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The American Negro Theater (ANT), founded in 1937,〔Shining Thread of Hope〕 was formed in Harlem on June 5, 1940, by writer Abram Hill and actor Frederick O'Neal. The group was founded by the influence of the purposes of the Negro Unit of the Federal Theatre Project in Harlem. It produced 19 plays before closing in 1949. Designed as a community theater group, performances were held in Harlem's Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. In 1942, ANT began its Studio Theatre training program for beginning actors. Graduates include Sidney Poitier and Harry Belafonte. == History == Hill and O'Neal started the ANT by assembling several of their own theatre friends: Howard Augusta, James Jackson, Virgil Richardson, Claire Leyba, Jefferson D. Davis, Vivian Hall, Austin Briggs-Hall, Stanley Green, Fanny McConnell, and Kenneth Manigault. Collectively, they started the group with just 11 cents. In the beginning, Hill spent his time mailing out postcards to invite as many people as he could to meetings and within just a few weeks, the group grew to thirty people. Hill approached librarians at the public library on 135th Street in Harlem, the Harlem Branch of the New York Public Library, to start producing his plays. The librarians granted Hill and the ANT permission to use their basement stage. The basement theatre held 150 seats and Hill charged 49 cents a seat. The first show they produced, "Hits, Bits, and Skits," opened on July 17, 1940. The first major play that the ANT put into rehearsal was "On Strivers' Row" which Hill put into rehearsal after it had done so well with the Rose McClendon Players who also held performances in Harlem. "On Strivers' Row" ran for five months and in March 1941, Hill moved it to the Apollo Theatre as a musical with the lyrics of Don Burley, the music of J.P. Johnson, and the choreography of Leonard Harper. It ran at the Apollo Theatre for one week. In 1944, the ANT applied to the General Education Board of the Rockefeller Foundation for a financial grant. The proposal they submitted asked for salaries to be paid to the company's officers. It also informed the Board on the following objectives of the ANT: * 1) To Develop an Art * 2) To Develop a Vital Theatre * 3) To Develop Pride and Honor The proposal resulted in a $22,000 grant-in-aid for the ANT. These objectives were also printed on programs for ANT productions. Its most successful production, ''Anna Lucasta'', fundamentally transformed the ANT. A white author, Phillip Yordan, wrote the play about a Polish family in Pennsylvania whose daughter is a waterfront prostitute, but could not find a company to perform it. So he rewrote it to feature a black family. It was performed by the ANT in 1944. Five weeks later the play opened on Broadway. Nine New York newspaper dailies reviewed the show. They all raved and producers instantly starting fighting over who would get the rights to the play. Yordan agreed to sign a Dramatists Guild contract that would make Hill the coauthor of ''Anna Lucasta''. This gave Hill a five percent author's royalty. The ANT itself received few royalties for ''Anna Lucasta'' and the next three ANT plays to appear on Broadway were not successful. Despite this, following the success of ''Anna Lucasta'' the ANT became less community-centered. From then on, the ANT only featured plays from established white playwrights, and young actors viewed the ANT as a means to break into Broadway productions. 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「American Negro Theater」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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