|
The African Grove Theatre was a theatre founded and operated by William Alexander Brown〔Hatch, James V., and Ted Shine. ''Black Theatre USA: Plays by African Americans: The Early Period, 1847-1938''. New York: Free, 1996. 1. Print.〕 a free African American in New York City in 1821, six years before enslavement of blacks fully ended in New York state (gradual abolition brought it to an end in 1827, but young people had to serve apprenticeships to age 21.) The African Grove Theatre was attended by "all types of black New Yorkers -- free and slave, middle-class and working-class"〔 along with others, and was also the first place where Ira Aldridge, who would later become an esteemed and renowned Shakespearian actor, saw his first Shakespeare production.〔 ==Background== For some years, the African Company—the company of the African Grove—played with a black cast and crew to mostly black audiences. It was the third of at least four attempts to create a black theater in the city, and the most commercially successful.〔Lott, Eric. ''Love and Theft: Blackface Minstrelsy and the American Working Class'', New York: Oxford University Press, 1993, p. 44. ISBN 0-19-507832-2.〕 After a few years, city officials shut down the African Grove, because of complaints about conduct: conduct that was normal among working-class white New York theatre audiences of the time was considered unacceptably boisterous when displayed by blacks.〔 One source says that the theatre was "mysteriously burned to the ground in 1826",〔("Black Theatre Program" ), California State University, Dominguez Hills, Accessed August 14, 2005〕 but it appeared to have failed financially well before that.〔(Gonzalez, Anita & Granick, Ian. "Web Lecture #2: African Grove Theater" ), ''African American Performance''. Accessed December 6, 2005〕 "There are no records of the African Grove Theater after 1823."〔 The theatre was founded by William Alexander Brown, who was a pioneering African-American actor and playwright, along with working as a ship's stewards at times.〔 Through his work as a ship's steward, he traveled to England and the Caribbean, so he had a broader opportunity to see theatre than the typical New Yorker and cosmopolitan experience. The West-Indies-born Brown left a job on a Liverpool ship and bought a house in New York, at 38 Thompson Street. At the start, Brown held the African Grove in his back yard, where he offered food and drink, but also poetry and short drama pieces. At the suggestion of James Hewlett, both an entertainer and a regular customer, together they hired other black actors.〔 The theater's repertoire drew heavily on Shakespeare, with comic entr'actes. White audience members were confined to a separate section because, in the words of the theater's management, "whites do not know how to conduct themselves at entertainments for ladies and gentlemen of color."〔 The most popular plays were ''Richard III'' and ''Othello''. James Hewlett was the first black man of record to play the leading role in ''Othello''.〔(Gary Jay Williams, "Review of Errol Hill, 'Shakespeare in Sable: A History of Black Shakespearean Actors'" ), ''Shakespeare Quarterly'', 1986, accessed 15 October 2010.〕 As was common at the time, the producers made adaptations to Shakespeare's plays. Small casts and smaller budgets required expedients such as that described by the reviewer George Odell, writing of an 1821 performance of ''Richard III'': "A dapper, wooly haired waiter at the City Hotel personated the royal Plantagenet in robes made up from discarded merino curtains of the ballroom. Owing to the smallness of the company King Henry and the Duchess were played by one person, and Lady Anne and Catesby by another. Lady Anne, in Act III, sang quite incongruously."〔〔Odell, George. ''National Advocate'', 21 September 1821, cited by Gonzalez & Granick.〕 The scholar Laura V. Blanchard identifies Odell's "dapper waiter" as the actor James Hewlett.〔 Frequently harassed by the police, and facing increasing hostility from the white populace, the company moved several times, from Thompson Street north to Bleecker and Mercer Streets, which sat on, what at the time was, the edge of New York City. When Brown moved his theatre from 38 Thompson Street to Bleecker and Mercer Streets, found himself with a dilemma. He realized that his theatre now was located too far from its core audience ("free person's of color") so he decided to return to Houston and Mercer where he constructed a theatre building which was near an oft patroned white theater called the Park Theatre.〔 When the Park Theatre—New York City's leading theater of the time— put on ''Richard III'' starring the English tragedian Junius Brutus Booth,〔 the African Company rented a hall next door for its own production of the same play the same night. Theatrical competition was stiff; Stephen Price, owner of the Park, orchestrated (and paid for) a disturbance over the rival productions so that the police would shut down the African Grove.〔〔 In addition to Shakespeare, the African Company performed original works, which included William A. Brown's now-lost play, ''The Drama of King Shotaway''. It was about a 1796 uprising of black Caribs against British Navy forces on the island of Saint Vincent.〔(Laura V. Blanchard, "Review of Carlyle Brown's 'The African Company Presents Richard III'" ), Richard III Society, Dec 1995, Accessed August 14, 2005/13 October 2010.〕 Produced by the African Company in 1823, ''Drama'' is believed to have been the first full-length play by an African American performed in the United States.〔 Despite the frequent changes in location and short lived existence, the African Grove Theatre was important because it was a launching pad for famous African-American actors, such as James Hewlett. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「African Grove」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|