Contemporary Black Theatre and Performance: Acts of Rebellion, Activism, and Solidarity

by DeRon S. Williams (Editor), Khalid Y. Long (Editor), Martine Kei Green-Rogers (Editor), William C. Boles (Editor), Anja Hartl (Editor)

Overview

How are Black artists, activists, and pedagogues wielding acts of rebellion, activism, and solidarity to precipitate change? How have contemporary performances impacted Black cultural, social, and political struggles? What are the ways in which these acts and artists engage varied Black identities and explore shared histories?

Contemporary Black Theatre and Performance investigates these questions to illuminate the relationship between performance, identity, intersectionality, and activism in North America and beyond. It features contributions from scholars, artists, and activists from across disciplines who explore the nuances and varied forms of Black performance in the 21st century while incorporating performance-based methodologies and queer and black feminist theories.

Among the many topics addressed by contributors are antiracist pedagogy, Black queer identity formation in Black playwriting, digital blackface, and Black women's subversive practices within contemporary popular culture. It encompasses dramatic analysis of Lynn Nottage's Sweat, Tarell Alvin McCraney's Choir Boy, and acts of resistance during the Black Lives Matter summer 2020 highway protests. A series of conversations with artists and scholars are woven throughout the book's three sections, including with playwrights Christina Anderson and Donja R. Love, and Willa Taylor, Director of Education and Community Engagement at the Goodman Theatre, Chicago.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781350252943
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Publishing
Publication date:	04/06/2023
Series:	Methuen Drama Agitations: Text, Politics and Performances
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	272
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

DeRon S. Williams is Assistant Professor of Theatre in the Department of Fine and Performing Arts at Loyola University Chicago, USA.
Khalid Y. Long is Assistant Professor in the Department of Theatre and Film Studies and the Institute for African American Studies at the University of Georgia, USA.
Martine Kei Green-Rogers is the Dean of The Theatre School at DePaul University, USA.
DeRon S. Williams is Assistant Professor of Theatre in the Department of Fine and Performing Arts at Loyola University Chicago, USA, and a freelance director and dramaturg. He has published in The Journal of American Drama and Theatre, Continuum: The Journal of African Diaspora Drama. His directing credits include both new and canonical works, including Tarell Alvin McCraney's The Brothers Size, Regina Taylor's Crowns, Bruce Norris's Clybourne Park, and Africa to America: A Celebration of Who We Are, an interdisciplinary performance written by Wendy R. Coleman.
Khalid Y. Long is Assistant Professor in the Department of Theatre and Film Studies and the Institute for African American Studies at the University of Georgia, USA. He has published work in the Journal of American Drama and Theatre, The Routledge Companion to African American Theatre&Performance, Continuum: The Journal of African Diaspora Drama, Theatre and Performance, and is a regular contributor to Black Masks.
Martine Kei Green-Rogers is the Dean of The Theatre School at DePaul University, USA, freelance dramaturg, and Past-President of the Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas (LMDA). Her publications include "Talkbacks for 'Sensitive Subject Matter' Productions: The Theory and Practice" in The Routledge Companion to Dramaturgy and "A New Noble Kinsmen: The Play On! Project and Making New Plays Out of Old" in Theatre History Studies.
William C. Boles is the Hugh F. and Jeannette G. McKean Chair of English at Rollins College, USA. He edited After In-Yer-Face: Remnants of a Theatrical Revolution and authored The Argumentative Theatre of Joe Penhall and Understanding David Henry Hwang. He is the director of the Comparative Drama Conference.
Anja Hartl is Assistant Professor at the Department of English at the University of Innsbruck, Austria. She is the author of Brecht and Post-1990s British Drama: Dialectical Theatre Today and editor of the Methuen Drama Student Edition of The Threepenny Opera. Her research focuses on contemporary British theatre, Victorian fiction and adaptation studies. She co-edits the Methuen Drama Agitations Series.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations
Notes on Contributors
Preface
Acknowledgments

Introduction, DeRon S. Williams (Loyola University Chicago, USA), Khalid Y. Long (University of Georgia, USA), and Martine Kei Green-Rogers (DePaul University, USA)

PART I: STAGE AS A SITE OF RADICAL POSSIBILITIES

1. Sweat Equity: Lynn Nottage's Radical Dialectic of Deindustrialization, Jocelyn L. Buckner (Chapman University, USA)
2. "Those Songs Were More than Just": Spirituals, Queer Reckonings and Tarell Alvin McCraney's Choir Boy, Isaiah Matthew Wooden (Swarthmore College, USA)
3. Trauma, Truth, and Turning the Lens: Black Theater Artists and White Theater Audiences, Suzanne Delle, (York College of Pennsylvania, USA), and Loretta Brady (Saint Anselm College, USA)
In The Trenches: A Conversation with Christina Anderson, DeRon S. Williams (Loyola University Chicago, USA)

PART II: PERFORMANCE IN THE MAKING

4. Re-Writing the Declaration: Healing In Theater From A Black, Queer, Feminist Lens, Quenna Barrett (NYU Steinhardt, USA)
5. ineffable dramaturgies: Experiments in Black Queer and Trans Liberation On and Off Stage, s.e. callender (Independent Scholar/Artist, Canada)
6. Reconsidering and Recasting, Ray Proctor (Tulane University, USA)
7. We are the Canon: Anti-Racist Theatre Pedagogy, Maya Johnson (Independent Scholar and Practitioner, USA), Daphnie Sicre (Loyola Marymount University, USA), and Karl O'Brian Williams (NYU, USA)
In The Trenches: A Conversation with Donja R. Love, Martine Kei Green-Rogers (DePaul University, USA)

PART III: PERFORMANCE AND/AS PROTEST

8. (W)right Of Way: Black Geographies and American Interstates, Jenny Henderson (Tufts University, USA)
9. Honk for Justice, Jocelyn Prince (Northwestern University, USA), and Harvey Young (Boston University, USA)
10. Serena Williams' Sonic Refusal, Leticia Ridley (Santa Clara University, USA)
11. Cancel Culture, Digital Blackface, and Internalized Anti-Blackness, Aviva Helen Neff (Columbus College of Art and Design, USA)
In The Trenches: A Conversation with Willa J. Taylor, Khalid Y. Long (University of Georgia, USA)

Bibliography
Index