Profiles of African American Stage Performers and Theatre People, 1816-1960 - by Bernard L Peterson (Hardcover)

About the Book

This directory includes over 500 African American performers and theater people who have made a significant contribution to the American stage from the early 19th century to the beginning of the civil rights movement of the 1960s. Entries provide succinct biographical and theatrical information gathered from a variety of sources including library theater and drama collections, dissertations and theses, newspaper and magazine reviews and criticism, theater programs, theatrical memoirs, and earlier performing arts directories. Among the professional artists included in this volume are performers, librettists, lyricists, directors, producers, choreographers, stage managers, and musicians. The individuals profiled represent almost every major category and genre of the professional, semiprofessional, regional, and academic stage including minstrelsy, vaudeville, musical theater, and drama. Persons of historical significance are included as well as those stars and theatrical personalities that were well known during their time but who are relatively forgotten today.

This comprehensive volume will appeal to theater and musical theater, Black studies, and American studies scholars. Cross-referenced throughout, this reference also includes an extensive bibliography and appendices of other theater personalities excluded from the main text. Separate indexes list the personalities, teams and partnerships, and performing groups, organizations, and companies.

Book Synopsis

This directory includes over 500 African American performers and theater people who have made a significant contribution to the American stage from the early 19th century to the beginning of the civil rights movement of the 1960s. Entries provide succinct biographical and theatrical information gathered from a variety of sources including library theater and drama collections, dissertations and theses, newspaper and magazine reviews and criticism, theater programs, theatrical memoirs, and earlier performing arts directories. Among the professional artists included in this volume are performers, librettists, lyricists, directors, producers, choreographers, stage managers, and musicians. The individuals profiled represent almost every major category and genre of the professional, semiprofessional, regional, and academic stage including minstrelsy, vaudeville, musical theater, and drama. Persons of historical significance are included as well as those stars and theatrical personalities that were well known during their time but who are relatively forgotten today.

This comprehensive volume will appeal to theater and musical theater, Black studies, and American studies scholars. Cross-referenced throughout, this reference also includes an extensive bibliography and appendices of other theater personalities excluded from the main text. Separate indexes list the personalities, teams and partnerships, and performing groups, organizations, and companies.

Review Quotes

?[u]seful for students, researchers, and scholars with an interest in the theatre. In addition, it will serve those libraries that want to build their African American collection. Highly recommended for academic reseach collections.?-Reference & User Services Quarterly

?Academic libraries or large public libraries with interest in stage history or African American studies should get this expensive volume.?-Catholic Library World

?An important reference work for students and scholars of both American culture and African-American history, highly recommended for undergraduate and research libraries.?-Choice

"Ýu¨seful for students, researchers, and scholars with an interest in the theatre. In addition, it will serve those libraries that want to build their African American collection. Highly recommended for academic reseach collections."-Reference & User Services Quarterly

"Academic libraries or large public libraries with interest in stage history or African American studies should get this expensive volume."-Catholic Library World

"An important reference work for students and scholars of both American culture and African-American history, highly recommended for undergraduate and research libraries."-Choice

"[u]seful for students, researchers, and scholars with an interest in the theatre. In addition, it will serve those libraries that want to build their African American collection. Highly recommended for academic reseach collections."-Reference & User Services Quarterly

About the Author

BERNARD L. PETERSON, JR. is Professor Emeritus of English and Drama at Elizabeth City State University. He is the author of Contemporary Black American Playwrights and Their Plays (Greenwood, 1988), Early Black American Playwrights and Dramatic Writers (Greenwood, 1990), A Century of Musicals in Black and White (Greenwood, 1993), and The African American Theatre Directory, 1816-1960 (Greenwood, 1997).