Blueprints for a Black Federal Theatre

This book focuses on debates of various groups of black and white critics, audiences, and artists over African American theatre in the 1930s.

Rena Fraden (Author)

9780521443593, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 29 April 1994

268 pages, 18 b/w illus.
23.7 x 16.3 x 2.4 cm, 0.55 kg

"Rena Fraden's 'Blueprint for a Black Federal Theatre' will also be a useful textbook for teaching African American theatre history. Fraden has distinguished her work from that of her major forerunners....'Blueprint' substantially enhance[s] our understanding of African American theatre and will enliven classroom discussions with the cogent and timely arguments [it] present[s]." Joni jones, Drama Review

In the 1930s, the Work Progress Administration funded a massive Federal Theatre Project in America's major urban centres, presenting hundreds of productions, some of the most popular and memorable of which were produced in the highly controversial and avant garde 'Negro Units'. This experiment in government-supported culture brought to the forefront one of the central problems in American democratic culture - the representation of racial difference. Those in the profession quickly discovered inescapable ideological responsibilities attending any sort of show, whether apparently entertaining or political in nature. Exploring the liberal idealism of the thirties and the critical debates in black journals over the role of an African American theatre, Fraden also looks at the obstacles facing black playwrights, audiences, and actors in a changing milieu.

List of illustrations
Preface
Acknowledgements
Introduction
1. A new deal (or not) for culture
2. Critical directions: toward a national negro theatre
3. Producing new dramas: the politics of choice
4. The unpredictable audience
5. Acting properly
Afterword
Notes
Index.

Subject Areas: Literary studies: general [DSB]