#BlackHistory337 - 8: Stageplays 10012026

URL

https://www.deviantart.com/hddeviant/journal/BlackHistory337---8%3A-Stageplays-1381899790

CONTENT

#BlackHistory337 is about the time outside the 28 days designated as Black History Month, an opportunity to celebrate the contributions of the Black community during the other 337 days of the year. Let's continue learning all year long, because history doesn't stop when February ends.

For this edition of #Black337 the focus is the stageplay. Now, any platform is a stage. From the elevated stages in Lincoln Center or the Metropolitan Opera , in downtown Manhattan, or in a high school's auditorium[place to hear] to a flat space aside a small town or a living room with the chairs or table cleared out. The stages are as old as the main halls of the pharaohs of yore or the fields where entertainers would perform dramas before kings or queens existed. And plays, come in all forms, from one person shows to musicals.

For the purpose of Black337 we will focus on Stageplays in the USA made by Black Americans whose forebears were enslaved or enslaved themselves.

One of the earliest stages for Black people in the United States of America is the African Grove Theatre[ 1820-1821] started by George A. Thompson jr. [located at 38 Thompson Street] In such a place, Thompson jr. wrote "King Shotoway". It is not available, or has been lost in time.

One of the people who saw plays at the African Grove Theatre was Ira Aldridge. (1807-1867) : first Black American honored by Haiti, King Frederick of Prussia honored him with the Prussian Gold Medal for Arts and Science.

https://www.nypl.org/events/tours/audio-guides/100-century-collections-community-and-creativity/item/19625

Alongside Ira Aldridge in Europe was Victor Sejour (1817 1874), arguably the French parallel. Sejour, author of the Mulatre, one of the earliest books published by a Black American, was born in New Orleans. Like Aldridge he fled the U.S.A. for Europe and was honored in Europe, a chevalier. The last thirty eight years of his life , Sejour wrote or acted in plays in Paris.

La Mulatre from Sejour

https://aalbc.com/tc/blogs/entry/495-le-mul%C3%A2tre-from-victor-s%C3%A9jour-two-versions-split-by-an-essay/

While Aldridge or Sejour fled the USA and its white populace for Europe, to gain the ability to lift their head. William Well Brown (1814-1884) born in Kentucky, escaped enslavement to whites after twenty years and lived in the U.S.A. He wrote a play "The Escape; or, A Leap for Freedom". I quote the beginning of the preface.

• This play was written for my own amusement, and not with the remotest thought that it would ever be seen by the public eye. I read it privately, however, to a circle of my friends, and through them was invited to read it to a Literary Society. Since then, the drama has been given in various parts of the country.

And I quote the end of the preface.

• The play, no doubt, abounds in defects, but as I was born in slavery, and never had a day's schooling in my life, I owe the public no apology for errors

Internet Archive with a photocopied version of Black Theatre USA. The link goes ot page 37 where, The Escape, begins.

https://archive.org/details/blacktheatreusar00/page/37/mode/2up

In the year 1865 , the War Between the States ended in the USA. At the end of said war over ninety percent of Black people in the United States of America were illiterate because of the anti-literacy positions by whites who owned blacks. Around the year 1910, two thirds of the Black populace in the USA could read while ninety five percent of the Black populace in the USA in the time frame had no financial support or opportunity or allowance while citizens of the USA.

In the light of that environment, as a contrast, musical comedy's thrived. Acts like the Hyers Sisters Combination produced Urlina, the African Princess. Sam Lucas, the black minstrel, with Sam Jack, white theater owner, created the very successful "The Creole Burlesque Show" . Egbert Williams (1876 - 1921) and George Walker (1872-1911) created a comedy show that used various Black entertainers to highlight their skills. Williams and Walker worked with: writer Jesse Shipp, composer Will Cook, lyricist Paul Dunbar. [ husband of writer Alice Dunbar Nelson, who is a great short story muse for me] created "In Dahomey, a Negro Musical Comedy"(1902); the play was performed in front of the royal family of England, and had a four year run in the United States.

• Poster for the London premiere of "In Dahomey at the Shaftesbury Theatre, 1903. The poster features the famous cake walk with Bert Williams, acclaimed comedian, at the top of the cake.

• George Walker, Adah Overton Walker, and Bert Williams link arms and dance the cakewalk in the first Broadway musical to be written and performed by African Americans, "In Dahomey."

But one of the most vital stageplay forms in the late 1800s or early 1900s is Pageants. No not beauty pageants but stage pageants. Usually they reenact historical events with narration , costumes , dancing , music. The Wizard of Oz was made into a bawdy play that essentially was a pageant. W.E.B. Dubois(1868-1963), yes a founder of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, made a pageant called the "Star of Ethiopia" (1913), seen by tens of thousands, prepared by several thousand(for example 200 singers in the chorus).

• 1916 philadelphia performance

• "A group of 200 out of the 1,078 participants", Philadelphia, 1916

Three years after the Star of Ethiopia , Angelina Weld Grimke(1880-1958) wrote Rachel (1916). The earliest complete drama for the stage written by a black women in the United States of America.

The first modern production of Rachel was in 1990 at Spelman college.

• Unknown date photo of Grimke

Full Text of Rachel

https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Rachel_(Grimke_1920)

In 1921 Shuffle Along was produced. The book is from F.E. Miller plus Aubrey Lyles. The music is from Eubie Blake. The lyrics are from Noble Sissle. It ran for 504 shows. It was the earliest broadway work for Josephine Baker(Would move to France and become an icon of film and stage), Paul Robeson(legendary lawyer/singer/athlete/shakesperean actor/made famous Showboat), Fredi Washington (the first peola [of "immitation of life"] in film), Florence Mills (legendary performer who died young), Adelaide Hall (was a great jazz entertainer and did the same as Josephine Baker). The song "I'm just wild about Harry" sung by Michigan J. Frog , comes from this play.

• Sheet music for "Love Will Find a Way", a song from the show

• Cover page for "I'm Just Wild About Harry", 1921

Looking at the history of these early works you can see how multiform or imaginative while commenting Black Stageplay productions were in the past, even if the environment was a challenge.

I used the book "Black Theatre USA", "The Early Period 1847-1938" from James V. Hatch plus Ted Shine as a reference for most of the information stated. The images come from Wikipedia.

GALLERY OF INSPIRED WORK

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Literature

Onto the 53rd Annual President's Play

Onto the 53rd Annual President's Play from Richard Murray CHARACTERS Fofo, Caribbean Sovereign League Chief Commander Tonton, her husband Billy, an electrical humanoid servant SETTING In a vehicle with two bench seats, driven by Billy, through the celebrating ways in the air or on the ground between buildings. Fofo and Tonton are in the back seat, wearing blue and white clothes to honor Iemanja. They are being driven to the 53rd annual President's Play at the main stage in the Castle Blanco, in Nova York City, the capitol of the Union de Stados Americanos, during the first day of the Tides of Yemanja, February second being the Lavagem de Iemanja, in the year 2217. ACT (Tonton looks toward his window as the sound of people cheering partying or celebrating emanates. He slowly or gently closes the window and turns to Fofo; the cheering isn't muted but at a whisper. She is smiling gently while introspective. They hold each other's hand. Their official pirate hats are on

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Literature

Dawanga

DAWANGA The Eternal Light by Richard Murray CAST Father - middle aged, metal eye, dark chocolate skin Sweetie - daughter of father, elementary school age, dark chocolate skin, bright green eyes Scene 1 Setting The attic of a large multilevel old barn. One side of the attic has patchwork working bulky electronic equipment including: a battery series for electric power in a bookshelf, a view screen atop a book cart, a set of signal readers in a former 1940's grand radio, a pulse receiver housed in a former grandfather clock. The other side of the room has a dusty bed, chair, table, mini bookshelf with books, three boxes each with a bucket. The room is split by worn dusters and mops. Afternoon light from an oculus above shine in between the electronics. A chime from the signal machinery in the grandfather click housing emit every minute. (The signal chime activate. Five minutes later steps are heard coming up stairs. The attic door is knocked until broken in.

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Literature

The Journey of Sofie Wakten to become a witch

The Journey of Sofie Wakten to become a witch Told in three plays, one for knowledge, one for determination, one for faith From Richard Murray TITLE: THE INITIATION Cast Sofie Wakten- Irish descent, sixteen year old, dark red hair, female Candace Sahar- descended of enslaved [USA] descent, thirty one, afro, female, wear's an initiate's ring[ a gold ring with three rods: black(knowledge), red(determination), yellow(faith)] The Very Large Giant Soldier of the little people from Nibiru- the guide for Candace Setting A dry summer afternoon in an apartment in a greystone mansion in 1966 Bronzeville Chicago. The sitting room in Candace Sahar's apartment has a mahogany table, two chairs, three open bay windows delivering light. Two side windows are jalousie windows; their louvers are adjusted open. The central window is a casement window of float glass with hinges on the side.   The sounds of Gospel side Blues side Jazz  collide into a beautiful sonocopia through the bay windows onto

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Literature

WHICH SUN IS FUN

TITLE: WHICH SUN IS FUN SUBTITLE: A Play Of Measures from Richard Murray / HDdeviant CAST: Edubrer Rabbit - Dark brown swamp rabbit, a large cottontail, baseball jacket of the SweetBees Stingers Wise Alek - Rabbit, big feet or ears like a hare, a shirt pastel colored, a small tie, overbite teeth Phillipe Saddletear - A bird shaped like a common raven, medium magenta breast or belly or flank, maroon colored wings, dark magenta tarsus, red eye patch over right eye, black beak, mechanical left talon, green eyes Viz - Short for Videlicet, a magnifying lens in a frame, no handle SETTING: Outside one of the boundaries of the Sweet Swamp. Onto a plain. The back of the stage thick green of the Sweet Swamp. Viz is sleep on the right side of the stage. PLAY: Enter Alek, Edubrer, Saddletear [ from the right side of the back stage] laughing side to side. Alek's right paw out wise, left paw over the shoulder of Edubrer, Edubrer's right paw is over the shoulder of Alek

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Literature

The Asteroid of Dr Makup

TITLE:  The Asteroid of Dr Makup  SUBTITLE: a possibility hidden among the rocks in the sky  from Richard Murray / @HDdeviant   /RichardMurrayHumblr     CAST:  Newton Noir- man, 20s, traveling at the edge of trafficked space in hibernation, African American  Dr. Makup- female, middle aged, unknown origins but sexy African facial features, slightly round belly  Adam- assistant to Dr. Makup, human form robot, plain human characteristics, appear like a Nuba from Kemet/Egypt     SETTING: Left, Right, Back, Front by Viewers perspective. The back wall is like the inside of a stone quarry, the left wall has a rocky irregular shape, a protrusion of stone, like a small hill, taller than a basketball center at its maximum height. The right wall is bare.      ACT     The sliding sound of two dragging something metal on a rocky surface, from the open main vestibule.     Enter Dr. Makup and Adam, dragging the pod Newton Noir is in, Newton is sleeping.     Dr. Makup, stopping: OK Adam [ Makup stop

MONTHLY CONTENT

The following is a stageplay from Richard Murray @HDdeviant

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Literature

CUMYA CHILDREN

TITLE: CUMYA CHILDREN subtitle: A Black Fable

BLACK THEATRICAL CONTENT

List of ALL BLACK BROADWAY PLAYS

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:All-Black_cast_Broadway_shows

#BlackHistory337 2026-2027 #1

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#BlackHistory337 2026-2027 #2

Apr 1, 2026

#BlackHistory337 2026-2027 #3

May 1, 2026

#BlackHistory337 2026-2027 #4

Jun 2, 2026

#BlackHistory337 5 : Fables

Jul 4, 2026

#BlackHistory337 6 : Fictional Slave Narratives

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#BlackHistory337 - 7: High Fantasy

Sep 1, 2026

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