Although Woodie King, Jr.'s New Federal Theatre (NFT) was by no means the only black theatre in existence 35 years ago, it was certainly one of the most forward-thinking in its determination to integrate women and minority voices into mainstream theatre. And today, three and a half decades down the road, it is one of the oldest ongoing African-American theatres on the scene.
NFT's anniversary will be celebrated at Town Hall on Feb. 13 in an event hosted by Ossie Davis and Lynn Whitfield. Phylicia Rashad will be on hand, as will Harry Belafonte, Cicely Tyson, Samuel L. Jackson, and Ruben Santiago-Hudson, among others.
NFT's milestone birthday falls, coincidentally, in the middle of Black History Month. For the occasion, Back Stage decided to take a look at black theatre: where it has been, how it has evolved, and where it's going. In addition to interviewing King, we chatted with Alfred Preisser, artistic director of the Classical Theatre of Harlem, and Willie Boston, an Equal Employment Opportunity business representative with Actors' Equity. All agree that black theatre has come a long way in entering the public imagination (of whites as well as African-Americans), although there is still a way to go.
"Black theatre will always reflect where we [African-Americans] are in the society," notes King. "I don't think there will ever come a time when a Lincoln Center or Manhattan Theatre Club will be doing three black plays a year. Now they may do one every two years. If, say, Lincoln Center were to hire someone like me to reach out to black talent, then maybe a company like the New Federal Theatre might disappear."
King believes there continues to be a fundamental distinction between black theatre for mainstream audiences and for the black community. He says, for example, that the work of Pulitzer Prize winner Suzan-Lori Parks ("Topdog/Underdog") and Lynn Nottage ("Intimate Apparel") would not be produced in black theatres because those writers "blame the victims for their circumstances."
On the flip side, King suggests, many quality works that are mounted in black theatres wouldn't be produced for mainstream audiences because producers are afraid the plays won't have broad appeal. It's no secret that the plays of a critically and publicly embraced writer like August Wilson usually don't enjoy extended runs.
Last season's revival of "A Raisin in the Sun," on the other hand, was a hit—though, admittedly, within the framework of a limited run. Then again, its success may have been partially due to the presence of hip-hop superstar Sean "P. Diddy" Combs in the cast.
That said, King points out that if the New Federal Theatre had not taken a chance on such playwrights as Ed Bullins, Ron Milner, Amiri Baraka, and Ntozake Shange, many theatregoers might never have heard of them.
From the outset, NFT, housed at the Henry Street Settlement's Abrons Arts Center (466 Grand St.) on the Lower East Side, was conceived as a neighborhood operation, and in its heyday the Henry Street Settlement was home to many ethnic theatres.
Looking back, King talks about how black theatre has evolved and what he views as significant about some of the early (and subsequently important) playwrights whom NFT produced.
"These playwrights were talking openly about issues that were very familiar to the black community but not outside of it. For example, predators in the black community who were taking advantage of the poverty-stricken. And in 'Black Girl,' playwright J.E. Franklin describes the experiences of a young black girl who has aspirations but is mocked by her friends for being too white."
In recent years, black plays have moved in two new directions, King says. There are personal plays, focusing on problems within the African-American family, and plays that rely on historical settings or have ritualistic elements.
"We are seeing an increasing number of men-on-journey plays," he continues. "These men may be traveling through America, South America, or Africa, searching for their identity. Many black women playwrights are exploring traditional folklore, witches, voodoo, and ancestry."
King is now looking forward to producing "Cool Blues," a new play by Bill Harris that looks at the real-life relationship between jazz great Charlie Parker and the white baroness who loved him.
Classics and Nontraditional Casting
Although the Classical Theatre of Harlem (CTH) is just beginning to produce new works, it continues to be most identified with the classics—from Euripides to Shakespeare to Genet. "We like to do large plays with large casts that have social and political sweep," asserts Alfred Preisser, CTH's co-founder and artistic director, who happens to be white. And while the works may be somewhat updated on occasion, for the most part they are not, he says.
"When you say black theatre, it means by black talent and for black audiences," Preisser points out. "I don't think that's what we are about, although we certainly do want to serve our community in central Harlem, where we're located, and the theatre artists are predominantly African-American."
He adds, "And that has to inform the way the plays are done. When we did 'Macbeth,' for example, our choreographer was an expert in African dance. So we incorporated African dance into the pagan world of ancient Scotland.
"Our next play, Chekhov's 'The Cherry Orchard,' is probably the most conventional production we've done," he emphasizes. "You don't have to recontextualize the piece—set it in Haiti or Africa—to hear the lines in a new way."
CTH is a six-year-old nonprofit professional theatre company based at the Harlem School of the Arts. The theatre emerged from a Shakespeare workshop that Preisser and Chris McElroen, CTH's co-founder and executive director, taught at the school. Since 1999, CTH has presented twelve classic plays and earned 24 Audelco nominations for excellence in black theatre, and in 2001 it won four Obie Awards for Jean Genet's "The Blacks," which moved downtown to Classic Stage Company.
Preisser hopes that in some ways CTH serves as a kind of steppingstone to nontraditional casting in mainstream theatre. "But I'm not talking about seeing more producers 'doing good,' " he emphasizes. "I am talking about open access to all people of talent. I believe there are many talented African-American actors who deserve a chance to play the classics, here and elsewhere."
The Landmark Drama and What Came Before
Willie Boston, an Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) business representative with Actors' Equity Association, concurs wholeheartedly. Still, he believes it was Lorraine Hansberry's groundbreaking 1959 Broadway drama, "A Raisin in the Sun," that was the door-opener for black theatre artists. Indeed, the play continues to resonate, judging by the success of its recent Broadway revival, starring Phylicia Rashad, who became the first black woman to receive a Tony Award for best performance by a leading actress in a play.
Nonetheless, Boston points out that there was a lively and significant black theatre scene prior to "A Raisin in the Sun" and that some of those earlier black plays of the 1940s and '50s influenced Hansberry.
To honor these often-overlooked playwrights and to celebrate Black History Month, Actors' Equity Association's EEO committee will present "Road to Lorraine" on Mon., Feb. 28, at 7 pm in the Ellington Room at Manhattan Plaza (400 West 43rd St.).
Some of the African-American plays that predated and helped to forge "Raisin" will be examined. Eugene Nesmith, associate professor of theatre and English at City College, will discuss the historical and thematic significance of these early works.
In addition, brief scenes from the following plays will be performed: "On Striver's Row" by Abram Hill, a satire about a social-climbing family living on Harlem's posh Striver's Row; "Trouble in Mind" by Alice Childress, centering on the tensions between black and white actors rehearsing a Broadway show; "Big White Fog" by Theodore Ward, focusing on the disillusionment of a young black man after he loses his life savings to Marcus Garvey's back-to-Africa movement; and "Our Lan' " also by Theodore Ward, dealing with the plight of freed slaves who are given a former plantation after the Civil War and then lose it to the original owner due to the political machinations of Northern and Southern whites.
"These plays either deal with family, race relations, or the impact of money," says Boston. "And those are central themes in 'A Raisin in the Sun.' I think audiences will see their influence. These are all very American plays and they were critically praised at the time. But 'A Raisin in the Sun' overshadowed all of them."
The evening will conclude with a scene from "Raisin" and a talk by Philip Rose, who, against all odds, produced the show on Broadway in 1959 and wrote about the landmark event in his memoir "You Can't Do That on Broadway!: 'A Raisin in the Sun' and Other Theatrical Improbabilities."
When Back Stage interviewed Rose several years ago, he remarked that audiences are more inclusive than they once were. "Still, there are many white theatregoers who continue to think that if the play is about blacks, it won't relate to them," he said. "And there's also the belief that if a play is about African-Americans, every African-American will be interested. Black audiences are affected by commercial considerations like anyone else. We would have had no audience or money for 'Raisin' without Sidney Poitier."
Rose was enraged even in retrospect when he recalled the flak that Poitier received from some black militants who felt the characters that Poitier portrayed were often less than sterling or not sufficiently combative. Rose didn't agree with the judgment, but he stressed, "Consider how many black actors stayed with it—persevered in theatre—because of Sidney Poitier."
"Road to Lorraine" is free and open to the public.