The Civil Rights Theatre Movement in New York, 1939–1966: Staging Freedom

245 Pages·2019·2.645 MB·English

by  Julie Burrell

PALGRAVE STUDIES IN THEATRE AND
PERFORMANCE HISTORY
The Civil Rights
Theatre Movement in
New York, 1939–1966
Staging Freedom
Julie Burrell
Palgrave Studies in Theatre and Performance
History
Series Editor
Don B. Wilmeth
Emeritus Professor
Brown University
Providence, RI, USA
Palgrave Studies in Theatre and Performance History is a series devoted
to the best of theatre/performance scholarship currently available, acces-
sible and free of jargon. It strives to include a wide range of topics, from
the more traditional to those performance forms that in recent years have
helped broaden the understanding of what theatre as a category might
include (from variety forms as diverse as the circus and burlesque to
street buskers, stage magic, and musical theatre, among many others).
Although historical, critical, or analytical studies are of special interest,
more theoretical projects, if not the dominant thrust of a study but uti-
lized as important underpinning or as an historiographical or analytical
method of exploration, are also of interest. Textual studies of drama or
other types of less traditional performance texts are also germane to the
series if placed in their cultural, historical, social, or political and eco-
nomic context. There is no geographical focus for this series and works
of excellence of a diverse and international nature, including comparative
studies, are sought.
More information about this series at
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Julie Burrell
The Civil Rights
Theatre Movement
in New York,
1939–1966
Staging Freedom
Julie Burrell
Cleveland State University
Cleveland, OH, USA
Palgrave Studies in Theatre and Performance History
ISBN 978-3-030-12187-7 ISBN 978-3-030-12188-4 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-12188-4
Library of Congress Control Number: 2019931939
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To Benjamin
A
cknowledgements
I am deeply grateful for the many people who have aided me in the
completion of this book. My family, friends, and colleagues have given
freely of their time. The intellectual curiosity of my students at Cleveland
State University has been inspiring. The archival research in this book
would not have been completed without Cleveland State University’s
New Faculty Research Development Funds. I am also fortunate to have
the support of my labor union, the American Association of University
Professors.
A number of librarians and research institutions provided instrumen-
tal assistance with and access to archives. The librarians of Cleveland
State University’s Michael Schwartz Library have been unfailingly help-
ful, particularly Mandi Goodsett. The librarians of the W. E. B. Du
Bois Library at my graduate institution, the University of Massachusetts
Amherst, were also helpful in conducting much of this research, espe-
cially James Kelly and Isabel Espinal. It was an honor to work at the
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture at the New York Public
Library, steps away from the American Negro Theatre stage. I am grate-
ful to the staff of the Schomburg’s Jean Blackwell Hutson Research and
Reference Division and the Photographs and Prints Division. I am espe-
cially thankful for the staff of the Schomburg’s Manuscripts, Archives
and Rare Books Division, and Steven G. Fullwood in particular, for their
depth and breadth of knowledge of black culture. I am also appreciative
of the assistance of the staff at the Billy Rose Theatre Division and the
vii
viii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Theatre on Film and Tape Archive of the New York Public Library for
the Performing Arts. Thank you to the staff of the Robert W. Woodruff
Library at Emory University, especially Randall K. Burkett, Courtney
Chartier, Kathleen Shoemaker, and Matthew Strandmark, and the entire
staff of the Manuscripts, Archives, and Rare Books Library for mak-
ing me feel welcome and for preserving the Camille Billops and James
V. Hatch Collection. This work would not have been possible without
Camille Billops and James V. Hatch for their foundational preservation
of African American performance history. Melissa Barton at the Beinecke
Rare Book and Manuscript Library of Yale University assisted me with
the Richard Wright papers, and her exceptional scholarship in the field
proved foundational to my first chapter.
My editorial contacts at Palgrave Macmillan have been both patient
and helpful, particularly Vicky Bates and Tomas René. I am also indebted
to the series editor Don B. Wilmeth.
I am grateful to numerous scholars and writers who guided my
research and took time to answer my inquiries. Amy Brady has always
been my resource for any questions about the Federal Theatre Project
and political theatre of the 1930s. Alan Scherstuhl dug through The
Village Voice archives. Chrystyna Dail gave me valuable research advice
and information about Stage for Action. Nadine Weidman answered
my questions about Robert Ardrey. I have benefited from pioneering
scholarship in the field, particularly historical work and anthologizing by
William Branch, Daphne A. Brooks, Elizabeth Brown-Guillory, James V.
Hatch, Errol G. Hill, Kathy A. Perkins, and Margaret B. Wilkerson.
My colleagues at Cleveland State University have been my editors,
supporters, and friends as I worked on this book. Rachel Carnell and Jeff
Karem have provided invaluable suggestions on drafts of this book. Since
my first visit to Cleveland, when she and Greg Lupton hosted me at their
home, Rachel’s generous mentorship and steadfast friendship has been
instrumental. Jeff and Kate O’Connell have provided not only lovely
dinners but also friendship. Ted Lardner and Adam Sonstegard provided
useful feedback on drafts. I am appreciative every day for the incredibly
patient and helpful English Department administrative staff, Jane Dugan,
Lori O’Laughlin, and Stephanie Nunley. As a graduate student at both
the University of Massachusetts Amherst and West Virginia University, I
was fortunate to encounter mentors who combined rigorous scholarship
and ethical teaching. Jenny Spencer introduced me to a new world of
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ix
radical theatre as an undergraduate, and I was lucky to have her guid-
ance as my advisor as well. Thank you to Dennis Allen, Jonathan Burton,
John Ernest, Emily Lordi, Katy Ryan, and Jim Smethurst.
I am indebted to my family and friends for their work on this book as
well as their encouragement. My mother, Ellen Burrell, is my first copy
editor, grammar resource, and champion. She and my father, Phillip
Burrell, and my sister, Missy Meaney, have long celebrated my accom-
plishments. Thank you to my Uncle Bill White for his copyediting, and
to Bill and his partner, Don Kreider, for giving me the gift of books from
a young age. Thank you to the Campbell family, Bruce, Ellie, Katie,
Anna, and especially my Aunt Clare. Thank you to the Steins and the
Bayerls, and to Marian, Bob, Joanna, and my new sister, Pam, for their
encouragement. This book would not have been possible without two
people who were not able to see it to its completion: my grandmother
Anna White and my “other mother” Theresa Gatti. Their dedication
to learning and teaching inspires me daily. My dear friends Amy Brady,
Katherine Cameron, Amanda Cooke, Kristen Evans, Mike Fournier,
Melanie Gagich, Rebecca Griffin, Erin Meaney, Beth O’Hara, Meaghan
O’Keeffe, Melina Reitano, and Lytta Teta, as well as their families and
children, have provided me with constant (sometimes daily) assurance
and love. Finally, this book is dedicated with love to my husband, Ben
Stein, whose sense of humor, patience, homemaking, mixology, and keen
editorial eye have sustained me through the completion of this book.
An earlier version of Chapter 4 appeared in Continuum: The Journal
of African Diaspora Drama, Theatre and Performance. A version of
Chapter 5 appeared as “Alice Childress’s Wedding Band and the Black
Feminist Nation” in MELUS: Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States
43.2 (June 2018), 78–105.
c
ontents
1 Introduction 1
2 The Negro People’s Theatre and the Emergence of the
Civil Rights Theatre Movement 25
3 “An American Dilemma”: Dramas of the Returning
Negro Soldier 69
4 Rescripting the Negro Problem: The Cold War-Civil
Rights Play 113
5 “To Be a Man”: Progressive Masculinities in Lorraine
Hansberry’s Cold War-Civil Rights Plays 153
6 Alice Childress’s Wedding Band and the Black Feminist
Nation 185
7 Epilogue 217
Index 227
xi