HAVING OUR SAY Teacher Information Packet

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TEACHER INFORMATION PACKET

The Delany Sisters’ First 100 Years EMILY MANN SARAH L. DELANY AND A. ELIZABETH DELANY with AMY HILL HEARTH DIRECTED BY JADE KING CARROLL BY ADAPTED FROM THE BOOK BY

febRUARY 17 - march 13, 2016

g o r d o n ed el ste in artistic director

H

JOS HUA BOREN S T EIN managing director

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HAVING OUR SAY:

The Delany Sisters’ First 100 Years

BY EMILY MANN ADAPTED FROM THE BOOK BY SARAH L. DELANY & A. ELIZABETH DELANY with AMY HILL HEARTH DIRECTED BY JADE KING CARROLL FEBRUARY 17 - march 13, 2016 on the claire tow stage in the c. newton schenck II theatre

beth f. milles Director of Education Teacher Information Packet Compiled and Written by beth f. milles Director of Education madelyn ardito Education Programs Manager eliza orleans Resident Teaching Artist barbara sonenstein Resident Teaching Artist AURELIA CLUNIE Education Associate for Student Audiences (Hartford Stage)

L O N G W H A R F T H E AT R E G R A T E F U L LY A C K N O W L E D G E S THE GENEROSITY O F O U R E D U C AT I O N S U P P O R T E R S ANNA FITCH ARDENGHI TRUST ELIZABETH CARSE FOUNDATION Frederick A. Deluca Foundation THE GEORGE A. & GRACE L. LONG FOUNDATION Seedlings Foundation THEATRE FORWARD wells fargo foundation The Werth Family Foundation FOUNDING SUPPORTER OF LONG WHARF THEATRE’S VIDEO STUDY GUIDE AND SUPPORTER OF THE EDUCATORS’ LABORATORY

GORDON EDELSTEIN Artistic Director

JOSHUA BORENSTEIN MANAGING Director AND

DARKO TRESNJAK Artistic Director

HARTFORD STAGE

MICHAEL STOTTS MANAGING Director

PRESENT

HAVING OUR SAY:

THE DELANY SISTERS’ FIRST 100 YEARS

By EMILY MANN ADAPTED FROM THE BOOK by

SARAH L. DELANY AND A. ELIZABETH DELANY WITH AMY HILL HEARTH DIRECTED by

JADE KING CARROLL Set & PROJECTION Design Alexis Distler° Costume Design Karen Perry° Lighting Design Nicole Pearce° Sound Design Karin Graybash° COMPOSER Baikida Carroll Wig Design Carol “Cici” Campbell

ASSOCIATE PROJECTION Design PAUL PIEKARZ

Production Stage Manager Denise Cardarelli* Assistant Stage Manager Amy Patricia Stern* Casting by Laura Stanczyk Casting, CSA

CAST Miss Sadie Delany OlIvia Cole* Dr. BessIE Delany Brenda Pressley* * Member of Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States ° Member of United Scenic Artists, USA-829 of the IATSE This Theatre operates under an agreement between the League Of Resident Theatres and Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States.

contents

ABOUT THE PLAY 8 Characters and Setting

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About the Book

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About the Coproduction Between LWT and Hartford Stage

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An Interview with Playwright Emily Mann

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An Interview with Director Jade King Carroll

THE WORLD OF THE PLAY 18

Reflections: A Timeline

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The Delany Sisters’ Family Tree

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Jim Crow Laws

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The Harlem Renaissance

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African American Women and Suffrage

SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIALS 28

Changing and Staying the Same

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Current Events

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Black Theatre

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Oral History: Have Your Say!

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Write a Review!

36 Moments and Minutes Information 37

Theatre for Young Audiences Show

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For the First-Time Theatergoer

39 Citations

Look for this symbol to find discussion and writing prompts, CMT/CAPT-prep questions and classroom activities!

ABOUT THE

PLAY SADIE: Remember he would take us outside and teach us the names of the planets and stars.

BESSIE: Papa knew them all. He was so excited when Halley’s Comet came by.

SADIE: He had us all outside that night, and it was a sight to see, flickering light across the landscape. I remember Papa saying, “I don’t think any of us will be here to see Halley’s Comet the next time it comes around.”

BESSIE: Well, he was wrong about that.

– Having Our Say

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characters & S E T T I N G

Sadie Delany 103 years old

Dr. Bessie Delany 101 years old

Born Sarah Louise but always called Sadie. The second of ten children.

Older sister to Bessie Delany. Sweet, headstrong, and referred to as “the molasses to Dr. Bessie’s vinegar.” She was the first colored woman (a term she preferred) to teach home economics in white New York City schools. Sadie lived with Bessie for most of her life. They lived together in Mt. Vernon for 38 years.

Known as the feistier of the two sisters. Younger sister to Sadie. Annie Elizabeth Delany (known as Bessie) worked as a teacher to earn money for graduate school and went on to become the second black woman to work as a dentist in New York. She famously treated many of Harlem’s poor men and women and never raised her rates in 27 years. She retired from dentistry in 1950.

Setting: 1993. The living room, dining room, and kitchen of the Delany sisters’ home in Mt. Vernon, New York.

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ABOUT THE PLAY

ABOUT THE BOOK Having Our Say was co-written by the Delany sisters and author/journalist Amy Hill Hearth. It was published in 1993. The book, now part of curriculums at hundreds of colleges and high schools, was on The New York Times hardcover best-seller list for 113 weeks.

Today, the book has been translated into seven different languages and is studied in classrooms all over the world. Playwright Emily Mann adapted Having Our Say for Broadway in 1995.

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ABOUT THE coproduction between lwt & hartford stage

After Having Our Say concludes its run at Long Wharf, the entire production will move to Hartford Stage Company. This is particularly exciting because it means that even more people across the state of Connecticut will get to see the show!

theater is actually going to smell like the food that the Delany sisters are cooking onstage.

On the first day of rehearsal at Long Wharf, the actors, director, designers, and staff members from both theatres gathered together for a meet and greet.

Costume designer Karen Perry spoke about the clothes that the actresses will be wearing.

She spoke about how the Delany sisters were incredibly frugal and wore clothes that they knew they could keep for a long time. In the play, the sisters are cooking a meal in celebration of their late father and have invited a visitor (the audience) inside.

“We have essential oils that smell like the food, and we’ll use fans to send that into the audience.”

In the rehearsal room, director Jade King Carroll put up collages of people and events mentioned in the play—from the Delany sisters to W.E.B Du Bois to Marian Anderson.

“I like to surround us with the people we’re talking about,” she said.

“They’re not in pantsuits, but they do have company in their home. It’s a special occasion,” she said.

The designers took turns talking to the group about what the show will eventually look like, from the sets to the costumes to the lights. Alexis Distler, the set designer, spoke about how the

Actress Olivia Cole commented that she couldn’t believe how many people it was going to take to make Having Our Say happen. It’s true! It takes a hardworking, talented, and dedicated team.

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ABOUT THE PLAY

In the Classroom Activity: Imagine that you’re a designer (sets, props, costumes, lights, or sound) for Having Our Say. After learning more about the play and its history, how would you design it? Draw a picture or write a brief explanation of your choices.

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an interview with playwright/adaptor

EMILY MANN Reprinted with the permission of the McCarter Theatre Center.

This interview was conducted in 2009 during the revival of Having Our Say at the McCarter Theatre Center in Princeton, NJ.

Emily Mann

Q: The book of HAVING OUR SAY is filled with wonderful anecdotes and stories about the Delany sisters’ lives. Did you find it difficult to pick and choose which sections you would include in the stage version?

A: It was a very painful process. When I first started, it must have been about five or six hours long. There was so much I wanted to include, and I knew it could only be a third as long as it was. So it was a constant battle of distilling and cutting and shaping to find the essential form.

Q: Were there certain elements you felt were important to include?

A: Oh, absolutely. There are a number of very important elements. One of course is the whole question about tracing African-American history through the lives of the sisters and the memories of their parents so that you get a very long sweep of personal history.

Secondly, we’re looking at American women facing the barriers of discrimination against women. These are women whose father was born a slave, and then they become some of the first educated women, black or white, in this country. They went on to become often the first in their fields to do what they were doing. They were facing both the racial and the gender obstacles. That was something I wanted to make sure was in there loud and clear because it was a part of their daily lives. Then in terms of sticking with the social and political level, I wanted to include their memories of their parents. So we go back on their mother’s side to the War of 1812.

We tend to have a very unsophisticated and almost clichéd visions and images of what slavery days were about. The Delany sisters break these preconceived ideas. They challenge all of us to listen again from a very unique perspective about what happened. And because they were particularly fortunate, it puts into high relief the devastating effects that slavery and Emancipation had on other families. The Delany family had the opportunity before Emancipation to be educated - that was a big advantage. Also, their family was together.

They hadn’t been abused. Those things allowed them to go quickly into the professional classes. There were many intelligent and ambitious men and women who had three strikes against them when they started.

Reconstruction was an exciting time. Jim Crow destroyed the opportunities presented during those years just after the end of the Civil War. The Delanys’ experience both the excitement and “the day everything changed” (the misery of Jim Crow.)

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ABOUT THE PLAY

Beyond the political and the social, I just cared so much about them - humanly and spiritually. In so many ways, these women really tell us how to live. They’ve lived so well. They know how to love. This is a partnership of over a hundred years. It demonstrates a real lesson on how to live with somebody - whether it’s your best friend or your spouse or your sister or brother.

hard, but they remember everything perfectly!

Their sense of detail is extraordinary. Their sense of humor - I mean, I’m sure that’s why they’ve lived so long. They laughed more in the hour we were with them than most of us laugh in a week.

And they clearly adored each other, and that was a wonderful thing to see. And their dynamic with Amy [Hill Hearth, who wrote the book with them] was also marvelous. There’s a great deal of care and respect there.

Q: During the course of adapting HAVING OUR SAY for the stage, how did you make that leap from page to stage? Were there particular devices you felt were necessary to use to bring it alive for an audience?

A: Well it needed an action and an event. For that we use the element of cooking a celebratory dinner in honor of their father’s birthday.

I also felt that there needs to be a progression. Part of that is accomplished by having a visitor - us. There’s a relationship that grows between them and us.

While we listen, more and more is revealed.

Q. How did they feel about having their lives adapted into a play?

A: They were very excited about it.

They were just having such a great time with all of it.

As they say, “If you can help even just one person, it’s worth doing - that’s what Mama always said.” What I found so amazing was that having absorbed the book totally, I thought I would go and meet them and then see who they really were. But they were exactly who I thought they would be. It was just like meeting old friends - recognizing them and being with them. We just all connected on a very deep level. They’re extraordinary human beings.

Q: As part of your research for this production, you had a wonderful opportunity to meet with the Delany sisters. How did they come across to you?

A: I guess when I first met them what was most striking was I had never met anyone quite so old, and they were ancient women. But after speaking with them for, I would say, ten minutes, the age melted away. They were so young. They were so present, and so alive, and just looking into their eyes was not just an experience of great wisdom and experience, but so much light! They have memories better than mine, which I guess is not

Q: What are you hoping to accomplish with this new production? What is different about how you see the play now, 15 years later?

A: We are in a new era, with Obama now - the first African-American president in the White House. At the end of the play, Bessie says there’ll never be an African-American president and Sadie says “there will be,” and in fact, now there is.

The other thing is that Bessie and Sadie have

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If I think of my plays as children, then this is my sweetest child!

both died. This makes it like a new play: looking at who they are, and what they have contributed in a way that has to do with memory in a different way. Now, we’re remembering them as they remembered their lives and the lives of their relatives and ancestors. It takes on a kind of mystical quality that’s reflected in the new conception of the production.

On a very simple level, the design is different. Rather than it being in a circle -going from room to room to room - we’re going in one direction, and ending up in a more and more abstract space, because they are talking to us from a different vantage point.

It’s just so precious to hear their wisdom now, filtered through the last fifteen years of experience. We are coming to them in a different way. I think it will engender a lot of very interesting questions about the basics of “Who are we as Americans, at this moment in time?”; “Who were we?”; “Where’ve we been?”; “Where’re we now?” and “Where are we going?”

If I think of my plays as children, then this is my sweetest child! And there’s something kind of wonderful about getting back together, and visiting with my most inspiring, comforting, and loving play.

– EMILY MANN, ON HAVING OUR SAY

Mary Alice and Gloria Foster in Having Our Say on Broadway

In the Classroom Discussion: How do you respond to Emily Mann’s questions about American identity? (“Who are we as Americans, at this moment in time?”; “Who were we?”; “Where’ve we been?”; “Where’re we now?” and “Where are we going?”)

Activity: Pick one of these and write a response to it.

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an interview with director

JADE KING CARROLL You have a particularly personal connection Having Our Say. What can you tell us about your history with this play?

My father wrote the original music to the original production at the McCarter Theatre as well as when it transferred to Broadway. So I was able to be with him during tech week during some of the Broadway run. I was 14 so that was my first time observing a Broadway tech, and of course I was in the house as he was writing the music in the months prior to the McCarter run. So it’s a play that has been near and dear to my heart for a long time. Sadie Delany and I have the same birthday. And I got to meet both of the Delany sisters (before they passed away.)

How would you describe your job as the director?

As a director I tend to follow the playwright and what the story wants and what the playwright’s intentions are and the truth of each moment with the characters.

What they want and who they are…I tend not to have large concepts, but the work that I like to live in and direct is often about human connection and storytelling and characters.

Jade King Carroll

As far as we know, this is the first time that Long Wharf has an all female cast, design, and production team. How did you choose the team for Having Our Say? I’ve worked with all of the designers quite a few times. What’s also wonderful is that the play was written by Emily Mann who is my mentor and also a female playwright and artistic leader. And both the actresses are female. So I kind of looked at the list and said, “Oh, we have an all female team!” It wasn’t my intention. I just picked the people that I thought were best to tell this story and that I really enjoyed collaborating with and that worked well together. It’s my A-Team, and they just happen to all be ladies.

Can you talk more about the relationship that you have with playwright Emily Mann?

My father collaborated with her on a musical called Betsy Brown during the first decade of my life. I fell in love with the theatre watching that musical be developed, watching Emily Mann direct. I didn’t realize as a child what luminaries I was watching.

I was just going to work with my father. But I fell in love with what I saw Emily directing, and it just inspired me. And then I saw a production of The Glass Menagerie (that she directed) during her first season as Artistic Director at McCarter, just as an audience member. And I remember thinking, “Wow, you can do it with just words.”

Then, at the ripe old age of eleven, I said, “This is what I want to do. I want to direct!”

And Emily has been absolutely amazing in keeping the door open and mentoring me since then. I was a directing intern at McCarter, and a decade later I just had my

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I think this is a play that will always be relevant. It is about America.

It’s about history. It’s about life. Celebrating life. Survival.

– JADE KING CARROLL directing premiere there. And now to be working on this play…it’s a very special moment in time.

sisters were so amazing. I’m so honored that I had the chance to meet them. Their spirit was so alive; they were truth tellers. They embraced all of their past and continued moving forward, which is remarkable, and the lives they had and the life they brought. The twinkle in their eyes at ages 101 and 103. They still felt like there was such youth in their spirit. The play is an American story. It’s a story of our history, and I think what our future can be.

What do you admire about her writing?

I think the way Emily writes is she really captures characters. She writes all kinds of plays, but she’s known for what people call “testimonial theater.” Emily made Amy Hearth’s book into a play, but you never hear Emily’s voice in it, which I think is wonderful. Emily is almost invisible.

It’s really Bessie and Sadie talking to each other.

I think that’s what makes the play special. It’s these two women welcoming you into their house and inviting you into their history and their lives.

It’s really their voices.

What do you hope audiences will take away from coming to see Having Our Say? I think Having Our Say opens an audience’s eyes to our past, and it’s such a specific past that these women have. Loraine Hansberry says “through the specific you get the universal.” I hope that audiences will have a conversation after seeing this show that they wouldn’t have had before seeing it.

What do you think is the most challenging aspect of directing this production?

It’s a huge play in that it’s just two women telling this story. There’s a lot of business. They bake a ham, they bake a chicken, macaroni and cheese, vegetables, dessert…there’s like a seven course meal that’s made throughout the show, and we watch them do all parts of it, from cleaning out the chicken to dressing it to making the stuffing to making the gravy. It all has to be perfectly timed because they’re also talking to each other.

“Don’t burn the gravy, you always burn it!” So everything has to be done intricately. It has to be exactly the same every night. It’s choreographed cooking! And some of the cooking will be real, so there’s heat, there’s butter, there’s sautéing, there’s water running, and it all literally has to take the exact same amount of time every single time we do it. So finding what that is will be a delightful challenge, but I think that will take up a lot of our rehearsal time.

Why do you think it’s imperative to produce this play right now in 2016?

I think this is a play that will always be relevant.

It is about America. It’s about history. It’s about life. Celebrating life. Survival. All things that continue to be relevant. It’s about sharing stories and what it is to live through. Both of these

Jade King Carroll and Emily Mann

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THE

world of T H E

PLAY

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reflections : a ti m eline Delany is born in North Carolina. She is the family’s third child.

February 5, 1858 – Henry Beard Delany is born into slavery on a plantation owned by the Mock family in St. Mary’s, Georgia.

1896 – The United States Supreme Court hears the case of Plessy v. Ferguson and rules to uphold the doctrine of “separate but equal.”

Racial segregation is permitted.

January 1, 1863 – President Lincoln issues the final Emancipation Proclamation freeing all slaves in territories held by Confederates and emphasizes the enlisting of black soldiers in the Union Army. The war to preserve the Union now becomes a revolutionary struggle for the abolition of slavery.

1900 – Sociologist and activist W.E.B. DuBois proclaims, “The problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color line.”

April 9, 1865 – Gen. Robert E. Lee surrenders his Confederate Army to Gen. Ulysses S. Grant at the village of Appomattox Court House in Virginia.

1909 – The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is founded.

December 6, 1865 – The Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution is ratified. Slavery is officially abolished in America.

1918 – Sadie Delany graduates from Pratt Institute at 29 years old and decides to continue her education at Columbia University.

1919 – Bessie and Sadie rent their first apartment in Harlem.

October 6, 1886 – Henry Beard Delany and Nanny James Logan are married.

September 19, 1889 – Sarah Louise “Sadie” Delany is born in Virginia. She is the second of ten children.

1920 – Sadie graduates from Columbia Teachers College at age 31 and starts her first teaching job at PS 119 in Harlem.

September 3, 1891 – Annie Elizabeth “Bessie”

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THE WORLD OF THE PLAY

1920 – The 19th Amendment is passed granting women the right to vote.

December 7, 1941 –The Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor. The US increases its involvement in World War II. 1954 – The Supreme Court rules that segregation in public education is unconstitutional in the landmark case of Brown v. Board of Education.

1923 – Bessie graduates from Columbia Dental School at age 32.

1955 – Rosa Parks refuses to give up her bus seat to a White American man in Montgomery, Alabama. A bus boycott follows.

1929 – The U.S. stock market crashes, and the Great Depression begins. By 1930, 4 million Americans are looking for work and cannot find it. That number rises to 6 million 1931.

1957 – Sadie and Bessie move to Mount Vernon, NY. They will live there for the rest of their lives, never marrying or having children.

1930 – Sadie Delany becomes the first African American teacher of domestic science in New York City’s high school.

1957 – Nine AfricanAmerican students are enrolled in a previously all-white high school in Little Rock, Arkansas.

The community resists the integration and violent protests ensue. President Eisenhower sends federal troops to escort the “Little Rock Nine” to school.

1936 – When African American Jesse Owens wins 4 gold medals at the Olympics, Adolf Hitler refuses to shake his hand.

1939 – Marian Anderson sings at the Lincoln Memorial after being denied access to Constitutional Hall by the Daughters of the American Revolution. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt resigns membership.

Hazel Bryan and Elizabeth Eckford, 1957

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reflections

continued

1993 – Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters’ First 100 Years by Amy Hill Hearth is published. Sadie is 104, and Bessie is 102.

1963 – Four African-American girls are killed in the bombing of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama. Civil Rights leader Medgar Evers is shot and killed at home in Mississippi.

April 6, 1995 – Emily Mann’s stage adaptation of Having Our Say opens on Broadway.

August 28, 1963 – Martin Luther King, Jr. delivers his I Have a Dream speech to over 250,000 people at the March on Washington.

Sadie is 74, and Bessie is 72.

July 2, 1964 – The Civil Rights Act of 1964 is enacted, outlawing discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.

1967 – The U.S. Supreme court hears the case of Loving v. Virginia. Interracial marriage is no longer prohibited.

April 4, 1968 – Martin Luther King, Jr. is assassinated at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. He is 39 years old.

In the Classroom Discussion: Which of these events are you most familiar with? Are there any events on this timeline that you’ve never heard of before?

Going Further: The Civil Rights Act of 1964 outlawed many kinds of discrimination in America. Do you think discrimination still exists in our culture? Have you seen any examples in your own life?

Activity: Pick an event that you are not familiar with and research it. What impact did this event have? Are the effects of it present in 2016?

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THE WORLD OF THE PLAY

THE DELANY FAMILY TREE Logan Family

Delany Family

Danville, Virginia Area

St. Marys, Georgia

Negro Slave

“Mrs. Logan” <= White Wife of Army Officer

Name Unknown

Dates Unknown

c. 1780 - ?

Jordan Motley<= Eliza Logan Thomas Sterling Delany Negro+White 1810 - ?

White

Sarah, a slave

Negro+Native American

c. 1831

<=

James Miliam

1814 - 1891

Henry Beard Delany 1858 - 1928

c. 1812 - ?

Dates Unknown

White

Martha Louise Logan

c. 1859 1842 - 1908 <=

c. 1840 - 1910

<= Nanny James Logan m. 1886

<= 1861 - 1956

Lemuel Thackara

Julia Emery

1887 - 1956

1893 - 1974

Sarah Louise “Sadie”

Lucius

Hubert Thomas

1897 - 1969

1901 - 1990

1889 - 1999

William Manross 1899 - 1955

Henry Jr.

Samuel Ray 1906 - 1960

Laura Edith 1903 - 1993

(“Harry,” “Hap”) 1895 - 1991

Annie Elizabeth “Bessie” 1891 - 1995

Delany Family Portrait, c.1898.♦

In the Classroom Activity: Think about your own history including your parents, grandparents, and any extended family that you know of. Draw your own family tree!

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Reprinted with the permission of Hartford Stage Company

JIM CROW LAWS Jim Crow Laws were state and local laws enacted after the Civil War and lasting until 1965. They mandated racially segregated public facilities with all things being “separate but equal.” This was rarely the case and the Jim Crow laws allowed for there to be lower quality facilities for black Americans.

These facilities included public schools, transportation, parks, libraries, restaurants, and bathrooms.

“Whites only” and “Colored” signs were constant reminders of the enforced racial order. The Jim Crow system was upheld by local officials and reinforced by acts of terror perpetuated by vigilantes.

“Travel in the segregated south for black people was humiliating,” recalled Diane Nash in her interview for Freedom Riders. “The very fact that there were separate facilities was to say to black people and white people that blacks were so subhuman and so inferior that we could not even use the public facilities that white people had.”

In 1954, the Supreme Court ruled in Brown vs. Board of Education that segregation in public schools was illegal. This case had a cascading effect and by 1965, legislation was passed to make the practice of segregation illegal in all forms.

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THE WORLD OF THE PLAY

the

harle m renaissance During the early 1900s, the burgeoning African-American middle class began pushing a new political agenda that advocated racial equality. The epicenter of this movement was in New York, where three of the largest civil rights groups established their headquarters.

Black historian, sociologist, and Harvard scholar W.E.B Du Bois was at the forefront of the civil rights movement at the time. In 1905, Du Bois, in collaboration with a group of prominent AfricanAmerican political activists and white civil rights workers, met in New York to discuss the challenges facing the black community. In 1909, the group founded the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), to promote civil rights and fight African-American disenfranchisement.

FROM LEFT: Henry L. Mason, Roy Williams, Herbert Hill and Thurgood Marshall of the NAACP

At the same time, the Jamaican-born Marcus Garvey began his promotion of the â&#x20AC;&#x153;Back to Africaâ&#x20AC;? movement. Garvey founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League (UNIA-ACL), which advocated the reuniting of all people of African ancestry into one community with one absolute government. The movement not only encouraged African-Americans to come together, but to also feel pride in their heritage and race.

The National Urban League (NUL) also came into being in the early 20th century. Founded by Ruth Standish Baldwin and Dr. George Edmund Hayes, the fledgling organization counseled black migrants from the south, trained black social workers, and worked to give educational and employment opportunities to black people.

Marcus Garvey

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H A R L E M renaissance

Together, these groups helped establish a sense of community and empowerment for AfricanAmericans not only in New York, but also around the country. In addition, they provided a rare opportunity to whites to collaborate with black intellectuals, social activists, educators, and artists in an attempt to transform a largely segregated and racist American society.

continued

their culture to work for the goals of civil rights and equality. Jazz music, fine art, and black literature were all absorbed into mainstream culture, ringing attention to a previously disenfranchised segment of the American population. Artists like Langston Hughes, Duke Ellington, Billie Holiday, Aaron Douglas, and Louis Armstrong are remembered particularly for their work during this time. The blossoming of African-American culture in European-American society, particular in the worlds of art and music, became known as The Harlem Renaissance.

Instead of using more direct political means to achieve their goals, African-American civil rights activists employed the artists and writers of

Painting by Jay Robinson

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THE WORLD OF THE PLAY

AFRICAN AMERICAN WOMEN AND SUFFRAGE

M

Sojourner Truth

any African American women were highly active in the woman suffrage movement.

In the antebellum period, like Anglo women, many black women became active abolitionists and supporters of women’s rights.

Sojourner Truth, a former slave, became famous as both an abolitionist and an advocate of woman suffrage. In 1851, she made her famous speech, “Ain’t I A Woman,” at a convention in Akron, Ohio. Other black women suffragists from this time period include Margaretta Forten, Harriet Forten Purvis, and Mary Ann Shadd Cary.

In the 1880s and 1890s, black women, like their white counterparts, began to form woman’s clubs.

Many of these clubs included suffrage as one plank in their broader platform. In 1896, many of these clubs affiliated to form the National Association of Colored Women (NACW), with Mary Church Terrell as president. From its founding until the passage of the 19th Amendment, the NACW included a department that worked for the advancement of woman suffrage. The National Baptist Woman’s Convention, another focal point of black women’s organizational power, also consistently supported woman suffrage. In addition, black women founded clubs that worked exclusively for woman’s suffrage, such as the Alpha Suffrage Club of Chicago, founded by Ida B. Wells in 1913.

Black women participated in the American Equal Rights Association, and later in both the National Woman Suffrage Association and the American Woman Suffrage Association. Historian Rosalyn Terborg-Penn argues that black women were drawn more to the AWSA than the NWSA as the AWSA supported the enfranchisement of black men.

Despite this strong support for woman’s suffrage, black women sometimes faced discrimination within the suffrage movement itself. From

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SUFFRAGE

continued

the end of the Civil War onwards, some white suffragists argued that enfranchising women would serve to cancel out the “Negro” vote, as there would be more white women voters than black men and women voters combined.

Although some black clubwomen participated actively in the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA), the NAWSA did not always welcome them with open arms.

In the 20th century, the NAWSA leadership sometimes discouraged black women’s clubs from attempting to affiliate with the NAWSA. Some Southern members of NAWSA argued for the enfranchisement of white women only. In addition, in the suffrage parade of

1913 organized by Alice Paul’s Congressional Union, black women were asked to march in a segregated unit. Ida B. Wells refused to do so, and slipped into her state’s delegation after the start of the parade.

When the 19th Amendment was passed in 1920, it legally enfranchised all women, white and black. However, within a decade, state laws and vigilante practices effectively disenfranchised most black women in the South. It would take another major movement for voting rights – the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s – before black women in the South would be effectively enfranchised

In the Classroom Activity: Pick an historical figure. How would you choose to tell their story? Would it be a song? A poem? A play? A dance? Create a one minute piece inspired by the figure you have chosen.

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changing and staying the same “2016 Seems in Many Ways Like 1968” January 20, 2016

By Kate Ramunni of the CT Post Chronicle

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BESSIE: I guess it will be a thousand years – probably never – before a colored person is elected president of the United States.

SADIE: There will be a Negro President someday…

BESSIE: No, no. Here we are, in 1993, and white people would still rather die than have a Negro president. I predict there will be a white woman president before there is a Negro president. And if a Negro is elected president? That person will be a Negro woman.

SADIE: How do you know that?

BESSIE: I’m a little psychic.

– Having Our Say

In the Classroom Discussion: Do you think that our country has made enough progress in granting civil rights to every American? Why or why not?

ACTIVITY: If you were to write a play about this moment in history what story would you want to tell. What would it sound like? What would it look like? What artists, photographs, textures, colors best represent the world you would want to evoke?

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CURRENT EVENTS The new millennium has brought a new wave of civil rights activism. Black authors, politicians, activists, performers, and scholars are speaking publicly about their experiences and helping to change the national conversation.

We needed to hear this. But this song and video are not solely for those who left and those who remained, for our babies, and for our men. This is for the black Southern woman, too. Beyoncé calls the ancestors with the drums, embodies them in high-waisted, gorgeous dresses, fans our Creole foremothers to life with bunches of lace.

She flashes forward to the future and invokes the daughters in the church, worshipping in their hats and starched dresses by reflecting their beauty right back to God. She invokes the daughters who usher the dead’s souls while shimmying down the second line. Invokes the daughters who frame the gorgeous shock of their black faces with pastel mermaid weave and wigs.

– Jesmyn Ward on Beyonce’s 2016

Superbowl performance.

But when she says things like “always stay gracious, best revenge is your paper,” you have to wonder about Beyoncé’s own politics. The Black Panthers were not gracious. They saw barriers to economic advancement, and sought, sometimes violently, to break them down. This approach contrasts sharply with the philosophy implied in “Formation.”

Beyoncé is a titan of capitalism, her own special economic zone. When “Formation” dropped, her online store was already stocked with merchandise sporting the song’s catchphrases. A sweatshirt that says “I twirl on them haters”? $60. A baseball cap that says “hot sauce”? $36.

– Jeff Guo of The Washington Post.

Beyoncé

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We should seek not a world where the black race and the white race live in harmony, but a world in which the terms black and white have no real political meaning.

– Ta-Nehisi Coates, Author of Between the World and Me and Recipient of a 2016 MacArthur Genius Grant

Ta-Nehisi Coates

In the Classroom

For me, the new caste system is now as obvious as my own face in the mirror. Like an optical illusion—one in which the embedded image is impossible to see until its outline is identified—the new caste system lurks invisibly within the maze of rationalizations we have developed for persistent racial inequality.

– Michelle Alexander, Author of

The New Jim Crow.

ACTIVITY: Bessie and Sadie share a home and a lifetime of memories with each other.

Their home is an actual place, but also the connection that they share with each other.

Take some time to really walk through your home and think about the people that you surround yourself with. Come to class with an item, a story, a song, a recipe, or anything that you can think of with a story behind it that shows your class a piece of who you are and share this piece with your peers.

GOING FURTHER: What did you learn about your classmates? What was this experience like for you?

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blac k theatre The Black Presence in Theater through the Centuries in the Historical Dictionary of African American Theater Theatre other than those written by noted theatre historians such as Henry T. Sampson, Bernard L. Peterson, Jr., and James V. Hatch that examine black theatre during the first half of the twentieth century. Sampson’s The Ghost Walks is a chronology of the history of blacks in show business between 1865 and 1910.

Peterson produced three dictionaries on early aspects of black theatre. The first described black theatre organizations, companies, theatres, and performing groups; the second discussed early black American playwrights and dramatic writers; and the third profiled performers and theatre people. In addition, Professor Hatch and Edward Mapp expanded their study on black theatre to the late 1970s. Hatch’s Black Playwrights, 18231977, is an annotated bibliography of plays, and Mapp’s Directory of Blacks in the Performing Arts, which describes individual performers, ends in 1978. The works by Allen Woll and Bernard L. Peterson, Jr. are more current directories on black show business. While all these works have merit, they concentrate on specific aspects of black theatre. The focus of Woll’s Dictionary of the Black Theatre, for example, is On-andOff-Broadway, and selected Harlem Theatre up to 1983; however, it does not cover theatres outside New York City. Peterson’s Black American Playwrights and Their Plays is also singularly focused, and does not extend beyond 1988. The most recent study is Errol G. Hill and James V. Hatch’s History of African America Theatre (2003) which is also limited in scope and approach.

In the following account the authors Anthony D. Hill, associate professor of drama at The Ohio State University, and Douglas Q. Barnett, director, producer, and founder of Black Arts/ West in Seattle, discuss why they created the Historical Dictionary of African American Theater, the first comprehensive compendium of two centuries of blacks on stage.

A

frican American Theatre is a vibrant and unique entity enriched by ancient Egyptian rituals, West African folklore, and European theatrical practices. A continuum of African folk traditions, this theatre combines storytelling, mythology, rituals, music, song, and dance with ancestor worship from ancient times to the present. It has afforded black artists a cultural gold mine to celebrate what it has been like to be an African American in The New World.

Black theatre boasts award-winning playwrights, actors, directors, choreographers, designers, and theatre companies. It refined and redefined the popular minstrel tradition-America’s first pure form of entertainment. It helped to originate and shape America’s musical comedy format. It brought to the American stage a rich theatrical history and cultural practice, and captivated American as well as European audiences with its Charleston dance craze and rhythms. Due to social restrictions that created major barriers to its development, it took the fledgling African American theatre a few centuries longer to find its place within American theatre and popular entertainment.

While these are significant and important works on aspects of African American theatre, there was no comprehensive dictionary of black theatre. We believe our Historical Dictionary of African American Theatre, which was released in December 2008, is the reference work that fills the much-needed void in examining past and contemporary black show business. The

Douglas Q. Barnett and I, both African American theatre practitioners from Seattle, Washington, were well aware of this rich black theatrical history but felt it was not easily accessible to the theatre community or the general public.

We were also aware that there had been few directories or dictionaries about African American

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dictionary has over 600 selected entries which celebrate nearly 200 years of black theatre in the United States. It is a cross section of the thousands of black theatre artists across the country. It identifies representative African American theatre-producing organizations, playwrights, and selected works by these playwrights, actors, and directors. It also chronicles their contribution to the field from its birth in 1816 to the present. The dictionary includes the editor’s foreword, preface, acknowledgments, acronyms and abbreviations, chronology, introduction, dictionary, bibliography, and information about the writers.

1950s. The second half of the 20th Century ushered in a new Renaissance with the Black Power Movement of the 1960s, the feminist movement of the 1970s, August Wilson’s 10-play cycle set for every decade of the 20th century, and with the array of plays presented at National Black Theatre Festival.

The black theatre movement, however, that started in the Civil Rights revolution during the middle of the 20th Century has, after a few faltering steps, regained its direction and has grown immeasurably. Theatre artists have founded their own theatres and companies, performed in black minstrel shows and musical comedies, and written protest, comedy, and folk plays. It has evolved into a theatrical tradition with a sense of pride, struggle, history, community, purpose, and achievement that has become a rich and vital entity with its own set of characteristics.

To better acquaint the potential reading audience to the entries in this study we provided an historical overview in the preface entitled Black Theatre: from Birth to Rebirth, to Survival. As the overview explains, black theatre’s quest for legitimacy began by emulating mainstream American theatrical traditions at the African Grove in New York City in 1821 and in Minstrelsy before it stumbled, lost its way, and then found its own aesthetic. In 1856, William Wells Brown wrote the first known black play Escape; or, a Leap to Freedom. At the turn of the century, playwriting and performing artists such as Bert William and George Walker, and Bob Cole and J. Rosamond Johnson, wrote musical comedies that challenged the negative images of blacks in minstrelsy. In the 1920s, black theatre flourished during The Harlem Renaissance. Between 1935 and1939, the Negro Unit of the Federal Theatre Project made an impact on black theatre as did the American Negro Theatre with its social dramas and musicals of the 1940s, and the avant-garde and Off-Broadway movement of the

The authors hope this dictionary will be of value to librarians, teachers; high school, graduate and undergraduate students, theatre owners, performers, directors, dramaturges, theatre critics, historians, scholars, and all others in need of information on black theatre and blackauthored plays. We hope it will lead to more detailed studies by researchers in the fields of black studies, literature and drama, and by playwrights, as well as producers, directors, actors, and theatrical organizations. It will be a valuable resource to serious theatre scholars all around the world.

Sources: Anthony H. Hill and Douglas Q. Barnett, Historical Dictionary of African American Theater (Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, 2008)

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OR AL H IST O R Y : H AVE Y O U R SA Y !

What is oral history?

Oral history is a method of gathering, preserving and interpreting the voices and memories of people, communities, and participants in past events. Oral history is both the oldest type of historical inquiry, predating the written word, and one of the most modern, initiated with tape recorders in the 1940s and now using 21st-century digital technologies.

Examples of oral history projects include: • Voice/Vision: A Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive • The 9/11 Memorial: http://www.911memorial.org/oral-histories-0 • StoryCorps: https://storycorps.org/ • The Moth: True Stories Told Live http://themoth.org/stories

In the Classroom Discussion: Why do you think it’s important to document oral histories? Is there a particular group of people or an event that you think particularly needs a recorded oral history?

Activity: Find a partner and conduct an interview with them. Ask questions about their family, upbringing, struggles they’ve gone through, and what they hope to achieve in the future. Present your findings to the rest of the class.

Going Further: What surprised you about interviewing another person?

What are the similarities and differences you discovered between yourself and the storyteller?

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WRITE A REVIEW!

T

here is a lot of truth in the old saying that “Everyone’s a critic.” But to write a review, it takes more than a strong opinion – it takes an open mind, a way with words, and a sense of honesty, intelligence, and balance. A critic’s primary goal is not merely to pass judgment, or to explain what a work fo art means, but to note how a production works and why it was successful.

With that in mind, writing a review is very different from typical journalism or essay writing, and reviewing theatre in particular is distinct from any other kind of art form. To create your own review, there are a few steps you should take for a successful approach.

The first step is to watch the show in an open, active frame of mind. Remember that professional critics are journalists first, and that comes with great responsibility to put aside their own unique tastes to see through to the heart o the work, rather than getting hung up on personal preference. How does the play function? Who would enjoy this play, and why?

At the same time, it’s important for the critic to experience the play as any other audience member would, by being receptive emotionally as well as intellectually. Theatre is rooted in the exchange of emotions, not only onstage, but between the performers and the audience. Along with an open mind, your gut reaction is your most important critical tool. Don’t eliminate your impulses – take stock of yourself honestly after a performance to see how your feelings were inspired.

The foundation of a review follows a basic formula:

or “spine” For the entire piece.

It should be outlined early and briefly, and everything else that follows should illustrate your idea. If you liked (or disliked) the show, this should provide the reason why.

3. The body of the review provides evidence to illustrate your claims as they unfold. Keep in mind your particular audience of readers.

Are you writing for frequent theatergoers, a particular age group, or the general public?

You should shape your language to help your readers follow you, but you don’t need to pander to their tastes.

Don’t overlook one essential component – the basic information about the show. Names for the play, its major artists, and the theatre are standard.

As the review progresses, be sure to include the names of the actors as you mention each character for the first time – give credit where credit is due! A very short summary of the play may help to clarify your review, but don’t reveal any big surprises!

Use the playbill as your primary source for names, spelling, and other information.

It’s important to be honest, but it’s equally important to avoid being nasty. It can sometimes feel gratifying to put down a production, but it is possible to give negative feedback without being aggressive. Keeping an open mind will help you be specific in addressing shortcomings and how they affected their final product, rather than disparaging their efforts.

A review is a lasting record of your theatrical experience, one that expresses a unique perspective from the audience. The best reviews focus on the work of art itself, and the result is the greatest benefit for audiences and artists alike.

1. The “lead” or opening statements. Here, readers should get the gist of where the rest of the review will go. At the same time, it’s important for the writer to “hook” readers into the following discourse, which begins with: 2. The “thesis” introduces the main idea of the review, which acts as a through-line

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SAVE THE DATE! APRIL 12 @ 7PM

& s t n e momnutes mi

2nd L ANNUA

A SPOKEN WORD, MONOLOGUE AND VISUAL ARTS FESTIVAL FOR NEW HAVEN YOUTH

WHAT IS IT?

Long Wharf’s 2nd annual Moments and

An evening of brand new

Minutes Festival is a celebration of our

work written, spoken, and

community’s youth. The evening will

created by teenagers from all over New Haven!

showcase visual art, spoken word poetry, and monologues devised by students from all over the area, highlighting both their individual and collective experiences.

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OUR THEATRE FOR YOUNG AUDIENCES SHOW IS MAY 17-22 Nine-year-old B is on a quest to fly, just like her hero Amelia Earhart. She’s even built an airplane treehouse to help her get off the ground. If she can’t manage to lift off before her 10th birthday, which is just 3 days away, She will never be able to soar among the clouds.

Help arrives just in the nick of time, when a mysterious woman from the sky takes over her treehouse. Could this be Amelia Earhart, who disappeared during her final voyage?

Can B help her hero complete the journey and finally rise above the limits of gravity?

This fanciful story uses the power of the imagination to inspire kids to dream BIG and make the impossible…POSSIBLE!

SAVE THE DATE! 37

FOR THE FIRST-TIME THEATREGOER the major consideration to keep in mind is that your actions can be distracting not only to the rest of the audience, but to the actors on stage as well. Behavior that is acceptable in other public settings, like movie theatres, ballgames, or concerts, is out of place when attending the theatre.

The following tips should help you get acquainted with some DOs and DON’Ts for first-time theatregoers.

DO arrive early. Make considerations for traffic, parking, waiting in line, having your ticket taken, and finding your seat. If you need to pick up your tickets from the box office, it is a good idea to arrive at least twenty minutes early. Generally, you can take your seat when “the house is open,” about half an hour before the show begins. Late seating is always distracting and usually not allowed until intermission or a transition between scenes, if it is allowed at all. Follow the old actors’ mantra: To be EARLY is to be ON TIME. To be ON TIME is to be LATE. To be LATE is UNFORGIVABLE. DO turn off your cell phone. Phones and any other noise-making devices should be switched off before you even enter the theatre: you won’t be allowed to use them anyway. Texting during a performance is also rude.

The intermission is a good time to use your phone, but remember to turn it off again before the next act begins.

DON’T leave your garbage in the theatre. Food and drinks are usually not permitted in the theatre at all, with the exception of bottled water. If it is allowed, be sure to throw out your trash in a garbage can or recycling bin in the lobby; don’t leave it for the house manager or ushers at the end of a show.

DO watch your step. Aisles can be narrow, so please be considerate when finding your seat. Avoid getting up during the performance whenever possible, since it can be very distracting. You can use the restroom before the show and during intermission. Also, be careful not to cross in front of the stage, as it will break the illusion of the show. Don’t step on or over seats, and never walk on the stage itself.

DON’T talk during the performance. Chatting is extremely rude to the actors and the audience around you.

Everyone is trying to pay attention to the play and those nearby will be able to hear, so please be quiet and considerate.

DO get into it! Actors feed off of the audience, just as the audience feeds off of the actors. Don’t be afraid to laugh, clap, or cry if you are so moved. However, there is a line that can be crossed. Please be respectful, and don’t distract from the work of the professionals on stage. After all, people paid good money to watch the show, not you. Just enjoy the experience and let yourself have an honest response.

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supplemental materials

citations http://www.historyplace.com/civilwar/ http://www.nytimes.com/1999/01/26/nyregion/sadie-delany-witness-to-century-dies-at-109.html?pagewanted=all http://www.nytimes.com/1999/01/26/nyregion/sadie-delany-witness-to-century-dies-at-109.html?pagewanted=all http://www.amyhillhearth.com/having_our_say__the_delany_sisters__first_100_years__new_york__kodansha_ america__102116.htm http://www.oralhistory.org/about/do-oral-history/ http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/history_lesson/2011/10/elizabeth_and_hazel_what_happened_ to_the_two_girls_in_the_most_f.html http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/freedomriders/issues/jim-crow-laws http://www.biography.com/people/groups/movement-harlem-renaissance http://www.biography.com/blackhistory/harlem-renaissance.jsp https://www.nwhm.org/online-exhibits/rightsforwomen/AfricanAmericanwomen.html http://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2016/02/10/466178725/in-beyonc-s-formation-a-song-for-the-bama http://www.bookrags.com/studyguide-the-new-jim-crow/quotes.html#gsc.tab=0

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