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Blackface is a form of theatrical makeup used predominantly by non-Black people to portray a caricature of a Black person.
Thomas Dartmouth "Daddy" Rice was an American performer and playwright who performed in blackface and used African American vernacular speech, song and dance to become one of the most popular minstrel show entertainers of his time. He is considered the "father of American minstrelsy". His act drew on aspects of African American culture and popularized them with a national, and later international, audience.
The minstrel show, also called minstrelsy, was an American form of racist entertainment developed in the early 19th century. Each show consisted of comic skits, variety acts, dancing, and music performances that depicted people specifically of African descent. The shows were performed by mostly white people in make-up or blackface for the purpose of playing the role of black people. There were also some African-American performers and black-only minstrel groups that formed and toured. Minstrel shows caricatured black people as dim-witted, lazy, buffoonish, superstitious, and happy-go-lucky.
Master Juba was an African-American dancer active in the 1840s. He was one of the first black performers in the United States to play onstage for white audiences and the only one of the era to tour with a white minstrel group. His real name was believed to be William Henry Lane, and he was also known as "Boz's Juba" following Dickens's graphic description of him in American Notes.
The Virginia Minstrels or Virginia Serenaders was a group of 19th-century American entertainers who helped invent the entertainment form known as the minstrel show. Led by Dan Emmett, the original lineup consisted of Emmett, Billy Whitlock, Dick Pelham, and Frank Brower.
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.
Shuffle Along is a musical composed by Eubie Blake, with lyrics by Noble Sissle, and a revue-style plot written by the comedy duo Flournoy Miller and Aubrey Lyles. The first all-Black hit Broadway show, it was a landmark in African-American musical theater, credited with inspiring the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s and '30s.
Thomas Dilward was an entertainer who appeared in blackface minstrel shows from 1853 until the early 1880s under the name Japanese Tommy. He was also sometimes billed as "The African 'Tom Thumb'" and the "African Dwarf Tommy". Dilward is one of only two known African-Americans to have performed with white minstrel companies before the American Civil War.
The Ethiopian Serenaders was an American blackface minstrel troupe successful in the 1840s and 1850s. Through various line-ups they were managed and directed by James A. Dumbolton (c.1808–?), and are sometimes mentioned as the Boston Minstrels, Dumbolton Company or Dumbolton's Serenaders.
Christopher Haverly (1837–1901), better known as J. H. Haverly or John H. "Jack" Haverly, was an American theatre manager and promoter of blackface minstrel shows. During the 1870s and 1880s, he created an entertainment empire centered on his minstrel troupes, particularly Haverly's United Mastodon Minstrels and Haverly's Colored Minstrels. Under his guidance, these troupes grew to impressive sizes and featured elaborate sets and costumes. They toured widely, enlarging minstrelsy's audience to encompass the entire United States as well as England. Haverly's methods sparked a revolution in minstrelsy as other troupes scrambled to compete. As the costs of minstrelsy increased, many troupes went out of business.
Billy Kersands was an African-American comedian and dancer. He was the most popular black comedian of his day, best known for his work in blackface minstrelsy. In addition to his skillful acrobatics, dancing, singing, and instrument playing, Kersands was renowned for his comic routines involving his large mouth, which he could contort comically or fill with objects such as billiard balls or saucers. His stage persona was that of the dim-witted black man of the type that had been popularized in white minstrel shows. Modern commentators such as Mel Watkins cite him as one of the earliest black entertainers to have faced the dilemma of striking a balance between social satire and the reinforcement of negative stereotypes.
Bryant's Minstrels was a blackface minstrel troupe that performed in the mid-19th century, primarily in New York City. The troupe was led by the O'Neill brothers from upstate New York, who took the stage name Bryant.
Hokum is a particular song type of American blues music—a humorous song which uses extended analogies or euphemistic terms to make sexual innuendos. This trope goes back to early blues recordings and is used from time to time in modern American blues and blues rock.
The stump speech was a comic monologue from blackface minstrelsy. A typical stump speech consisted of malapropisms, nonsense sentences, and puns delivered in a parodied version of Black Vernacular English. The stump speaker wore blackface makeup and moved about like a clown. Topics varied from pure nonsense to parodies of politics, science, and social issues. Although both the topic itself and the black character's inability to comprehend it served as sources of comedy to white people, minstrels used such speeches to deliver racist social commentary. The stump speech was a precursor to modern stand-up comedy.
"Miss Lucy Long", also known as "Lucy Long" as well as by other variants, is an American song that was popularized in the blackface minstrel show.
Ching-a-Ring Chaw is a song from the early days of the minstrel show tradition. A rewritten version frequently performed in modern times comes from Aaron Copland's 1952 Old American Songs song set.
Aaron White is an American actor and director, his most notable work for The Dance: The History of American Minstrelsy, which he co-wrote and co-directed with Jason Christophe White. He is also an independent music producer, and the owner and founder of Slingshot Media.
Jason Christophe White is an NAACP Theater Award-winning American playwright, his one produced play being The Dance: The History of American Minstrelsy, which he co-wrote and co-directed with Aaron White. Jason White is also the co-owner of In Tha Cut Productions.
George Walker and Bert Williams were two of the most renowned figures of the minstrel era. However the two did not start their careers together. Walker was born in 1873 in Lawrence, Kansas. His onstage career began at an early age as he toured in black minstrel shows as a child. George Walker became a better known stage performer as he toured the country with a traveling group of minstrels. George Walker was a "dandy", a performer notorious for performing without makeup due to his dark skin. Most vaudeville actors were white at this time and often wore blackface. As Walker and his group traveled the country, Bert Williams was touring with his group, named Martin and Selig’s Mastodon Minstrels. While performing with the Minstrels, African American song-and-dance man George Walker and Bert Williams met in San Francisco in 1893. George Walker married Ada Overton in 1899. Ada Overton Walker was known as one of the first professional African American choreographers. Prior to starring in performances with Walker and Williams, Overton wowed audiences across the country for her 1900 musical performance in the show Son of Ham. After falling ill during the tour of Bandana Land in 1909, George Walker returned to Lawrence, Kansas where he died on January 8, 1911. He was 38.
References
- ↑ RaceWire.org - Amusa, Malena. Must See: The (Minstrel) Dance Theater. - "Must See: The (Minstrel) Dance Theatre | RaceWire". Archived from the original on 2008-11-27. Retrieved 2012-01-05. "Must See: The (Minstrel) Dance Theatre | RaceWire". Archived from the original on 2008-11-27. Retrieved 2012-01-05.
- ↑ Hutchinson, Sikivu. - Shadow Dance. - http://www.blackfemlens.org/review3.html
- ↑ NewYorkCool.com - Gooch, Williams S. - Jason Christophe White and Aaron White's The Dance. - http://www.newyorkcool.com/archives/2007/March/new-york-city-theatre-reviews.htm
- ↑ BroadwayWorld.com - Scarpone, Amanda. A New Look at Minstrels. - http://broadwayworld.com/article/A_New_Look_at_Minstrels_20070305
- ↑ Chaffey College - School of Visual, Performing and Communication Arts. - The Dance: The History of American Minstrelsy. "School of Visual and Performing Arts: The Dance: The History of American Minstrelsy". Archived from the original on 2011-08-13. Retrieved 2012-01-05.