Houghton TCS 44 - James Hewlett as Richard the Third - cropped

The African Grove Theatre opened in

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in 1821. It was founded and operated by William Alexander Brown,Hatch, James V., and Ted Shine. ''Black Theatre USA: Plays by African Americans: The Early Period, 1847––1938''. New York: Free, 1996. 1. Print. a free black man from the

West Indies The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greate ...

.Bernard Peterson
''Early Black American Playwrights and Dramatic Writers: A Biographical Directory and Catalog of Plays, Films, and Broadcasting Scripts''
Greenwood Publishing, 1990, pp. 37–39. It opened six years before the final abolition of slavery in New York state (gradual abolition brought it to an end in 1827, but young people born to slave mothers had to serve apprenticeships to age 21). The African Grove Theatre was attended by "all types of black New Yorkers -- free and slave, middle-class and working-class" along with others. It was the first place where Ira Aldridge, who would later become an esteemed and renowned

Shakespearian William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

actor, first saw a production of a Shakespeare play.

Background

For some years, the African Company—the company of the African Grove—played classics and many other plays with an entirely black cast and crew to mostly black audiences. It was the third of at least four attempts to create a black theater in the city, and the most commercially successful.Lott, Eric. ''Love and Theft: Blackface Minstrelsy and the American Working Class'', New York: Oxford University Press, 1993, p. 44. . At one point the theatre had to build an extra level of seats to house white audiences that wanted to see the performances. After a few years, city officials shut down the African Grove, because of complaints about conduct: conduct that was normal among working-class white New York theatre audiences of the time was considered unacceptably boisterous when displayed by blacks. It is thought that the real reason was because this black theatre was becoming as successful as many other venues. One source says that the theatre was "mysteriously burned to the ground in 1826"."Black Theatre Program"
,

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, Accessed August 14, 2005 "There are no records of the African Grove Theater after 1823."Gonzalez, Anita & Granick, Ian
"Web Lecture #2: African Grove Theater"
''African American Performance''. Accessed December 6, 2005. The theatre was founded by William Alexander Brown, a pioneering actor and playwright from the West Indies. He had worked as a ship's steward at times. Through his work as a ship's steward, he traveled to England and the Caribbean, so he had a broader opportunity to see theatre than the typical New Yorker. The West-Indies-born Brown left a job on a

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ship and bought a house in New York, at 38 Thomas Street. At the start, Brown held performances of the African Grove in his back yard, where he offered food and drink, but also poetry and short drama pieces. At the suggestion of James Hewlett, both an entertainer and a regular customer, together they hired other black actors. The theater's repertoire drew heavily on

Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's natio ...

, with comic

entr'acte (or ', ;Since 1932–35 the French Academy recommends this spelling, with no apostrophe, so historical, ceremonial and traditional uses (such as the 1924 René Clair film title) are still spelled ''Entr'acte''. German: ' and ', Italian: ''inte ...

s. White audience members were confined to a separate section because, in the words of the theater's management, "whites do not know how to conduct themselves at entertainments for ladies and gentlemen of color." The most popular plays were '' Richard III'' and '' Othello''. James Hewlett was the first black man of record to play the leading role in ''Othello''. As was common at the time, the producers adapted Shakespeare's plays. Small casts and smaller budgets required expedients such as that described by the reviewer George Odell, writing of an 1821 performance of ''Richard III'': "A dapper, wooly haired waiter at the City Hotel personated the royal

Plantagenet The House of Plantagenet () was a royal house which originated from the lands of Anjou in France. The family held the English throne from 1154 (with the accession of Henry II at the end of the Anarchy) to 1485, when Richard III died in ...

in robes made up from discarded

merino The Merino is a breed or group of breeds of domestic sheep, characterised by very fine soft wool. It was established in Spain near the end of the Middle Ages, and was for several centuries kept as a strict Spanish monopoly; exports of the bree ...

curtains of the ballroom. Owing to the smallness of the company King Henry and the Duchess were played by one person, and Lady Anne and Catesby by another. Lady Anne, in Act III, sang quite incongruously."Odell, George. ''National Advocate'', September 21, 1821, cited by Gonzalez & Granick. The scholar Laura V. Blanchard identifies Odell's "dapper waiter" as the actor James Hewlett. Frequently harassed by the police, and facing increasing hostility from the white populace, the company moved several times, from Thomas Street north to Bleecker and Mercer Streets. At the time this was the edge of the developed parts of New York City. When Brown moved his theatre from 38 Thomas Street to Bleecker and Mercer Streets, he had a dilemma. Realizing that his theatre now was located too far from its core audience ("free persons of color"), he constructed a theatre building which was near a popular white theater called the Park Theatre. When the Park Theatre—New York City's leading theater of the time— put on ''Richard III'' starring the English

tragedian Tragedy (from the grc-gre, τραγῳδία, ''tragōidia'', ''tragōidia'') is a genre of drama based on human suffering and, mainly, the terrible or sorrowful events that befall a main character. Traditionally, the intention of tragedy i ...

Junius Brutus Booth Junius Brutus Booth (1 May 1796 – 30 November 1852) was an English stage actor. He was the father of actor John Wilkes Booth, the assassin of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln. His other children included Edwin Booth, the foremost tragedian of ...

, the African Company rented a hall next door for its own production of the same play the same night. Theatrical competition was stiff; Stephen Price, owner of the Park, orchestrated (and paid for) a disturbance over the rival productions so that the police would shut down the African Grove. In addition to Shakespeare, the African Company performed original works, which included William A. Brown's now-lost play, '' The Drama of King Shotaway''. It was about a 1795

Black Carib The Garifuna people ( or ; pl. Garínagu in Garifuna) are a people of mixed free African and indigenous American ancestry that originated in the Caribbean island of Saint Vincent and speak Garifuna, an Arawakan language, and Vincentian Creo ...

revolt against British Navy forces on the island of Saint Vincent.Laura V. Blanchard
"Review of Carlyle Brown's 'The African Company Presents Richard III'"
, Richard III Society, December 1995. Accessed August 14, 2005/October 13, 2010. Produced by the African Company in 1823, ''Drama'' is believed to have been the first full-length play by a black American performed in the United States. Despite the frequent changes in location and its short period of productions, the African Grove Theatre was important as a venue for noted African-American actors, such as James Hewlett.

Background

See also

References

Further reading