African Theatre (acting troupe)

Last updated November 04, 2024

The African Theatre was an African-American acting troupe in New York City established by William Henry Brown (also known as William Alexander Brown) in the 1820s. The troupe performed plays by Shakespeare and plays written by Brown, several of which were anti-colonization and anti-slavery. Its leading actor was James Hewlett.^[1]

The African Theatre is, as far as records report, the first known black theatre company in North America. The vast majority of documents with information pertaining to the African Theatre have been reportedly burned and destroyed. The African Theatre developed from the African Grove Theatre, which was situated at the back of William Henry Brown's home at 38 Thomas Street, West of Broadway, and it opened for about three or four summers prior to 1821.

The troupe faced violence, including attacks by thugs hired by the Park Theatre.^[1] Little is known of the participants as a result of the destruction of the records of the troupe.

Early African Theater

The theatre had promenades for patrons to explore, as well as separate stalls furnished with tables and chairs where guests could recline for refreshments. There was a bar or service area and possibly an al fresco platform for performers. Originally the Grove itself was more of a place to hang out outside. Unfortunately the Grove did not last long. The neighbors did not take the noise too well. They complained about having to contend with loud noisy crowds on a regular basis. William Henry Brown used the impromptu performances from patrons at the Grove as a casual form of auditions for possible recruits to the stage for his fledgling theatre company. He quickly converted the rooms upstairs into a small theatre. He selected a play and quickly recruited a cast based on those who performed at the Grove. He posted playbills all around announcing their opening performance.^[2]

The African Theatre formally opened on September 17, 1821, with a performance of Shakespeare's renowned play Richard III , starring an all-black cast. The instability of the current venue prompted an eventual relocation. The neighbors reportedly complained again, which led to Brown to decide to move his theatre to a unoccupied suburban house on the corner of Mercer and Bleecker Streets. About a week later, his troupe offered an evening's entertainment consisting of a reenactment of Richard III as well as an opera, a pantomime, and a ballet. Performances continued at this site on Monday evenings throughout October and November, with Friday being added eventually thanks to popular demand. During early performances, a group of people, including a man named George Bellmont, invaded the playhouse, assaulting the actors and destroying costumes and pieces of the sets. This preceded into a fight between the actors and Bellmont's group. Bellmont and a number of his group were arrested after the attack.^[1]

Very little is known about the interior of the Theatre or its settings, though it has been described by patrons in a negative light as "pathetic and ominous", and "resembling a dirty kitchen", harking back to the theatre's humble origins as a local hangout. These descriptions are also indicative of the theatre's lack of commercial success and proper funding. The theatre contained a room for an orchestra, which was composed of two white men, and one black. The auditorium included a box, pit, and gallery, with exceptionally high prices of 75, 50, and 37 cents.^[3] When trying to summarize the activities of the African Theatre, it is important to note that the known record remains incomplete. Rather than placing advertisements or articles in any newspapers about performances, Brown generally just handed playbills and advertisements out on the streets and invited people to the theatre. The African Theatre productions were not taken seriously by any journalists of important newspapers, resulting in the performances being ignored by the press for the most part.^[2] During the first year it changed from only being directed towards the Black community to being directed at New Yorkers in general, which meant that the white audience grew significantly. Many of the performers were servants in their day jobs, and many of their employers would attend the theatre at night.^[1]

The issues relating to the theatre on Mercer and Bleeker prompted another change in venue, this time to the City Hotel, a venue with better accommodation and in a better location. This new location also happened to be next door to the Park Theatre, a well established white theatre. A controversy ensued among the white theatre patrons, who claimed that the African Theatre patrons were too riotous of character, and as a result the police would eventually mandate that the African Theatre announce their last performance. Defying the authorities, the theatre continued to put on nightly performances. Despite its best efforts, however, the theatre was eventually forced to return to the prior location on Mercer Street.^[3]

Notable figures

The company, established in the 1820s by William Henry Brown, was created in response to the demand for entertainment centers open to Black communities. Brown was a businessman looking for ways to generate profit, but he also aimed to create a community in the arts for Black people to socialize, perform, and foster self-determination.^[1]

The Theater's leading actor, James Hewlett, is also the co-founder of the troupe who advocated for the hiring of more black actors. Prior to working full-time as a performer, Hewlett worked as a steward. Hewlett is the first African-American Shakespearean actor. Before co-founding, he was known to be a regular visitor and entertainer at Brown's backyard poetry functions, which are the known origins of The African Theater. Since Brown could not pay Hewlett a full salary, Hewlett continued working as a steward while performing. His last performance at the African Theater took place in 1824 prior to its close before being sold.^[2] The play was a solo, performed as a benefit in support of Greece during their war of independence from Turkey.^[1]

The first performance of Richard III starred Charles Taft in the lead role because Hewlett was working on a ship and did not return until the second performance. Taft, fired from his job as a servant, became infatuated with theatre and was destroyed emotionally, in shambles, when Hewlett returned. During his work on the ship, Hewlett created a fancy costume for his performance. Taft, on the other hand, wore a robe made of a curtain. Hewlett had no competition, and was quickly welcomed back into the role.^[1]

The company is also known for the introduction of Ira Aldridge, considered to be one of the first impactful Black American Shakespearean actors, who was born in 1807 in New York City. His theatrical career was notably interesting and extremely prominent, but prior to taking a larger stage, he worked as a costume carrier for British actors and performed in smaller drama productions of ragtag companies. Aldridge worked as an actor in the British Isles beforehand, knowing that there was not yet opportunity for him to pursue acting in The United States. The actor garnered recognition with the role of Othello in Shakespeare's play of the same name. This proved a struggle to Aldridge both as a performer and financially, as there were few roles that African Americans would be given the allowance to take on at this time in history. However, he also proved himself through taking on roles that carried anti-slavery sentiments, and consisted of portraying various roles that captured the struggles of slaves in what would then be called The New World. It was not until he reached mid-life, aged approximately 40, that Aldridge was able to perform other Shakespearean roles such as Macbeth or Richard III, breaking free of his role as Othello. The launch of the roles are recorded to have taken place in Hull, a town that his biographers say is a place where "...one could take risks that might not have been so well-received elsewhere."^[4]^[3]

Shows

Related Research Articles

<i>The Emperor Jones</i> 1920 play by Eugene ONeill

The Emperor Jones is a 1920 tragic play by American dramatist Eugene O'Neill that tells the tale of Brutus Jones, a resourceful, self-assured African American and a former Pullman porter, who kills another black man in a dice game, is jailed, and later escapes to a small, backward Caribbean island where he sets himself up as emperor. The play recounts his story in flashbacks as Brutus makes his way through the jungle in an attempt to escape former subjects who have rebelled against him.

The minstrel show, also called minstrelsy, was an American form of theater developed in the early 19th century. The shows were performed by mostly white actors wearing blackface makeup for the purpose of comically portraying racial stereotypes of African Americans. There were also some African-American performers and black-only minstrel groups that formed and toured. Minstrel shows stereotyped blacks as dimwitted, lazy, buffoonish, cowardly, superstitious, and happy-go-lucky. Each show consisted of comic skits, variety acts, dancing, and music performances that depicted people specifically of African descent.

<i>Bunraku</i> Traditional Japanese puppet theatre

Bunraku is a form of traditional Japanese puppet theatre, founded in Osaka in the beginning of the 17th century, which is still performed in the modern day. Three kinds of performers take part in a bunraku performance: the Ningyōtsukai or Ningyōzukai (puppeteers), the tayū (chanters), and shamisen musicians. Occasionally other instruments such as taiko drums will be used. The combination of chanting and shamisen playing is called jōruri and the Japanese word for puppet is ningyō. It is used in many plays.

Abriea "Abbie" Mitchell Cook, also billed as Abbey Mitchell, was an American soprano opera singer. She performed the role of Clara in the premiere production of George Gershwin's Porgy and Bess in 1935, and was also the first to record "Summertime" from that musical.

Eugene V. Frankel was an American actor, theater director, and acting teacher especially notable in the founding of the off-Broadway scene. Frankel served in the Army during World War II in entertainment and as a member of an aerial crew.

Ira Frederick Aldridge was an American-born British actor, playwright, and theatre manager, known for his portrayal of Shakespearean characters. James Hewlett and Aldridge are regarded as the first Black American tragedians.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roscoe Lee Browne</span> American actor and director (1922–2007)

Roscoe Lee Browne was an American actor and director. He resisted playing stereotypically black roles, instead performing in several productions with New York City's Shakespeare Festival Theater, Leland Hayward's satirical NBC series That Was the Week That Was, and a poetry performance tour of the United States in addition to his work in television and film. He is perhaps best known for his many guest appearances on TV series from the 1970s and 1980s as well as movies like The Cowboys (1972) with John Wayne.

The African GroveTheatre opened in New York City in 1821. It was founded and operated by William Alexander Brown, a free black man from the West Indies. It opened six years before the final abolition of slavery in New York state. The African Grove Theatre was attended by "all types of black New Yorkers -- free and slave, middle-class and working-class" along with others. It was the first place where Ira Aldridge, who would later become an esteemed and renowned Shakespearian actor, first saw a production of a Shakespeare play.

Amanda Christina Elizabeth Aldridge, also known as Amanda Ira Aldridge, was a British opera singer and teacher who composed love songs, suites, sambas, and light orchestral pieces under the pseudonym of Montague Ring.

Matilda Sissieretta Joyner Jones was an American soprano. She sometimes was called "The Black Patti" in reference to Italian opera singer Adelina Patti. Jones' repertoire included grand opera, light opera, and popular music. Trained at the Providence Academy of Music and the New England Conservatory of Music, Jones made her New York City debut in 1888 at Steinway Hall, and four years later she performed at the White House for President Benjamin Harrison. She sang for four consecutive presidents and the British royal family, and was met with international success. Besides the United States and the West Indies, Jones toured in South America, Australia, India, southern Africa, and Europe.

The Padlock is a two-act 'afterpiece' opera by Charles Dibdin. The text was by Isaac Bickerstaffe. It debuted in 1768 at the Drury Lane Theatre in London as a companion piece to The Earl of Warwick. It partnered other plays before a run of six performances in tandem with The Fatal Discovery by John Home. "The Padlock" was a success, largely due to Dibdin's portrayal of Mungo, a blackface caricature of a black servant from the West Indies. The company took the production to the United States the next year, where a portrayal by Lewis Hallam, Jr. as Mungo met with even greater accolades. The libretto was first published in London around 1768 and in Dublin in 1775. The play remained in regular circulation in the U.S. as late as 1843. It was revived by the Old Vic Company in London and on tour in the UK in 1979 in a new orchestration by Don Fraser and played in a double-bill with Garrick's Miss In Her Teens. The role of Mungo was, again, played by a white actor. Opera Theatre of Chicago have recently revived the piece (2007?) where, it would seem, the role of Mungo was changed to that of an Irish servant.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Frederick O'Neal</span>

Frederick O'Neal was an American actor, theater producer and television director. He founded the American Negro Theater, the British Negro Theatre, and was the first African-American president of the Actors' Equity Association. He was also known for his work behind the scenes as a revolutionary trade unionist.

Othello is a character in Shakespeare's Othello. The character's origin is traced to the tale "Un Capitano Moro" in Gli Hecatommithi by Giovanni Battista Giraldi Cinthio. There, he is simply referred to as the Moor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lewis Hallam Jr.</span> 18th-century American theater manager

Lewis Hallam Jr. was an England-born American actor and theater manager, son of Lewis Hallam, one of the pioneers of Theater in the United States, and Sarah Hallam Douglass. He was the leading actor of the Old American Company, at the time the only theater in America, and the manager of the same Company in 1779-1796.

A number of theatre companies are associated with the Harlem Renaissance.

Black Vaudeville is a term that specifically describes Vaudeville-era African American entertainers and the milieus of dance, music, and theatrical performances they created. Spanning the years between the 1880s and early 1930s, these acts not only brought elements and influences unique to American black culture directly to African Americans but ultimately spread them beyond to both white American society and Europe.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jesse A. Shipp</span> American writer (1864–1934)

Jesse Allison Shipp, Sr. was an American actor, playwright, and theatrical director, who is best remembered as a pioneer African-American writer of musical theater in the United States, and as the author of the book upon which the landmark play In Dahomey was based. Shipp played an influential role in expanding black theater beyond its minstrel show origins and is recalled as perhaps the first African-American director of a Broadway performance.

James Hewlett was an African-American actor. He was principal actor in and co-creator of William Alexander Brown's African Grove Theatre in New York City.

William Alexander Brown, also known as William Henry Brown, was an American playwright and theatrical producer. He is considered the first known black playwright in America.

John A. Arneaux was an American Shakespearean actor and journalist in New York City and in Paris, France. From 1884 to 1886 he was editor and owner of the New York Enterprise which had the largest circulation of any African American newspaper in the country at that time. As a journalist and a civil rights activist, he was widely respected. He was also an actor and leader of an African American theatre troupe, the Astor Place Tragedy company. Together with his friend Benjamin J. Ford, he was the leading black Shakespearean actor of his period.

References

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Hill, Errol (Fall 2000). "A Documentary History of the African Theater, by George A. Thompson, Jr. – book review". African American Review . Retrieved March 6, 2018.
1 2 3 Hill, Errol (2010). A History of African American Theatre. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-62443-5.
1 2 3 Shafer, Yvonne (1977). "BLACK ACTORS IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY AMERICAN THEATRE". CLA Journal. 20: 387–400 – via JSTOR.
↑ Lindfors, B. (2017). "Mislike Me Not for My Complexion". African American Review. 50: 1005–1012. doi:10.1353/afa.2017.0155.

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.

[review-1] 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Hill, Errol (Fall 2000). "A Documentary History of the African Theater, by George A. Thompson, Jr. – book review". African American Review . Retrieved March 6, 2018.

[:0-2] 1 2 3 Hill, Errol (2010). A History of African American Theatre. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-62443-5.

[:1-3] 1 2 3 Shafer, Yvonne (1977). "BLACK ACTORS IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY AMERICAN THEATRE". CLA Journal. 20: 387–400 – via JSTOR.

[4] Lindfors, B. (2017). "Mislike Me Not for My Complexion". African American Review. 50: 1005–1012. doi:10.1353/afa.2017.0155.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]