The first definitive account of African-American performance and theatre from slavery to the present.Download DescriptionThis is the first definitive history of African-American theatre. The text embraces a wide geography, investigating companies from coast to coast as well as the anglophone Caribbean and African American companies touring Europe, Australia, and Africa. This history represents a catholicity of styles - from African ritual to European forms, from amateur to professional, and from political nationalism to integration. It covers nearly two and a half centuries of black performance and production with issues of gender, class, and race ever in attendance. The volume encompasses aspects of performance such as minstrel, vaudeville, cabaret acts, musicals and opera. Shows by white playwrights that used black casts, particularly in music, dance are included, as are performances of western classics and a host of Shakespeare productions.