Experiments in Democracy: Interracial and Cross-Cultural Exchange in American Theatre, 1912-1945Cheryl Black, Jonathan Shandell SIU Press, 2016 - 306 Seiten In the first half of the twentieth century, a number of American theatres and theatre artists fostered interracial collaboration and socialization on stage, behind the scenes, and among audiences. In an era marked by entrenched racial segregation and inequality, these artists used performance to bridge America’s persistent racial divide and to bring African American, Latino/Latina, Asian American, Native American, and Jewish American communities and traditions into the nation’s broader cultural conversation. In Experiments in Democracy, edited by Cheryl Black and Jonathan Shandell, theatre historians examine a wide range of performances—from Broadway, folk plays and dance productions to scripted political rallies and radio dramas. Contributors look at such diverse groups as the Theatre Union, La Unión Martí-Maceo, and the American Negro Theatre, as well as individual playwrights and their works, including Theodore Browne’s folk opera Natural Man, Josefina Niggli’s Soldadera, and playwright Lynn Riggs’s Cherokee Night and Green Grow the Lilacs (the basis for the musical Oklahoma!). Exploring the ways progressive artists sought to connect isolated racial and cultural groups in pursuit of a more just and democratic society, contributors take into account the blind spots, compromised methods, and unacknowledged biases at play in their practices and strategies. Essays demonstrate how the gap between the ideal of American democracy and its practice—mired in entrenched systems of white privilege, economic inequality, and social prejudice—complicated the work of these artists. Focusing on questions of race, ethnicity, gender, and sexuality on the stage in the decades preceding the Civil Rights era, Experiments in Democracy fills an important gap in our understanding of the history of the American stage—and sheds light on these still-relevant questions in contemporary American society. |
Inhalt
Introduction | 1 |
1 Trying on The Yellow Jacket | 14 |
2 Jazz Jews and Modernism on Broadway | 34 |
3 Reconfiguring Race and Citizenship | 49 |
4 A Cosmogony for the Marginalized | 67 |
5 Moving the World toward Brotherhood | 84 |
6 ReVisioning Mexican Intellectual and Peasant Life | 105 |
7 The Politics of Black Masculinity in Theodore Brownes Natural Man 1937 | 126 |
11 Spain Brought Me Back to America | 213 |
12 Turning Negroes into People Onstage | 235 |
13 The Stage Door Canteen | 256 |
Afterword | 274 |
Contributors | 287 |
291 | |
Theater in the Americas series | 307 |
Other Books in the Theater in the Americas Series | 308 |
8 Choreographing Diversity and American Experience | 147 |
9 Imagined Democracy | 172 |
10 Ethnic Americanism versus Isolationism | 191 |
Back Cover | 310 |
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Experiments in Democracy: Interracial and Cross-Cultural Exchange in ... Cheryl Black,Jonathan Shandell Eingeschränkte Leseprobe - 2016 |
Experiments in Democracy: Interracial and Cross-Cultural Exchange in ... Cheryl Black,Jonathan Shandell Eingeschränkte Leseprobe - 2016 |
Häufige Begriffe und Wortgruppen
accessed actors aesthetics African American Afro-Cuban ain’t Albert Maltz American Indians American Negro Theatre American Theatre Wing Anna Lucasta artists audience Benrimo Billy Rose Black Fury black masculinity Black Pit Broadway chapter characters Cherokee Night Chinese theatre choteo color critics Cuban cultural dancers democracy democratic depicted drama episode ethnic Federal Theatre Project Ferrer Free Gershwin Harlem Hecht Hispanic Hollywood Ibid identity immigrants Jewish Jews John Henry Josefina Niggli loca Lukasca Maltz March Mexican mixed-blood modern dance Mondoreño Monico musical Myra Kinch native Oklahoma Othello performance play play’s playwright political popular production Puerto Rican race racial radio representations Riggs Riggs’s Robeson role script Show Boat social soldiers song Spain Spanish Civil Spanish Civil War Stage Door Canteen stereotypes story teatro vernáculo Theatre Union theatrical traditional tribes Unión Martí-Maceo United University Press vision women workers Ybor City Yellow Jacket York