THEA 211(S) Topics in African-American Performance: Theatre, Film, and Dance of the Harlem Renaissance (Same as American Studies 211)*

From 1919 to 1929, Harlem in New York City was "in vogue." The rate of African-American cultural production of theatre, film, and dance was astounding during this period, known also as The Negro Awakening and the Decade of the New Negro. At the onset of the decade, there were around twenty published plays by African-Americans; by the end, the number increased to over eighty. W. E. B. Du Bois, in his tireless promotion of African-American artists, put out the call for plays to "depict our life, experience and humor." Twenty plays with African-American themes appeared on Broadway, five written by African-Americans. The Broadway theatre pieces most often consisted of black musical revues-the precursors to the American musical-and featured the best black performers of the day in year-long runs. Most revues, such as Shuffle Along and Blackbirds, featured cakewalk and tap dancing and the music of the jazz age. In addition, African-American film production companies, makers of "race" films, were flourishing, headed by the visionary filmmaker Oscar Micheaux and numbering over one hundred by the end of the decade. In this course, we will explore these cultural productions of the era of the Harlem Renaissance in relation to their place in African-American performance history. What happened in African-American performance during this period has arguably influenced all black artistic production since then, and we will examine this argument in depth. In addition, we will consider the fluidity between the forms of theatre, film, and dance and also between performance and the thriving literary scene, with luminaries such as Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston, who both wrote plays as well as novels, poetry and essays. Students will be evaluated on the basis of class participation, presentations, and a semester-long research project. No prerequisites.

Hour: BEAN