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A number of theatre companies are associated with the Harlem Renaissance. == Lafayette Players (1916–1932) == Anita Bush, a pioneer in African American theater, began an acting company after seeing a show at the Lincoln Theater in Harlem. She wanted an all-Black group that performed Broadway plays, to combat the popular "racial stereotypes of African Americans as singers, dancers, and slapstick comedians."〔()〕 According to Bush, she wanted to prove that Blacks can do the same thing as whites. They were called the Bush Players. After performing at the Lincoln Theater for two years, the owner, Marie Downs, wanted to change their name to the Lincoln Players. Anita refused and took her company to the rival theater, The Lafayette Theatre. In 1916, due to financial difficulties, Bush sold her company to the theater. One of the actors, Charles S. Gilpin, took over the players and helped establish the Lafayette Players Stock Company, which became the first legitimate Black stock company in Harlem. That same year Robert Levy, an American Jew, became involved with the Lafayette Players through the formation of the Quality Amusement Corporation, which managed both the theater and the acting troupe. Later, Levy used the talents of the players in the movies he produced. Reol Productions Corporation had a goal to product high-class pictures with colored actors, which created continuous employment for Black performers.〔 The company consisted of only black actors who were cast as serious dramatic roles—something that was unheard of at the time. White playwrights, who intended to have white actors playing them, wrote many of these roles. This allowed serious black actors transcend the stereotyped and comedic roles, which they were normally expected to play. The Lafayette Players began performing for almost exclusively Black audiences. The plays they would perform were shows that were popular in the white theater repertory as well as the classics. Some examples of these are performances: ''Madame X'', ''Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde'', and Shakespeare's ''Macbeth'', which had been directed by Orson Welles. The Players performed anything that was being done on Broadway. They performed short plays, shortened versions of popular Broadway success'—most which were melodramatic. Sometimes they would perform musicals like ''Darktown'' and ''Shuffle Along''. Some Harlem figures, like W.E.B. Du Bois, opposed this choice of materials because it did not promote the work of black playwrights. By 1924, the Players were divided up into four different groups. The original cast stayed at the Lafayette Theater in Harlem. A new group was created in Chicago. Then two traveling groups formed—one that traveled throughout the South, and one along the East coast. These groups only played in theaters that allowed Black's. The groups, combined, performed over two hundred plays that had never been performed by a black cast. Their job was not only to make a point against the mainstream theater and society, but also to educate the Black audience around the country. Some actors who were cast in the Lafayette Players: Edna Morton, Lawrence Chenault, Canada Lee, Rose McClendon, Oscar Micheaux, Clarence Muse, and Charles S. Gilpin. The arranger James P. Johnson was involved for a while as well as the famous director Edgar Forrest. When the Depression started taking its toll, the performers were one of the first to get hit. In 1928, a white company bought the Players and relocated them to Los Angeles, California. Here they performed till 1932. 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「Harlem Renaissance theater companies」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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