Black theater can be traced back to the slave trade and the continuation of African traditions, which included oral retellings of folktales, improvisations, song, and dance. During the early years, Africans/Blacks were only allowed to put on performances at their plantations. The first “Black” characters to appear on stage (in the 17th and 18th centuries) were white people wearing blackface for comic relief and most of the time playing dimwitted servants.
Blackface characters grew in popularity in the 1820s, when teams of Ethiopian Delineators would put on performances consisting of comic skits, variety acts, dances, and “Negro songs,” also known as Minstrel Shows. African/Black characters were often portrayed as racist, lazy, buffoonish, superstitious, and just plain stupid. The performances were aimed at poorer audiences, but eventually made their way into opera houses and became the first uniquely American entertainment form.
In 1821, a freed black man from the West Indies living in New York, William Alexander (Henry) Brown, attempted to get a bona fide Black theater company up and running. He founded and operated the African Grove Theatre, the first resident all-Black theatre company in America, which performed Shakespearean plays but was shut down by the authorities based on alleged outrageous behavior, widely believed to have been caused by neighboring theaters. The African Grove Theatre was burned down under mysterious circumstances five years after its doors first opened. During the theater’s short-lived existence, Brown became the first Black playwright in America and is said to have written, from experience, the first play by a Black playwright in the United States called The Drama of King Shotaway (1823). Unfortunately, no copies of this play are known to exist. The first real success of an African American/Black dramatist was Angelina W. Grimke’s Rachel (produced in 1916 and published in 1920).
Since then, there have been many Black/African American dramatists who have contributed both to Black theater and to American literature as a whole. We encourage you to read, listen, learn and continue to help educate others about the contributions of Black dramatists and authors. Here are some famous playwrights to start you off with…
Langston Hughes- Tambourines to Glory
Lorraine Hansberry- A Raisin in the Sun
August Wilson- Fences
Dominique Morisseau- Pipeline
http://www.maap.columbia.edu/place/23.html
https://blogs.baruch.cuny.edu/africanamericantheatre/?page_id=7
https://www.americanheritage.com/blackface-sad-history-minstrel-shows
