Book contents
- The Cambridge Companion to African American Theatre
- Cambridge Companions to Theatre and Performance
- The Cambridge Companion to African American Theatre
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Notes on Contributors
- Acknowledgments
- Chronology
- Introduction
- Chapter 1 Slavery, Performance, and the Design of African American Theatre
- Chapter 2 Slave Rebellions on the National Stage
- Chapter 3 Early Black Americans on Broadway
- Chapter 4 Drama in the Harlem Renaissance
- Chapter 5 The Negro Little Theatre Movement
- Chapter 6 Black Women Dramatists, 1930–1960
- Chapter 7 Amiri Baraka and the Black Arts Movement
- Chapter 8 Fragmented Musicals and 1970s Soul Aesthetic
- Chapter 9 Spectacles of Whiteness from Adrienne Kennedy to Suzan-Lori Parks
- Chapter 10 African American Performance and Community Engagement
- Chapter 11 Women Playwrights Who Cross Cultural Borders
- Chapter 12 African Diaspora Drama
- Chapter 13 Black Theatre in the Age of Obama
- Chapter 14 Staging Black Lives Matter
- Chapter 15 Contemporary Black Queer Drama
- Chapter 16 African American Dance Theatre
- Index
Chapter 12 - African Diaspora Drama
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 08 June 2023
- The Cambridge Companion to African American Theatre
- Cambridge Companions to Theatre and Performance
- The Cambridge Companion to African American Theatre
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Notes on Contributors
- Acknowledgments
- Chronology
- Introduction
- Chapter 1 Slavery, Performance, and the Design of African American Theatre
- Chapter 2 Slave Rebellions on the National Stage
- Chapter 3 Early Black Americans on Broadway
- Chapter 4 Drama in the Harlem Renaissance
- Chapter 5 The Negro Little Theatre Movement
- Chapter 6 Black Women Dramatists, 1930–1960
- Chapter 7 Amiri Baraka and the Black Arts Movement
- Chapter 8 Fragmented Musicals and 1970s Soul Aesthetic
- Chapter 9 Spectacles of Whiteness from Adrienne Kennedy to Suzan-Lori Parks
- Chapter 10 African American Performance and Community Engagement
- Chapter 11 Women Playwrights Who Cross Cultural Borders
- Chapter 12 African Diaspora Drama
- Chapter 13 Black Theatre in the Age of Obama
- Chapter 14 Staging Black Lives Matter
- Chapter 15 Contemporary Black Queer Drama
- Chapter 16 African American Dance Theatre
- Index
Summary
Sandra L. Richards shares a hemispheric approach to understanding African American theatre. Centering the writings of Canadian, US, and Caribbean playwrights, she moves not only across the Americas but also the twentieth century. Richards identifies the similar concerns of geographically and temporally separated playwrights as markers of African Diaspora drama. Among the salient features of this category, which includes dramatic works by Amiri Baraka, Djanet Sears, August Wilson, and Aimé Césaire, among others, are plays that retain African cultural elements, depict resistance to colonial governing, and circulate a common or shared understanding of the operations of Blackness within a particular political moment.
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- Information
- The Cambridge Companion to African American Theatre , pp. 232 - 257Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2023