Afrocentric Theatre updates the Molettes' groundbreaking book, Black Theatre: Premise and Presentation, that has been required reading in many Black theatre courses for over twenty-five years. Afrocentric theatre is a culturally-based art form, not a race-based one. Culture and values shape perceptions of such phenomena as time, space, heroism, reality, truth, and beauty. These culturally variable social constructions determine standards for evaluating and analyzing art and govern the way people perceive theatrical presentations as well as film and video drama. A play is not Afrocentric simply because it is by a Black playwright, or has Black characters, or addresses a Black theme or issue. Afrocentric Theatre describes the nature of an art form that embraces and disseminates African American culture and values. Further, it suggests a framework for interpreting andevaluating that art form and assesses the endeavors of dramatists who work from an Afrocentric perspective.
The Routledge Companion to African American Theatre and Performance is an outstanding collection of specially written essays that charts the emergence, development, and diversity of African American Theatre and Performance—from the nineteenth-century African Grove Theatre to Afrofuturism. Alongside chapters from scholars are contributions from theatre makers, including producers, theatre managers, choreographers, directors, designers, and critics. This ambitious Companion includes: A "Timeline of African American theatre and performance." Part I "Seeing ourselves onstage" explores the important experience of Black theatrical self-representation. Analyses of diverse topics including historical dramas, Broadway musicals, and experimental theatre allow readers to discover expansive articulations of Blackness. Part II "Institution building" highlights institutions that have nurtured Black people both on stage and behind the scenes. Topics include Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), festivals, and black actor training. Part III "Theatre and social change" surveys key moments when Black people harnessed the power of theatre to affirm community realities and posit new representations for themselves and the nation as a whole. Topics include Du Bois and African Muslims, women of the Black Arts Movement, Afro-Latinx theatre, youth theatre, and operatic sustenance for an Afro future. Part IV "Expanding the traditional stage" examines Black performance traditions that privilege Black worldviews, sense-making, rituals, and innovation in everyday life. This section explores performances that prefer the space of the kitchen, classroom, club, or field. This book engages a wide audience of scholars, students, and theatre practitioners with its unprecedented breadth. More than anything, these invaluable insights not only offer a window onto the processes of producing work, but also the labour and economic issues that have shaped and enabled African American theatre. Chapter 20 of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.
The contributions to this volume in the African Theatre series make clear that the role of women in the theatre across the continent has changed as control is mainly held by literate elites and women's traditional standing has been lost to men.
" . . . a ground-breaking contribution to the field of African literature . . . " —Research in African Literatures "Anyone with the slightest interest in West African cultures, performance or theatre should immediately rush out and buy this book." —Leeds African Studies Bulletin "A seminal contribution to the fields of performance studies, cultural studies, and popular culture. " —Margaret Drewal "A fine book. The play texts are treasures." —Richard Bauman African popular culture is an arena where the tensions and transformations of colonial and post-colonial society are played out, offering us a glimpse of the view from below in Africa. This book offers a comparative overview of the history, social context, and style of three major West African popular theatre genres: the concert party of Ghana, the concert party of Togo, and the traveling popular theatre of western Nigeria.
This new edition provides an expanded, comprehensive history of African American theatre, from the early nineteenth century to the present day. Including discussions of slave rebellions on the national stage, African Americans on Broadway, the Harlem Renaissance, African American women dramatists, and the New Negro and Black Arts movements, the Companion also features fresh chapters on significant contemporary developments, such as the influence of the Black Lives Matter movement, the mainstream successes of Black Queer Drama and the evolution of African American Dance Theatre. Leading scholars spotlight the producers, directors, playwrights, and actors who have fashioned a more accurate appearance of Black life on stage, revealing the impact of African American theatre both within the United States and around the world. Addressing recent theatre productions in the context of political and cultural change, it invites readers to reflect on where African American theatre is heading in the twenty-first century.
This book acts as a forum for investigating how African Theatre works and what its place is in this postmodern society. It provides the subject with a degree of detail unmatched in previous books, reflecting a new approach to the study of the performing arts in this region. The book provides an opportunity to discover contemporary material from experts, critics and artists from across the world. The contributions are in a language and style that allow them to be read either as aids to formal study or as elements of discussion to interest the general reader.
Afrocentric Theatre updates the Molettes' groundbreaking book, Black Theatre: Premise and Presentation, that has been required reading in many Black theatre courses for over twenty-fi ve years. Afrocentric theatre is a culturally-based art form, not a race-based one. Culture and values shape perceptions of such phenomena as time, space, heroism, reality, truth, and beauty. These culturally variable social constructions determine standards for evaluating and analyzing art and govern the way people perceive theatrical presentations as well as fi lm and video drama. A play is not Afrocentric simply because it is by a Black playwright, or has Black characters, or addresses a Black theme or issue. Afrocentric Theatre describes the nature of an art form that embraces and disseminates African American culture and values. Further, it suggests a framework for interpreting andevaluating that art form and assesses the endeavors of dramatists who work from an Afrocentric perspective.
Black Acting Methods seeks to offer alternatives to the Euro-American performance styles that many actors find themselves working with. A wealth of contributions from directors, scholars and actor trainers address afrocentric processes and aesthetics, and interviews with key figures in Black American theatre illuminate their methods. This ground-breaking collection is an essential resource for teachers, students, actors and directors seeking to reclaim, reaffirm or even redefine the role and contributions of Black culture in theatre arts. Chapter 7 of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.
