Though known primarily as a poet, Langston Hughes crafted well over 40 theatrical works. This book examines Hughes's stage pieces from his first published play, The Gold Piece (1921), through his post-radical wartime effort, For This We Fight (1943). Hughes's plays of this period reflect the influence of folk drama, Russian constructivist theatre, and black history. The Broadway run of Mulatto (1935), a tragic protest melodrama, earned Hughes national recognition. McLaren demonstrates that Hughes's folk comedies, such as Mule Bone (1930) and Little Ham (1936), valorize folk humor and black...

This definitive history of African-American theatre embraces companies from across the U.S., as well as the anglophone Caribbean and African-American companies touring Europe, Australia and Africa. Representing a catholicity of styles, from African ritual to European forms, amateur to professional, and political nationalism to integration, the volume covers all aspects of performance. It includes minstrel, vaudeville, and cabaret acts, as well as shows written by whites that used black casts.

The blackface minstrel show occupies a central and contested space in the history of American popular culture. Its imitations and parodies helped shape society's perceptions of African Americans--and of women--and made their mark on national identity, policymaking decisions, and other entertainment forms such as vaudeville, burlesque, the revue, and, eventually, film, radio, and television. Gathered here are rare primary materials-- including firsthand accounts of minstrel shows, minstrelsy guides, jokes, sketches, and sheet music--and the best of contemporary scholarship.