The American Negro Theatre (ANT) was co-founded on June 5, 1940 by playwright Abram Hill and actor

Frederick O'Neal Frederick O'Neal (August 27, 1905 – August 25, 1992) was an American actor, theater producer and television director. He founded the American Negro Theater, the British Negro Theatre, and was the first African-American president of the Actor ...

. Determined to build a "people's theatre", they were inspired by the Federal Theatre Project's Negro Unit in Harlem and by

W. E. B. Du Bois William Edward Burghardt Du Bois ( ; February 23, 1868 – August 27, 1963) was an American-Ghanaian sociologist, socialist, historian, and Pan-Africanist civil rights activist. Born in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, Du Bois grew up i ...

' "four fundamental principles" of Black drama: that it should be by, about, for, and near African Americans. The ANT produced 12 original Black plays and seven adaptations of non-Black work for tens of thousands of primarily Black audiences in its first nine years. The Black playwrights whose work the company produced included

Countee Cullen Countee Cullen (born Countee LeRoy Porter; May 30, 1903 – January 9, 1946) was an American poet, novelist, children's writer, and playwright, particularly well known during the Harlem Renaissance. Early life Childhood Countee LeRoy Porter ...

(''One Way To Heaven''), Theodore Browne (''Go Down Moses'' and ''Natural Man''),

Owen Dodson Owen Vincent Dodson (November 28, 1914 – June 21, 1983) was an American poet, novelist, and playwright. He was one of the leading African-American poets of his time, associated with the generation of black poets following the Harlem Renaissance ...

(''Garden of Time''), Alvin Hill (''Walk Hard'') and Curtis Cooksey (''Starlight''). In addition to their theatre productions, the ANT also produced a weekly radio program in 1945, with a repertoire that spanned Shakespeare, Dickens and opera. It also ran the Studio Theatre school of drama under the leadership of Osceola Archer, one of the first Black actresses on Broadway. Many of her students later had careers in the performing arts, including television comediennes Helen Martin (''

Good Times ''Good Times'' is an American television sitcom that aired for six seasons on CBS, from February 8, 1974, to August 1, 1979. Created by Eric Monte and Mike Evans and developed by executive producer Norman Lear, it was television's first African ...

'' and ''227''), Emmy-winning

Isabel Sanford Isabel Sanford (born Eloise Gwendolyn Sanford; August 29, 1917 – July 9, 2004) was an American stage, film, and television actress and comedian best known for her role as Louise "Weezy" Mills Jefferson on the CBS sitcoms ''All in the Fami ...

(''

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'' and ''

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''), and

Clarice Taylor Clarice Taylor (September 20, 1917 – May 30, 2011) was an American stage, film and television actress. She is best known for playing Cousin Emma on ''Sanford and Son'' and the mother of Cliff Huxtable Anna Huxtable on ''The Cosby Show''. and Mr ...

('' Sanford and Son'' and '' The Cosby Show''); stage and screen couple

Ossie Davis Raiford Chatman "Ossie" Davis (December 18, 1917 – February 4, 2005) was an American actor, director, writer, and activist. He was married to Ruby Dee, with whom he frequently performed, until his death. He and his wife were named to the NAACP I ...

and Ruby Dee, movie actor Sidney Poitier, and singer-actor Harry Belafonte. In a 1996 interview with

Cornel West Cornel Ronald West (born June 2, 1953) is an American philosopher, political activist, social critic, actor, and public intellectual. The grandson of a Baptist minister, West focuses on the role of race, gender, and class in American society a ...

, Belafonte described how the American Negro Theatre opened his eyes to how "magical" theatre was. Belafonte said that he saw his first show in the ANT when he was given two tickets as a gratuity when working as a janitor's assistant for

, who was in the play that night. Aside from teaching, Archer also directed plays for the ANT, most notably a 1948 command performance for First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt of an integrated production of

Katherine Garrison Chapin Katherine Garrison Chapin (September 4, 1890December 30, 1977), sometimes known by her married name Katherine Biddle, was an American poet, librettist, and playwright. She is best known for two collaborations with composer William Grant Still: ''A ...

's play ''Sojourner Truth'', featuring Belafonte and actress Jill Miller. Within the next few years, however, the ANT folded, a victim of repeated financial shortfalls and in-fighting over its mission in the wake of its ''Anna Lucasta'' success, for which its lead actress

Alice Childress Alice Childress (October 12, 1916 – August 14, 1994) was an American novelist, playwright, and actress, acknowledged as "the only African-American woman to have written, produced, and published plays for four decades." Mary Helen Washington"Al ...

gained a Tony nomination for playing the title character.Marshall University et al. "American Negro Theater, 1930-1955." Clio: Your Guide to History. July 14, 2021. Accessed January 10, 2022. https://theclio.com/entry/1392 Theatre arts scholar Jonathan Shandell counts ANT's expansion of the "repertoire to include canonical black playwrights, use of a predominantly black cast and crew in all productions, and ... community outreach efforts, such as the free Uptown Shakespeare performances at Marcus Garvey Park" among its most important legacies. The assessment of the curators of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture at New York Public Library, which hosted ANT's 75th Anniversary in 2016 explained the ANT's importance by pointing out that ANT "sought to push the boundaries of black theatre ... experimenting with modernist theatrical tropes, and producing ambitious, original works by Black playwrights. Ultimately, the American Negro Theatre became one of the most influential black theater organizations of the 1940s," while also cultivating a generation of professional Black actors, directors and other artists in the performing arts who continue to influence the culture today.

History

Hill and O'Neal quickly garnered support for the American Negro Theatre, which they dubbed the ANT to reinforce the idea of a hard-working interdependent community, by assembling several of their theatre friends, including: Howard Augusta, James Jackson,

Virgil Richardson Virgil Donald Richardson (December 25, 1919 – December 21, 2014) was an American minor league baseball player in the 1940s and 1950s who hit over 260 home runs in his professional career. He was born in South Bend, Nebraska. Richardson began his ...

, Claire Leyba, Jefferson D. Davis, Vivian Hall, Austin Briggs-Hall, Stanley Green, Fanny McConnell, and Kenneth Manigault. Together, they organized ANT "as a cooperative, and all members shared in the expenses and profits. The theatre's business model was parallel to its artistic policy of ensemble acting in lieu of individual leading roles." Hill approached librarians at the public library on 135th Street in Harlem, the Harlem Branch of the New York Public Library, to start producing his plays. The librarians granted Hill and the ANT permission to use their 150-seat Little Library Theatre basement stage. The first show they produced ''Hits, Bits, and Skits'' opened on July 17, 1940. The first major play that the ANT put into rehearsal was ''On Strivers' Row'', which Hill put into rehearsal after it had done so well with the

Rose McClendon Rose McClendon (August 27, 1884 – July 12, 1936) was a leading African-American Broadway actress of the 1920s. A founder of the Negro People's Theatre, she guided the creation of the Federal Theatre Project's African American theatre units na ...

Players, who also held performances in Harlem.Marshall University et al. "American Negro Theater, 1930-1955." Clio: Your Guide to History. July 14, 2021. Accessed January 10, 2022. https://theclio.com/entry/1392 ''On Strivers' Row'' ran for five months and, in March 1941, Hill moved it to the

Apollo Theater The Apollo Theater is a music hall at 253 125th Street (Manhattan), West 125th Street between Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard (Seventh Avenue) and Frederick Douglass Boulevard (Eighth Avenue) in the Harlem neighborhood of Upper Manhattan in Ne ...

, where it ran for a week, as a musical with the lyrics of Don Burley, the music of J. P. Johnson, and the choreography of Leonard Harper. In 1944, the ANT submitted a proposal to the General Education Board of Rockefeller Center, explaining that their objectives were to develop (1) an Art, (2) a Vital Theatre and (3) Pride and Honor, and requesting funding for the salaries of the company's officers. The proposal resulted in a $22,000 grant-in-aid. These objectives were also printed on programs for ANT productions. Anna Lucasta, starring Paulette Goddard, 1949

Anna Lucasta, starring Paulette Goddard, 1949

The company's most successful production '' Anna Lucasta'' ultimately led to its demise.Marshall University et al. "American Negro Theater, 1930-1955." Clio: Your Guide to History. July 14, 2021. Accessed January 10, 2022. https://theclio.com/entry/1392 Anna Lucasta, which was inspired by Eugene O'Neil's Anna Christie, was "originally conceived as the story of a sordid, impoverished Polish family in a small Pennsylvania town," but Yordan could not find a company to perform it, so he rewrote it to feature a Black family, and it was performed by the ANT in 1944. According to a notice in the ''

Brooklyn Eagle :''This article covers both the historical newspaper (1841–1955, 1960–1963), as well as an unrelated new Brooklyn Daily Eagle starting 1996 published currently'' The ''Brooklyn Eagle'' (originally joint name ''The Brooklyn Eagle'' and ''King ...

'' on March 30, 1944, the sets for that initial production were designed by the American realist painter Michael Lenson, but that has not been verified. Five weeks later, the play opened on

Broadway Broadway may refer to: Theatre * Broadway Theatre (disambiguation) * Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S. ** Broadway (Manhattan), the street **Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...

where it launched the career of Ruby Dee and scored star Alice Childress, the first Tony nomination for a Black actress. Nine New York newspaper dailies reviewed the show. They all raved and producers instantly started fighting over who would get the rights to the play.Marshall University et al. "American Negro Theater, 1930-1955." Clio: Your Guide to History. July 14, 2021. Accessed January 10, 2022. https://theclio.com/entry/1392 Yordan agreed to sign a

Dramatists Guild The Dramatists Guild of America is a professional organization for playwrights, composers, and lyricists working in the U.S. theatre market. Membership as an Associate Member is open to any person having written at least one stage play. Active Mem ...

contract that would make Hill the co-author of ''Anna Lucasta''. This gave Hill a five percent author's royalty. The ANT itself received few royalties for '' Anna Lucasta'', and the next three ANT plays to appear on Broadway were not successful. As a result, divisions developed within the company, with many determined to repeat the success of ''Anna Lucasta'', at the cost of their earlier emphasis on a "people's theatre", and Hill's own break with the company. From then on, the ANT only featured plays from established white playwrights, and young actors viewed the ANT as a means to break into Broadway productions.

Mission

The ANT had a four-part mission: #To develop a permanent acting company trained in the arts and crafts of the theatre that also reflected the special gifts, talents, and attributes of African Americans. #To produce plays that honestly, and with integrity, interpreted, illuminated, and criticized contemporary Black life and the concerns of the Black people. #To maintain an affiliation with, and provide leadership for, other Black theatre groups throughout the nation. #To utilize its resources to develop racial pride in the theatre, rather than racial apathy.

Constitution

When the ANT was first founded in 1940, the group created a 30-page constitution for themselves that reflected the ideals of the Federal Theatre Project. The constitution also drew upon

's belief that African-American theatre should be by, about, for, and near African Americans. According to the constitution:

A People's theatre is a very valuable institution. it provides the finest outlet for class emotions that can be organized. It serves as a spur to citizen ambition provides a partly self-supporting source of work and income, and a healthy kind of occupational therapy on a national scale for thousands. Unhappily, we have been trained to think of the theatre mostly in terms of commercial enterprise that is too expensive when it is worthy, and too cheap and boring when it is not. We know it too frequently as an investment for gambling show men, or as a playground for dilettantes and escapists who are unable to withstand the hard realities of life. We need a people's theatre which shall in effect be a national theatre. The people who want a theatre will have to organize it and pay a part of the expense for both its creation and support. Realizing the reluctance of the people to assume this responsibility, the essential burden of stimulating the development of such a project rests upon the shoulders of those individuals who are willing to assume this obligation, those who feel sincerely the call in a genuine quest for the content of theatre art, and by their talent, industry, and profound respect for a theatre they shall create.

Stage productions

*''Hits, Bits, and Skits'' (1940) *''On Strivers' Row'' by Abram Hill (1940) *''Natural Man'' by Theodore Browne (1941) *''

Three Is a Family ''Three Is a Family'' is a 1944 American comedy film directed by Edward Ludwig and starring Marjorie Reynolds, Charlie Ruggles, and Fay Bainter. The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Sound Recording ( W. V. Wolfe). Cast * Marjo ...

'' by

Phoebe Ephron Phoebe Ephron (née Wolkind; January 26, 1914 – October 13, 1971) was an American playwright and screenwriter, who often worked with Henry Ephron, her husband, whom she wed in 1934. Ephron was born in New York City to Louis and Kate (né ...

and

Henry Ephron Henry Ephron (May 26, 1911 – September 6, 1992) was an American playwright, screenwriter and film producer who often worked with his wife, Phoebe (née Wolkind). He was active as a writer from the early 1940s through the early 1960s. Ea ...

(1943) *'' Anna Lucasta'' by

Philip Yordan Philip Yordan (April 1, 1914 – March 24, 2003) was an American screenwriter of the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s who produced several films. He acted as a front for blacklisted writers although his use of surrogate screenwriters predates the McCarth ...

and Abram Hill (1944) *''Garden of Time'' by

(1945) *''

Henry Christophe Henri Christophe (; 6 October 1767 – 8 October 1820) was a key leader in the Haitian Revolution and the only monarch of the Kingdom of Haiti. Christophe was of Bambara ethnicity in West Africa, and perhaps of Igbo descent. Beginning with ...

'' by Dan Hammersmith (1945) *''Home Is the Hunter'' by

Samuel Kootz Samuel M. Kootz (23 August 1898 – 7 August 1982) was a New York City art dealer and author whose Kootz Gallery was one of the first to champion Abstract Expressionist Art.Grace Glueck, "Samuel M. Kootz Dead at 83; An Activist for American Art," '' ...

(1946) *'' Angel Street'' by Patrick Hamilton (1946) *''

Juno and the Paycock ''Juno and the Paycock'' is a play by Seán O'Casey. Highly regarded and often performed in Ireland, it was first staged at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin in 1924. It is set in the working-class tenements of Dublin in the early 1920s, during the Ir ...

'' by Seán O'Casey (1946) *'' You Can't Take It with You'' by Moss Hart and

George Kaufman George Simon Kaufman (November 16, 1889June 2, 1961) was an American playwright, theater director and producer, humorist, and drama critic. In addition to comedies and political satire, he wrote several musicals for the Marx Brothers and others. ...

(1946) *''The Peacemaker'' by Kurt Unkelbach (1946) *''Tin Top Valley'' by

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(1947) *''The Later Christopher Bean'' by

Sidney Howard Sidney Coe Howard (June 26, 1891 – August 23, 1939) was an American playwright, dramatist and screenwriter. He received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1925 and a posthumous Academy Award in 1940 for the screenplay for '' Gone with the Wind'' ...

(1947) *''Rope'' by Eugene O'Neill (1947) *''The Show Off'' by George Kelly (1947) *''Rain'' by John Colton and

Clemence Randolph Clemence, or Clémence, is a name. It may refer to: * Louise Michel (1830-1905), a French anarchist who used Clémence as a pseudonym Given name * Clémence d'Aquitaine (1060–1142) * Clemence of Austria (1262–1293 or 1295) * Clemence of Hung ...

(1947) *''The Washington Years'' by

Nat Sherman Nat Sherman is the brand name for a line of handmade cigars and " luxury cigarettes". The company, which began as a retail tobacconist, continued to operate a flagship retail shop, known as the "Nat Sherman Townhouse", located on 42nd Street, o ...

(1948) *''Almost Faithful'' by Harry Wagstaff Gribble (1948) *''Sojourner Truth'' by Katherine G. Chaplin (1949) *''

Riders to the Sea ''Riders to the Sea'' is a play written by Irish Literary Renaissance playwright John Millington Synge. It was first performed on 25 February 1904 at the Molesworth Hall, Dublin, by the Irish National Theater Society with Helen Laird playing M ...

'' by

John Millington Synge Edmund John Millington Synge (; 16 April 1871 – 24 March 1909) was an Irish playwright, poet, writer, collector of folklore, and a key figure in the Irish Literary Revival. His best known play '' The Playboy of the Western World'' was poorly ...

(1949) *''Freight'' by

Kenneth White Kenneth White (born 28 April 1936) is a Scottish poet, academic and writer. Biography Kenneth White was born in the Gorbals area of Glasgow, Scotland, but he spent his childhood and adolescence at Fairlie near Largs on the Ayrshire coast, ...

(1949)

Notable graduates

* Osceola Macarthy Adams * Harry Belafonte *

Alvin Childress Alvin Childress (September 15, 1907 – April 19, 1986) was an American actor, who is best known for playing the cabdriver Amos Jones in the 1950s television comedy series ''Amos 'n' Andy''. Biography Alvin Childress was born in Meridian, Missis ...

* Ruby Dee *

Roger Furman Roger Furman (March 22, 1924 – November 27, 1983) was an American actor, director, playwright, and producer. He was the former founder and owner of New Heritage Repertory Theater, the oldest active theater company in Harlem. He was also a founde ...

* Maxwell Granville *

William Greaves William Greaves (October 8, 1926 – August 25, 2014) was an American documentary filmmaker and a pioneer of film-making. He produced more than two hundred documentary films, and wrote and directed more than half of these. Greaves garnered many ...

Gordon Heath Gordon Heath (September 20, 1918 – August 27, 1991) was an American actor and musician who narrated the animated feature film ''Animal Farm'' (1954) and appeared in the title role of ''The Emperor Jones'' (1953) and ''Othello'' (1955), both l ...

Earle Hyman Earle Hyman (born George Earle Plummer; October 11, 1926 – November 17, 2017) was an American stage, television, and film actor. Hyman is known for his role on '' ThunderCats'' as the voice of Panthro and various other characters. He also ap ...

* Rosetta LeNoire * Helen Martin * Sidney Poitier *

Hilda Simms Hilda Simms ( Moses; April 15, 1918 – February 6, 1994) was an American stage actress, best known for her starring role on Broadway in '' Anna Lucasta''. Early years Hilda Simms was born Hilda Moses in Minneapolis, Minnesota, one of 9 siblings ...

Gallery

(Selection was limited by availability.) File:Osceolaadams.jpg, Actress-director Osceola Archer, n.d. File:Portrait of Countee Cullen, in Central Park LCCN2004662756.jpg, Playwright

in 1948. File:Civil Rights March on Washington, D.C. (Actor Ossie Davis.) - NARA - 542018.jpg, Actor

in 1963. File:Frederick ONeal.jpg, Actor

in 1958. File:Ruby Dee - 1972.jpg, Actress Ruby Dee in 1972. File:Portrait of Earle Hyman, as Dunois in Shaw's St. Joan LCCN2004663052.tif, Actor Early Hyman in 1956. File:JPJ CD2.gif, Composer

James P. Johnson James Price Johnson (February 1, 1894 – November 17, 1955) was an American pianist and composer. A pioneer of stride piano, he was one of the most important pianists in the early era of recording, and like Jelly Roll Morton, one of the key ...

in 1921. File:Canada-Lee-Native-Son-1941.jpg, Actor

Canada Lee Canada Lee (born Leonard Lionel Cornelius Canegata; March 3, 1907 – May 9, 1952) was an American professional boxer and then an actor who pioneered roles for African Americans. After careers as a jockey, boxer and musician, he became an actor ...

in 1941. File:Sidney Poitier 1968.jpg, Actor Sidney Poitier in 1968. File:Anna-Lucasta-Simms.jpg, Actress Hilda Sims in 1944.

References

Bibliography

*Hill, Errol G. and Hatch, James V. ''A History of African American theatre''. United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press, 2003. *Hill, Errol, ed. ''The theatre of Black Americans. Vol. 2.'' Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1980. Print. Twentieth Century Views.
Belafonte, Harry, Interview of Harry Belafonte by Cornel West, June 3, 1996
in ''Restoring Hope: Conversations on the Future of Black America''. Sealey, Kelvin Shawn (ed.), Boston, MA:

Beacon Press Beacon Press is an American left-wing non-profit book publisher. Founded in 1854 by the American Unitarian Association, it is currently a department of the Unitarian Universalist Association. It is known for publishing authors such as James Bal ...

, 1997.

External links

Black Theatre Companies: Black Theatre Matters
* *Video
Remembering Our American Negro Theatre on Its 75th Anniversary
{{Authority control Performing arts in New York City 1940 establishments in New York City Arts organizations established in 1940 African-American arts organizations African-American theatre companies Black theatre Theatres in New York City Harlem Former theatres in Manhattan Defunct Theatre companies in New York City