Continuing the work from her earlier book, The Secret Messages in African American Theater: Hidden Meanings Embedded in Public Discourse (Edwin Mellen, 2006) this text, Through Smiles and Tears: the History of African American Theater contextualizes West, East and South African performance traditions of old that contributed to the formation of African American performance traditions. From the development of musical instruments, to the creation of song styles and cadence, to the playful comic parody that would serve as modest entertainment for hundreds of thousands of Negroes in the plantation...