By Travis Ballenger, Senior New Play Producing Fellow
As you may know, I've been traveling around a bit discussing Black Theater. I'm attempting to learn about the ecology of Black Theater from the major players. In January, I am line-producing a symposium on Black American Playwrights and the new play development infrastructure. We are focusing on the issues facing these playwrights. I'm particularly interested in what stories they feel they are allowed to tell.
I've learned a lot over the past couple of months. Some of these ideas are new and I'm trying to find ways for them to fit. Others, I've heard a thousand times. Here are some of the issues, as I've heard them:
Being Black in a LORT World
Speaking with some Black theater professionals, I've heard that Black playwrights have difficulty maintaining their voice in a LORT theater world. The argument has been made, mostly by Black theater artists, that theaters have a difficult time understanding, artistically, what to do with their shows. I've heard the complaint that LORT theaters take a play by a Black playwright with an all black cast and hire a white director, white dramaturg, and white designers. The artist has to fight to have Black people on the creative team. There is the argument that without a black creative team, you lose the 1st voice, and risk missing a certain level of authenticity.
The Black Aesthetic, What is it?
In one of my trips, a Black theater scholar and director discussed the need to find a way to categorize and articulate the Black Aesthetic. This is what I was discussing above. He said that we don't have the language to discuss what Black playwrights are doing in Black theater now. By we, he meant producers, directors, playwrights, critics, anyone really.
He says it's a matter of terms: Black Theater, Black American Theater, and American Theater. Black Theater, or Theater of the Diaspora, uses those African qualities that have stood the test of time. He says there is something inside every Black person that makes them African. These traits express themselves in Black fashion, black art, and, mostly, in the black church. He argues that by looking at this type of Black Theater, pure Black theater, would be closely related to the theater in Jamaica, Britain, Africa, etc--all over the diaspora--because they share a common ancestor.
Black American Theater is theater that is western in structure, but deals with Black issues. In Britain, it would be Black British Theater, or in Spain, Black Spanish Theater. Stylistically, not very different then work by their counterparts, but the content is Black.
American Theater is theater that is truly western in structure and doesn't focus on black issues. This is deemed Black Theater because the playwright is Black or the actors are Black.
He's saying the term Black Theater has become pointless because it means so many different things. He argues that we need to tease out what Black Theater is before we have a conversation about what it needs. With this, there is the assumption that black theater is just one thing.
The Black Audience
What is the role of the black audience in these issues? In a recent conversation, an Artistic Director of a mid-sized Black Theater expressed the need for new plays. This person, however, went on to discuss her audience's dislike of "out of the box" work. To her, the Black audience was only interested in a very specific type of work. She wanted work that hinted at Christian beliefs, that had a complete westernized story arc, and was conservative in it's use of "profane" language and subject matter.
The Black audience was often times referred to as the "Church-going" audience, "the women with the hats". There is the belief that the black audience won't enjoy work that is too "avant-garde" or that shows blackness in a negative light. This artistic director said that she wouldn't produce this work. It's important to note that the fact that LORT theaters were producing this type of work was deemed wrong. Somehow, because of the majority White LORT theater audience, producing a piece that displayed Black people in a less than positive way hurt the Black community.
In the same vain, a major presenter, argued the lack of theater knowledge that the black theater going audience has. He says that there is a need to connect the work of the writers of the 60's and 70's to the writers now. He argues that contemporary Black playwrights are responding to the work of playwrights before. He says that audiences are more familiar with those earlier playwrights than the new writers. "There needs to be a connection between Charles Fuller and Lynn Nottage", he said.
Sell My Show, Not Me!
The Black Tax rears it's ugly head. Some artists discussed the fact that LORT theaters are not able to sell their shows. They felt that in order to have their work sold, they had to do more press and marketing work than their white counterparts. These Black artists were disturbed by the fact that they were expected to go to the Black churches, but the other artists were not doing that type of community outreach for their own shows.
In The End
I don't know what will fix Black Theater. I'm not completely sure what is broken. It feels like we need to find a way to have conversation. To, as they did in Quality of Life, talk across the divide. I do, however, have great hope. We're all on the same team, but it's going to take some work to play ball.
Very interesting take Travis. I am really intrigued by some of the issues that were brought up. I think that there is a lot of truth here. Like I said before, we really need make individual decisions, not collective ones, on what "Black theatre" is. It is the responsibility of each theater and their audience to define the aesthetic that serves them the best.
Posted by: Jamil Jude | December 31, 2009 at 05:05 PM