Lewis Alexander, "Plays of Negro Life: A Survey" (1929)
A Survey
By Lewis Alexander
PLAYS of Negro Life are now recognized as an important factor in the development of a native American drama. The first real step in this direction was evinced by the successful staging of three plays of Negro life by the Hapgood Players in 1917. These plays, which were written by Ridgley Torrence, were Granny Maumee, The
Rider of Dreams, and Simon the Cyrenian. For the first time in the history of the American stage, Negroes were seen on Broadway in serious Drama. These plays created a new interest in Negro life as a source of material for literary treatment. Dramatic groups in practically all the Negro colleges in the country, following the lead of Howard University of Washington, D. C, and Fisk University of Nashville, Tennessee, staged these plays by Torrence and several community groups throughout the states adopted them as their medium. Already a few race writers had modestly turned their attention to Negro Folk Plays but with little or no encouragement. The plays which they wrote were equally as good and in some instances better than these which reach public approval to- day. Joseph Seaman Cotter, Jr., left us enough plays of Negro life for a book. Paul Laurence Dunbar wrote several plays of Negro life. Mary P. Burrill, Carrie Williams Clifford and E. C. Williams were writing Plays of Negro Life long before the dawn of this Negro Literary Renaissance. I shall never forget Williams' The Sheriff's Children, or Carrie Clifford's Tradition. Both pioneer plays indeed. Willis Richardson, our foremost playwright of the younger group, was discovered and encouraged by Miss Burrill and can unerringly be called her protege. Eloise Bibb Thompson, Alice Dunbar Nelson and others of less prominence were writing plays of Negro life long before this present Negrophile movement. The Negro Folk Play, the last development of this new era, was the first to discard its faddistic shackles and step into the rank of legitimate art. The novels of Negro life are largely responsible for the sudden rise of Plays of Negro Life; for the one very creditably supported and accounted for the existence of the other. Porgy very adequately exemplifies this claim.
Nothing has done more to incite interest among race writers, in the possibilities of the Folk Play than the literary prizes offered in recent contests by Opportunity Magazine and The Crisis. It was the faith and vision of Casper Holstein which made this possible for Opportunity to do and the love and untiring interest of the Spingarns which made it possible for The Crisis. The contests and prizes offered reassured the race writers that it was worth while; for some of them whom I have previously mentioned had been writing a decade or more with little or no attention at all. The new spirit of the contests reincarnated the old writers and moved aspiring young dreamers to take up their pens andwrite. Consequently, G. D. Lipscomb of Marshall, Texas, Zora Neale Hurston of Jacksonville, Fla., May Miller of Washington, D. C, andBaltimore, Md., Frank Wilson of New York, John Matheus of WestVirginia, Eulalie Spence of New York, Marita Bonner of Washington, D. C, and Roxbury Mass., Warren A. McDonald, Georgia Douglas Johnson, Willis Richardson, Brenda Ray Moryck and a host of others who had not been heard of before, won prizes for very creditable workand are still attracting attention, being included in such works as Shay's Representative One Act Plays and Locke and Gregory's Plays of Negro Life.
The work of Professors Koch and Paul Green plays an important part in the development of the Folk Drama. Paul Green's In Abraham'sBosom, which is a Pulitzer prize play, gained unstinted praise during its successful tour. The most representative plays of Negro life written by Negroes are found in Dr. Locke's and Prof. Gregory's book. Plays of Negro Life, which was recently published by Harper. The Negro Playwrights are coming into their own. The French Publishing company is issuing in pamphlet form the one act plays of Georgia Douglas Johnson
and Eulalie Spence. The Appleton Press has just accepted Mrs. Johnson's play Blue Blood for early publication. In addition to being our foremost poetess, Mrs. Johnson is also proving herself a playwright of quality.
The Krigwa Little Theatre Movement organized by Dr. DuBois is quite instrumental in maintaining interest in the Negro Play. As a result of this organization we have branches in all the big cities in the country : Boston. Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia and Cleveland at present lead in this project. The Charles Gilpin Players, The Ethiopian Art Theatre School, The Maude Cuney Hare Players and The Dixwell Players are doing very creditable work. The Howard University Players, the oldest such organization in the country and the first to imbibe the idea of the establishment of a Negro Folk Theatre has almost completely died since Prof. Gregory resigned as its director and accepted a post in the Atlantic City Schools.
It is quite fitting that the Carolina Magazine, which for the past three years has devoted an entire issue to the works of the younger Negro writers, should enjoy the honor of a Negro Folk Play Issue, for the University of North Carolina, thru its organization The Carolina Playmakers has done more for the development of the folk play in America than any other University. The annual tour of the Playmakers is looked forward to with great anticipation. The appearance of this Negro Folk Play issue is but another of the many manifestations of the students of the University of North Carolina to keep their line of interest in the development of the Negro parallel with that of Paul Green, Howard Odum, White and Jackson, F. V. Calverton, E. L. C. Adams, Julia Peterkin, and others.
Published in The Carolina Magazine, April 1929
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- Lewis Alexander (1900-1945), Author Page Amardeep Singh