The Theater of Black Americans: A Collection of Critical Essays

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Errol Hill
Hal Leonard Corporation, 1987 - Performing Arts - 363 pages
(Applause Books). From the origins of the Negro spiritual and the birth of the Harlem Renaissance to the emergence of a national black theatre movement, The Theatre of Black Americans offers a penetrating look at a black art form that has exploded into an American cultural institution. Among the essays: James Hatch Some African Influences on the Afro-American Theatre; Shelby Steele Notes on Ritual in the New Black Theatre; Sister M. Francesca Thompson OSF The Lafayette Players; Ronald Ross The Role of Blacks in the Federal Theatre.

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Contents

Introduction by ErrolHill
1
Some African Influences on the AfroAmerican Theatre by James Hatch
13
Notes on Ritual in the New Black Theater by Shelby Steele
30
Two AfroAmerican Contributions to Dramatic Form by Eleanor W Tray lor
45
From Mimesis to Methexis by Kimberly W Bens ton
61
Americas Debt to the Language of Black Americans by Jim Haskins and Hugh F Butts MD
79
An Origin For The Negro Spiritual by Eileen Southern
89
West African Dance by Robert Farris Thompson
99
The American Negro Theatre by Ethel Pitts Walker
247
Report and Reflections by Tom Dent
261
A Transcendent Vision by Ellen Foreman
270
The Sun People of 125th Street by Jessica B Harris
283
The Participators Audiences and Critics
293
Notes on the Audience for Black Drama by Adam David Miller
301
The Black Theatre Audience by Thomas D Pawley
307
Critics Standards and Black Theatre by Margaret B Wilkerson
318

The Image Makers Plays and Playwrights
113
Keynote of the Harlem Renaissance by Helen Armstead Johnson
126
Langston Hughes as Playwright by Darwin T Turner
136
Loften Mitchell Ossie Davis Douglas Turner Ward by C W E Bigsby
148
Values in Black Theater by William Cook
168
Structural Elements in Ed Bullins Plays by Samuel A Hay
185
A Note on the Black Revolutionary Theatre by Michael W Kaufman
192
The Presenters Companies of Players
211
The Role of Blacks in the Federal Theatre 19351939 by Ronald Ross
231
Black Critics on Black Theatre in America by A biodun Jeyifous
327
1 Must I Side with Blacks or Whites? by Eric Bentley
336
2 Enroute to the Future by Stanley Kauffmann
341
The Search Goes On by Lindsav Patterson
345
Chronology of Important Events
351
Notes on the Editor and Contributors
355
Selected Bibliography
359
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