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

by Julie Burrell

Overview

This book argues that African American theatre in the twentieth century represented a cultural front of the civil rights movement. Highlighting the frequently ignored decades of the 1940s and 1950s, Burrell documents a radical cohort of theatre artists who became critical players in the fight for civil rights both onstage and offstage, between the Popular Front and the Black Arts Movement periods. The Civil Rights Theatre Movement recovers knowledge of little-known groups like the Negro Playwrights Company and reconsiders Broadway hits including Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun, showing how theatre artists staged radically innovative performances that protested Jim Crow and U.S. imperialism amidst a repressive Cold War atmosphere. By conceiving of class and gender as intertwining aspects of racism, this book reveals how civil rights theatre artists challenged audiences to reimagine the fundamental character of American democracy.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9783030121877
Publisher:	Springer International Publishing
Publication date:	03/28/2019
Series:	Palgrave Studies in Theatre and Performance History
Edition description:	1st ed. 2019
Pages:	236
Product dimensions:	5.83(w) x 8.27(h) x (d)

About the Author

Julie Burrell is an Assistant Professor of English and Black Studies at Cleveland State University, USA. She has published in MELUS: Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States and Continuum: The Journal of African Diaspora Drama, Theatre and Performance, as well as in the volume Imagining the Black Female Body: Reconciling Image in Print and Visual Culture (2010).

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Introduction.- Chapter 2: The Negro People's Theatre and the Emergence of the Civil Rights Theatre Movement.- Chapter 3: "An American Dilemma": Dramas of the Returning Negro Soldier.- Chapter 4: Rescripting the Negro Problem: The Cold War-Civil Rights Play.- Chapter 5: "To Be a Man": Progressive Masculinities in Lorraine Hansberry's Cold War-Civil Rights Plays.- Chapter 6: Alice Childress's Wedding Band and the Black Feminist Nation.- Epilogue.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“The Civil Rights Theatre Movement in New York, 1939–1966 documents the contributions of often marginalized Black playwrights like Alice Childress, Theodore Ward, and Richard Wright. In examining their radical perspectives in the 1940s and 50s—a period thought to be apolitical in Black Theatre—Julie Burrell convincingly demonstrates how these authors helped inspire the activist Black Arts Movement of the 1960s.” (Professor Emerita Kathy A. Perkins, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA)

“This enlightening study brings much-needed new attention to a pivotal period of African American theatre history. Through rigorous research and insightful analysis, Julie M. Burrell showcases the activism of black theatre artists of the 1940s and 1950s—highlighting the lofty ambitions (and the sometimes imperfect results) of their efforts to resist white oppression, and to agitate for racial and economic justice through the stage. This is an indispensable resource for scholars, students, and artists alike.” (Dr Jonathan Shandell, Arcadia University, UK, and author of The American Negro Theatre and the Long Civil Rights Era)

Editorial Reviews

The Civil Rights Theatre Movement should be on the reading list of any scholar interested in civil rights culture, the history of American theatre in the 20th century, or the history of radicalism in the United States.” (Madeline Steiner, gothamcenter.org, February 23, 2021)

From the Publisher