Polly Rogers chronicles the intricate history of Black theatre.
Throughout the history of Western theatre, Black artists and creatives have been under-represented, their stories suppressed and unheard. The Asian American Performers Action Coalition states that in the 2016-2017 season, almost 90% of Broadway's playwrights over a one-year period were white. In the 2018-2019 season, 81% of Broadway’s off-stage crew members were white - this includes writers and directors.
In 1816, William Alexander Brown, a free man from the West Indies, founded the African Grove Theatre in the lower Manhattan district of New York, where many free Black people began settling. Brown produced works by William Shakespeare and featured a cast of all-Black performers, both free and enslaved. The productions drew crowds of African-Americans from all over New York to Brown’s residence, which he had converted into a theatre. He later wrote a play of his own called The Drama of King Shotaway, which was based on the life of Joseph Chatoyer, a leader of a revolt against the British colonial government of Saint Vincent in the Caribbean. Unfortunately, this work has been lost to time, though it remains one of the earliest recorded plays penned by a Black playwright. The African Grove Theatre company was eventually forced to shut down following riots which culminated in the theatre being burnt to the ground. Not much is known about what happened to Brown following this, but his influence and impact on global theatre is undeniable.
A little over a century later, Nigerian playwright Hubert Ogunde suggests that theatre is a way to bridge communities and create connections between people. His plays displayed rich themes associated with Nigerian heritage, aiming to educate audiences through folk-opera and dance. Ogunde travelled with a group of performers to share his art with others. In his plays, he used traditional storytelling with a contemporary twist to address pressing issues of the time, including promoting social change.
Zulu Sofola, also from Nigeria, was the first female Nigerian dramatist to produce and perform a play. Her oeuvre is composed of 15 plays, the first produced in 1969. Growing up in Delta State and excelling in primary school there, Sofola garnered an academic scholarship to study at a high school in Nashville Tennessee. She remained in the US, where she completed both an undergraduate and a master's degree, before returning to Nigeria to undertake her PhD in Theatre Arts in 1977. Sofola used her plays to support women and to highlight the social injustices they face, though also exploring themes of military dictatorships, corruption, Christianity, and human dignity. She was a voice for many who could not speak up for themselves and her play, Wedlock of the Gods (1973), showcases themes of female oppression and the impact of traditionally arranged marriages.
Returning to America, August Wilson was one of the most notable playwrights of the 20th century. Wilson, a two-time Pulitzer prize-winning American playwright is best known for his 10 plays that span the 20th Century. Each play is set in a different decade, each highlighting the racism and systemic discrimination faced by Black people in America over the last century. Wilson grew up in Pittsburg with his mother, who was African American, with his German father no longer in the picture. Wilson attended a predominantly white school. While he faced social exclusion throughout his youth, he found an outlet in literature and writing. He dropped out of high school, yet continued his pursuit of knowledge by educating himself in his local library. After a stint in the army, Wilson began writing plays, leading to a fellowship with the Minnesota Playwrights Center, where he met Lloyd Richards, the Dean of Yale School of Drama. Richards became his mentor and aided him in becoming the esteemed playwright that we remember today.
The realm of theatre offers many diverse, educational and enthralling works to discover. All of these Black dramatists, from William Brown to Zulu Sofola, have forged a path for the esteemed Black playwrights we have today. These include triple Pulitzer Prize for Drama-winning Suzan-Lori Parks, double Pulitzer Prize winner Lynn Nottage and Robert O’Hara. Our own UCD DramSoc has produced talented Black playwrights, such as Praise Titus and Tishé Fatunbi of the Arínolá Theatre Company. Their successes to date include the productions We Dance – which won the 2022 Irish Student Drama Awards, as well as Ololufe, which was nominated for two awards at this year’s Dublin Fringe Festival; Best Ensemble, and Tishé Fatunbi for Best Performer.