man starts with nothing and ends with nothing is a common theme amongst most absurd plays. Despite this strange philosophy, Theatre of the

The casting for this movie was different than most. Instead of hiring as many experienced actors as they can, Hume and Meyer made many trips to Kansas City in hopes they could find “real” midwesteners to play roles in the movie. The producers hired a local professor of theater and film at the University of Kansas to take the lead in casting people in the Kansas City area. Out of the 80 speaking roles, only 15 of them were cast from Hollywood, with the rest being residents of the local film site in Kansas City and Lawrence.