Honoring Black Theater, Past and Present

Dear Friends,
Happy February and happy Black History Month! We are continuing our research into The Federal Theatre Project, and this month discussed the Negro Theatre Unit's production of "Voodoo Macbeth". If you're unfamiliar, the Federal Theatre Project supported 17 "Negro Theatre Units" around the country to put Black performers back to work during the Great Depression. The Orson-Welles-directed production of Macbeth in 1936 was a sensation. Check out a short clip of the piece here.

Crowds gather outside the Lafayette Theatre on opening night of Macbeth, April 14, 1936. Photo via Library of Congress.

Our Cold Readings are also still going strong. We recently finished enjoying our way through the Jeremy O. Harris-curated Golden Collection. This play collection aimed to put important plays by prominent Black writers into libraries and schools and homes across the country.

The Golden Collection includes:

• Slave Play by Jeremy O. Harris
• Les Blancs by Lorraine Hansberry
• The Colored Museum by George Costello Wolfe
• An Octoroon by Branden Jacobs Jenkins
• Sweat by Lynn Nottage
• A Collection of Plays (Wedding Band and Trouble in Mind) by Alice Childress
• Fucking A by Suzan-Lori Parks
• We Are Proud to Present a Presentation by Jackie Sibblies Drury
• The Mountaintop by Katori Hall
• Is God Is by Aleshea Harris
• Fires in the Mirror by Anna Deavere Smith
• Funnyhouse of a Negro by Adrienne Kennedy
• For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide / When the Rainbow Is Enuf by Ntozake Shange
• Bootycandy by Robert O’Hara
• Dream on Monkey Mountain by Derek Walcott

With each play we explored, we also encouraged attendees to donate to The National Black Theatre, an organization dedicated to “theatre that enhances African American cultural identity by telling authentic, autonomous, multifaceted stories of the Black experience.”

However you celebrate Black history this month and every month, we hope you'll include the incredible theater by Black artists present and past.

Ps. The FTP Book Club is in Full Swing! Our Federal Theatre Project book club is about halfway through Susan Quinn’s Furious Improvisation and enjoying the great conversations our readings have inspired! Though we are coming to the end of this particular book, we have plenty of more readings and discussions planned for the rest of 2022. Want to get involved? Email [email protected] to learn more!