Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
The Development of Black Theater in America: From Shadows to Selves

The Development of Black Theater in America: From Shadows to Selves

Sanders, Leslie Catherine

Paperback

Literary CriticismTheater History

ISBN10: 0807115827
ISBN13: 9780807115824
Publisher: LSU Press
Published: Aug 1 1989
Pages: 268
Weight: 0.87
Height: 0.61 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English

In The Development of Black Theater in America, Leslie Sanders examines the work of the American black theater's five most productive playwrights: Willis Richardson, Randolph Edmonds, Langston Hughes, LeRoi Jones, and Ed Bullins.

Sanders sees the history of black theater as the process of creating a black stage reality while at the same time transforming conventions borrowed from white European culture into forms appropriate to black artists and audiences. The author argues that only when these things were accomplished could the aim of black playwrights, often articulated as the realistic portrayal of the Negro, be fully realized. This study also examines the changing nature of the dialogue black playwrights have held with the dominant tradition and how that dialogue has shaped their imaginations.

Sanders' discussion of Richardson, Edmonds, Hughes, Jones, and Bullins provides a context for approaching the work of other black playwrights, such as James Baldwin, Lorraine Hansberry, and Owen Dodson. And her argument provides a concrete way of understanding how the context of a dominant culture influences the artistic imagination of writers not of that culture, who must come to terms with its influences and transform it into a vehicle of their own.

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