The Harlem Renaissance And Black Theatre

4 Pages 882 Words

Introduction
Beginning in the early 1900’s, African-American literature, art, music, drama and social commentary began to flourish in Harlem. The period that is commonly referred to today as the Harlem Renaissance is generally agreed to span from the end of World War I through the middle of the1930’s depression. Originally called the “New Negro Movement”, the black cultural production of the period was not solely located in Harlem, the celebration of African-American Heritage spread across the nation, encouraging a talented pool of African-American artists, and activists.
During this same period, leading up to the 1930’s, black musical theater was one of the few ways to be successful and upwardly mobile in a white society. The route to success in show business for blacks during this period was almost exclusively through black musical theatre. With the debut of Shuffle Along during the early period of the Harlem Renaissance, the face of black theatre was forever changed. Numerous pioneers (that are often forgotten) paved the theatrical road to the Harlem Renaissance. From A Trip to Coontown to Harlem’s Lafayette Theatre, “…black performed play, an oddity in the nineteenth century, became the rage in the early twentieth.”

The Early Period 1998-1910
In 1987 Bob Cole and Billy Johnson, with their years of experience on the minstrel and vaudeville circuit, left the group they were touring with to put together their own production. In April of 1898, A Trip to Coontown opened in New York making its debut as the first full-length musical play written and produced by blacks, even if it was slightly off Broadway. A Trip to Coontown was indeed popular, but it ran only briefly on the stage. Coontown, though groundbreaking, was unsophisticated entertainment that did not differ much from a minstrel show. The play was not innovative in it’s content and style, however A Trip to Coontown proved that there was ind...