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Others, Adults, Censored: The Federal Theatre Project's Black Lysistrata Cancellation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 July 2009

Ron West
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Extract

Though it has been almost completely overlooked, the arbitrary cancellation of the Seattle Negro Repertory Company's 1936 Lysistrata provides a remarkable opportunity to explore the connections between a single, seemingly localized action and a network of socially, politically, and racially repressive forces. Lysistrata's closure on ostensibly moral grounds reveals the operation of a set of cultural and social controls masked as standards of decency. An array of racist assumptions as rigid as those anywhere in the country, though somewhat more subtle, obscured the generally repressive ends that the control system served, both in Seattle and nationwide. The incident thus provides clues to the institutionalized antireform mechanisms that soon coalesced in a successful congressional attack on the Works Project Administration's Federal Theatre Project (FTP), of which the Negro Repertory Company (NRC) was a major unit. The Lysistrata cancellation's connection with that broader offensive also demonstrates the manner in which Hallie Flanagan's “free, adult, uncensored” national theatre threatened the nation's essentially conservative political power structure and drew the decisive backlash that eventually overturned efforts at social change during the Depression Era.

Type
Articles
Information
Theatre Survey , Volume 37 , Issue 2 , November 1996 , pp. 93 - 113
Copyright
Copyright © American Society for Theatre Research 1996

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References

1. I have used the term “Negro” either in specific quotations or when it connects to a specific social context. For broader historical reference, I have used “black.” In the matter of quotation, it is instructive to note the frequent omission of the initial capital, in contrast to designations such as European; and I have retained “negro” whenever it occurs in sources cited here.

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4. Fraden's sole reference is in the statement that “[The Seattle Unit] produced a wide range of shows, from Little Black Sambo to Lysistrata…” (177).

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7. I have paraphrased Said (592) somewhat, but only as it relates to parallel literary and performative functions.

8. Said, 588.

9. Fabre, Geneviève, Drumbeats, Masks and Metaphor: Contemporary Afro-American Theatre, trans. Dixon, Melvin from Le théâtre noir aux États-Unis published by the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Paris, 1982 (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1983), 11Google Scholar.

10. Lorraine Brown, “Transcript of Interview with Theodore Browne,” 22 October 1975, Research Center for the Federal Theatre Project, George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia, 3, 6.

11. Brown, 7.

12. The fact that the cast was untrained is important and undermines perceptions and statements to the contrary. Fraden, for one, incorrectly remarks on how “…important was the large and talented pool of amateurs and professional black actors in Seattle…” (177). There was no pool of professional black actors, talented or otherwise. The lack of training or experience would make the task of memorizing either a nonadapted Lysistrata or Shakespearean texts unreasonably challenging.

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14. In fact, a review of available editions suggests that Browne referred to several versions. For example, he adopted Rogers' title convention Lysistrata of Aristophanes.

15. For several reasons, I have generally construed “available versions” to comprise editions available in the University of Washington library at the time. Though the Jameses retained copies of nearly every script they produced, including sources for adaptations, there is no copy of Lysistrata. Also, the Jameses' faculty positions at the University suggest a ready access to that source. Although Browne could have had his own copy, the Jameses' consistent practice in similar situations was to acquire from professional or academic sources, emphasizing the latter in the case of “classic” works.

16. Data compiled from nearly identical coverage in virtually all of Seattle's several newspapers. No precise records exist for the production.

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18. Florence Bean James, “Fists Upon A Star,” typescript, 192. Citations refer to a personal copy of Florence James' unpublished autobiography.

19. Donald Abel to Guy Williams, 18 September 1936, signed copy to Burton James. Burton Wakely James Papers, University of Washington Library, Manuscripts and Archives Section.

20. James, 192. George Hood was State WPA Director, and Guy Williams was the Seattle Unit Project Director.

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26. Cast member Ernestine Oliver specifically mentioned the difficulty she had coordinating rehearsals with her work as a domestic, alluding to similar situations for others in the cast (Washington Women's Heritage Project, University of Washington Library, Manuscripts and Archives Section).

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38. Interview of an anonymous spectator by the author, 16 November 1991. Though a number of ethical reasons requires me to maintain this person's privacy, it is important to note that he was a longtime resident of Seattle at the time of the performance; was, if anything, more actively supportive of the arts and creative freedom than many of his contemporaries; and was a member of the sponsoring Seattle Repertory Playhouse company at the time of the performance. The comment was especially remarkable in contrast to his vigorous defense of the production and the fact that he had actively supported the Negro Repertory Company from its beginning.

39. In Black Drama of the Federal Theatre Era (Amherst: The University of Massachusetts Press, 1980)Google Scholar, E. Quita Craig argues that this produces an estrangement in which the “…audience reacts uncomfortably to the disruptive influence of the vehicle for the expression…” (2). I would suggest that this is precisely the reaction produced in those who resented the Lysistrata's implications.

40. Christian, Barbara, Black Feminist Criticism: Perspectives on Black Women Writers, Athene Ser. (New York: Pergamon Press, 1985), 2–3. Christian provides a detailed analysis of the white dependence on the black “mammy” figure as an element basic to white social structure, serving much the same surrogate functionGoogle Scholar.

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43. Oriard, Michael, Sporting with the Gods: The Rhetoric of Play and Game in American Culture, Cambridge Studies in American Literature and Culture, ed. Gelpe, Albert, (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1991), 428Google Scholar. He provides a clear study of the projection of a spirit of play as it evolved from a nineteenth-century concept of women as playful (sexual) Other to Blacks as playful (racial) Other, culminating in the early twentieth-century racial/sexual composite.

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46. Christian, 2.

47. Gaffney, Floyd, “Black Theatre: Commitment and Communication,” The Black Scholar 1 (June 1970): 10–11CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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49. Sanders, 15.

50. Oriard, 429.

51. Johnson, 24.

52. The attribution appears in Florence James's unpublished memoir, Guy Williams' history of the project, and Evamarii Johnson's history.

53. James, 174, 5.

54. Contemporary critics viewed the 1932 Pulitzer Prize winner similarly, though casting it in a tragic light that ironically revealed its racist appeal. Charles Whitman provided a case in point with his description of the main character as “A latter day Moses whose…people do not wish to see the promised land” [Whitman, Charles Huntington, Representative Modern Dramas (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1936)], 915Google Scholar.

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56. O'Connor, 3.

57. Playhouse log, 15 September 1935.

58. Playhouse log, 31 October 1935.

59. Florence James, letter to “Josephine” [Burton James's sister Josephine (James) Thomson], 3 August 1936, Burton James Collection.

60. Reaction against Lefty was so strong that the editor of The Seattle Times called the SRP's publicist and assistant director to his office and demanded an “explanation” for the performance. Infuriated by the “radical” production, the Times placed the Playhouse under permanent boycott, refusing advertising or coverage of any sort (Playhouse log, 15 January 1936).

61. The caution was warranted. When the Lefty attacks began, two Playhouse board members, a judge and a prominent businessman, told the SRP directors that vigilante groups had been monitoring the company and circulating reports among various civic, business, and political organizations (Playhouse log, 17 January 1936).

62. Fraden, 199.

63. Fraden, 199.

64. The Argus, 31 October 1936, 5.

65. Wilson, Ann, The Seattle Star, 1 January 1937, 6Google Scholar.

66. Cited Johnson, 308.

67. Ross, Ronald, “The Role of Blacks in the Federal Theatre, 1933–1939,” The Theater of Black Americans, ed. Hill, Errol (Edgewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1980), 1:38Google Scholar.

68. Craig, 11.