Essay on Revealing the Ambiguious Black Theatre - 1766 Words

Finding the core of something as broad as black theatre is an ultimate task for one to take on. Black theatre is very complex in nature and structure and not everyone agrees on the exact components of what black theatre really is. How does anyone decide what black theatre is? Who has the right to decide what black theatre is? What are these decisions based on? It has been my privilege to explore these aspects of black theatre. Through extensive research and discovery, I plan to evaluate the perceptions of what black theatre is and develop a refined definition of black theatre. In attending a class the summer of 2002, I was posed the question of what black theatre is. I really could not give a clear definition because I had not†¦show more content†¦If one were to ask the public the same question, what is black art, the answers very well may be the same as mine were. I actually have asked several college students, young and old, what they thought Black theatre is and they gave blanks looks as to say, I dont know, or, I have never thought about it. The students that did answer, answered on the on the lines that the actors or actresses were Black and that was the extent. I encouraged them to think about whether the writer had to be black and the director had to be Black. At this point students for the most part did not want to finish the conversation or were unable to come up with their own opinion about the matter without thinking over the subject for a longer period. The feeling of ignorance and bewilderment that these students and I felt are some of the similar feeling Black artists had pre the Black Arts Movement. To clarify, there are still people that do not understand or have any idea of what Black theatre is, but the Black Arts Movement helped to lay some ground work and guides lines for what black theatre should be and is. W.E.B. Dubois coined four principles of theory of what black theatre should be. These principles were, and are still, openly accepted as guidelines for what black theatre is. Black art