Nearly two years ago, playwright August Wilson stunned the American
theatre community by charging that predominately white arts
organizations were guilty of undermining African American theater
companies. The charges — delivered at Princeton University before the
Theatre Communications Group, a leading nonprofit theater
organization–sparked a national debate about the role of African
American theater companies in American theater.
Black theater professionals credited the Pulitzer prize-winning
playwright for voicing a widely felt frustration with the nonprofit
theater establishment. The dilemma, Wilson and others argue, is that
while plays with Black themes and Black theater professionals have
enabled predominately White regional theaters to attract audiences and
subsidies from foundations and public agencies, funding organizations
have failed to support independent African American theater companies.
(For more detail see August 7, 1997 edition, Black Issues In Higher
Education.)
Earlier this month, two Dartmouth College professors organized a
national meeting on the future of African American theater. Dr. Victor
Leo Walker II, assistant professor of drama and film studies, and Dr.
William W. Cook, chair of the English department, put together a
six-day summit and conference at the Hanover, New Hampshire-based
campus that ran from March 2 to March 7. Wilson, who is at Dartmouth as
a Kenneth and Harle Montgomery Endowment fellow, served as the convener
of the six-day event.
“The purpose of the meeting [was] to devise plans for the African
American theater community. This [was] not a debate; it [was] a working
session,” Cook said.
More than forty leading Black theater artists, scholars, arts and
community organizers, entrepreneurs, and executives attended private
meetings during the initial five-day summit. More than 300 people
turned out for the one-day conference on March 7, titled “African
American Theatre: The Next Stage.” Event funding came from the
Rockefeller Foundation, the Ford Foundation, and Dartmouth University.
Proceedings began with closed-door sessions at Dartmouth’s Minary
Conference Center in Ashland, N.H. Participants discussed and presented
action plans on topics including audience development, legal issues,
finance, and Black playwright development. On Saturday, March 7, summit
participants returned to Dartmouth for the one-day conference, which
was open to the public and the news media.
Summit participant Dr. Samuel Hay, who is the author of African
American Theatre Historical and Critical Analysis, used the six-day
meeting to build support for the idea of a National Endowment for
African American Theater. Hay, who is professor of theater arts at
North Carolina A&T State University, aims to raise $25 million over
twenty-five years and use the endowment’s interest earnings to fund
African American theater companies.
