The African American Theatre Directory, 1816-1960: A Comprehensive Guide to Early Black Theatre Organizations, Companies, Theatres, and Performing Groups

(Hardback)

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A comprehensive directory of more than 600 entries, this detailed ready reference features professional, semi-professional, and academic stage organizations and theatres that have been in the forefront in pioneering most of the advances that African Americans have made in the theatre. It includes groups from the early 19th century to the dawn of the revolutionary Black theatre movement of the 1960s. It is an effort to bring together into one volume information that has hitherto been scattered throughout a number of different sources. The volume begins with an illuminating foreword by Errol Hill, a noted critic, playwright, scholar and Willard Professor of Drama Emeritus, Dartmouth College. A comprehensive directory of more than 600 entries, this detailed ready reference features professional, semi-professional, and academic stage organizations and theatres that have been in the forefront in pioneering most of the advances that African Americans have made in the theatre. It includes groups from the early 19th century to the dawn of the revolutionary Black theatre movement of the 1960s. It is an effort to bring together into one volume information that has hitherto been scattered throughout a number of different sources. The volume begins with an illuminating foreword by Errol Hill, a noted critic, playwright, scholar and Willard Professor of Drama Emeritus, Dartmouth College. Included in the volume are the earliest organizations that existed before the Civil War, Black minstrel troupes, pioneer musical show companies, selected vaudeville and road show troupes, professional theatrical associations, booking agencies, stock companies, significant amateur and little theatre groups, Black units of the WPA Federal Theatre, and semi-professional groups in Harlem after the Federal Theatre. The A-Z entries are supplemented with a classified appendix that also includes additional organizations not listed in the main directory, a bibliography, and three indexes for shows, showpeople, and general subjects. Cross referencing makes related information easy to find.

Reviews

The author used diverse sources to compile this comprehensive alphabetical directory that includes some 700 African American theatrical organizations, companies, and performing groups and spans the pioneer period of the early 1800s through the black theatrical revolution of the 1960s.... The only directory of its type, this book should be considered essential for all libraries serving African American theater students.-Choice
The more than 600 entries here describe professional, semiprofessional, and academic stage organizations and theaters from their beginnings up to the dawn of the black theater movement in 1960. Coverage includes selected vaudeville and roadshow troupes, booking agencies, stock companies, and black units of the WPA Federal Theatre.... Libraries with strong collections in theater or African American studies will want a copy of this book... the reader looking for a history of African American theater during this period will find it provides a wealth of details...-Booklist/Reference Books Bulletin
This is an excellent addition to the author's earlier works on African Americans in the American theater, including Contemporary Black American Playwrights and Their Plays (Greenwood, 1988). Here he offers a comprehensive guide to black theater organizations, theaters, groups, and so forth and brings to light an area of theatrical history hitherto underrepresented in most collections. The foreword, by Errol Hill...whets the appetite and provides a good introduction to the scope of African American theater in the United States; the eight pages of information resources will prove useful to future researchers...Recommended for academic libraries and theater collections in both academic and larger public libraries.-Library Journal
"The author used diverse sources to compile this comprehensive alphabetical directory that includes some 700 African American theatrical organizations, companies, and performing groups and spans the pioneer period of the early 1800s through the black theatrical revolution of the 1960s.... The only directory of its type, this book should be considered essential for all libraries serving African American theater students."-Choice
"The more than 600 entries here describe professional, semiprofessional, and academic stage organizations and theaters from their beginnings up to the dawn of the black theater movement in 1960. Coverage includes selected vaudeville and roadshow troupes, booking agencies, stock companies, and black units of the WPA Federal Theatre.... Libraries with strong collections in theater or African American studies will want a copy of this book... the reader looking for a history of African American theater during this period will find it provides a wealth of details..."-Booklist/Reference Books Bulletin
"This is an excellent addition to the author's earlier works on African Americans in the American theater, including Contemporary Black American Playwrights and Their Plays (Greenwood, 1988). Here he offers a comprehensive guide to black theater organizations, theaters, groups, and so forth and brings to light an area of theatrical history hitherto underrepresented in most collections. The foreword, by Errol Hill...whets the appetite and provides a good introduction to the scope of African American theater in the United States; the eight pages of information resources will prove useful to future researchers...Recommended for academic libraries and theater collections in both academic and larger public libraries."-Library Journal

Author Bio

BERNARD L. PETERSON, JR., is Professor Emeritus of English and Drama at Elizabeth City State University. He is the author of Contemporary Black American Playwrights and Their Plays (1988), Early Black American Playwrights and Dramatic Writers (1990), and A Century of Musicals in Black and White (1993), all of which were published by Greenwood Press. He is currently completing a directory of African Americans in the theatre, 1820-1960s (forthcoming from Greenwood Press).