James Light (1894 – February 11, 1964) was an American theatre director, actor, and educator. He is best remembered as a champion of the playwright Eugene O'Neill, and he directed many of his plays both on Broadway and in regional theaters. He was a member of the Provincetown Players, and he succeeded

George Cram Cook George Cram Cook or Jig Cook (October 7, 1873 – January 14, 1924) was an American theatre producer, director, playwright, novelist, poet, and university professor. Believing it was his personal mission to inspire others, Cook led the fou ...

as director of that organization in 1922. During the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

, he was director of the "Philadelphia Black Unit" of the

Federal Theatre Project The Federal Theatre Project (FTP; 1935–1939) was a theatre program established during the Great Depression in the United States, Great Depression as part of the New Deal to fund live artistic performances and entertainment programs in the United ...

; an organization dedicated to fighting racial discrimination in hiring practices in the American theatre by producing plays with all-black casts. He taught on the faculties of the Yale School of Drama and The New School for Social Research; serving as the dean of the drama school at the latter institution from 1939 to 1942.

Early life and education

Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1894,Cowley, p. 699 Light was the son of an English building contractor who was working on a project in Pittsburgh at the time of Light's birth. He returned to England with his parents while still an infant and did not return to the United States until he was fourteen years old. He graduated from Peabody High School where he befriended his classmate Kenneth Burke who later became a prominent literary theorist. Light began his college education at the Carnegie Institute of Technology in painting and architecture.Kennedy, p. 248 He ultimately abandoned his studies in art and transferred to Ohio State University (OSU) where he graduated with degrees in English literature and philosophy. He was a swimmer on the OSU swim team, and also served as editor of the OSU magazine ''Sansculotte''. In 1917 Light graduated from OSU and moved to New York City after earning a scholarship to pursue graduate studies in philosophy at Columbia University. He was later awarded a

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the ar ...

in 1929 which allowed him to pursue further studies in drama in Europe.

Actor and director

Light's first apartment building in New York housed three members of the Provincetown Players, one of them Eugene O'Neill, and he met them on his first day in New York City while moving into the building. These relationships led him to join the Provincetown Players as an actor; beginning with the role of the English teacher in

Susan Glaspell Susan Keating Glaspell (July 1, 1876 – July 28, 1948) was an American playwright, novelist, journalist and actress. With her husband George Cram Cook, she founded the Provincetown Players, the first modern American theatre company. First known ...

's ''Close the Book''. He went on to portray 33 more roles with the company, and was ultimately made a member of the executive committee managing the theatre troupe. In 1922 he succeeded

as director of Provincetown Players, and along with O'Neill,

Kenneth Macgowan Kenneth Macgowan (November 30, 1888 – April 27, 1963) was an American film producer. He won an Academy Award for Best Color Short Film for ''La Cucaracha'' (1934), the first live-action short film made in the three-color Technicolor process. Bi ...

, and Robert Edmond Jones was instrumental in transforming that group of creatives into the Experimental Theatre, Inc. in 1923. Light made his Broadway debut as an actor on February 4, 1921; portraying Captain Caleb Williams in the original production of O'Neill's ''

Diff'rent ''Diff'rent'' is a two-act tragedy written by American playwright Eugene O'Neill. The story concerns a woman who rejects her fiancée over a single infidelity act of and much later becomes engaged to another man who turns out to have poor charact ...

'' at the Princess Theatre. He starred in only one more play on Broadway, the role of Baron Skansenkorge in August Strindberg's '' The Spook Sonata'' (1923), before completely re-orienting his career away from acting into directing. The first play he directed on Broadway was O'Neill's '' All God's Chillun Got Wings'' in 1924.Mannheim, p. 100 The play featured an interracial couple with the black actor Paul Robeson in the role of Jim Harris opposite the white actress Mary Blair in the role of his wife Ella Downey. The decision by O'Neill and Light to portray a racially mixed couple was controversial for the time period, and both men received threats from the

Ku Klux Klan The Ku Klux Klan (), commonly shortened to the KKK or the Klan, is an American white supremacist, right-wing terrorist, and hate group whose primary targets are African Americans, Jews, Latinos, Asian Americans, Native Americans, and ...

and poison pen letters.Blansfield, p. 646-647 Light's other Broadway credits as director include

Hatcher Hughes Hatcher Hughes (12 February 1881, Polkville, North Carolina – 19 October 1945, New York City) was an American playwright who lived in Grover, NC, as featured in the book ''Images of America''. He was on the teaching staff of Columbia Uni ...

's ''Ruint'' (1925), William Shakespeare's '' Hamlet'' (1925), Strindberg's '' The Dream Play'' (1926), O'Neill's ''

The Great God Brown ''The Great God Brown'' is a play by Eugene O'Neill, first staged in 1926. O'Neill began writing notes for the play in 1922 – "Play of masks – removable – the man who really is and the mask he wears before the world" – and wrote the play be ...

'' (1926), O'Neill's '' The Emperor Jones'' (1926),

Mrs. Henry Wood Ellen Price (17 January 1814 – 10 February 1887) was an English novelist better known as Mrs. Henry Wood. She is best remembered for her 1861 novel ''East Lynne''. Many of her books sold well internationally and were widely read in the United ...

's ''

East Lynne ''East Lynne'' is an English sensation novel of 1861 by Ellen Wood, writing as Mrs Henry Wood. A Victorian best-seller, it is remembered chiefly for its elaborate and implausible plot, centring on infidelity and double identities. There have ...

'' (1926),

Lajos Egri Lajos N. Egri (June 4, 1888 – February 7, 1967) was a Hungarian-American playwright and teacher of creative writing. He is the author of ''The Art of Dramatic Writing'', which is widely regarded as one of the best works on the subject of playw ...

's '' Rapid Transit'' (1927),

E.E. Cummings Edward Estlin Cummings, who was also known as E. E. Cummings, e. e. cummings and e e cummings (October 14, 1894 - September 3, 1962), was an American poet, painter, essayist, author and playwright. He wrote approximately 2,900 poems, two autobi ...

's '' Him'' (1928),

Kenneth Raisbeck Kenneth is an English given name and surname. The name is an Anglicised form of two entirely different Gaelic personal names: ''Cainnech'' and '' Cináed''. The modern Gaelic form of ''Cainnech'' is ''Coinneach''; the name was derived from a byna ...

's ''Rock Me, Julie'' (1931), Archibald MacLeish's '' Panic'' (1935),

Virgil Geddes Virgil Geddes (1897–1989) was an American playwright. Geddes grew up in rural Nebraska, the setting for his plays ''The Earth Between'', and ''Native Ground''. He did not go to college. He spent several years in Paris where he met and mar ...

's ''Native Ground'' (1937), Pedro Calderón de la Barca's ''

The Mayor of Zalamea ''The Mayor of Zalamea'' ( es, El Alcalde de Zalamea) is a play written by Pedro Calderón de la Barca (1600–1681) during the Golden Age of Spanish drama. It was probably written in 1636. It pays homage to a play by the same name by Lope de Ve ...

'' (1945), and Sophocles's ''

Oedipus Rex ''Oedipus Rex'', also known by its Greek title, ''Oedipus Tyrannus'' ( grc, Οἰδίπους Τύραννος, ), or ''Oedipus the King'', is an Athenian tragedy by Sophocles that was first performed around 429 BC. Originally, to the ancient Gr ...

'' (1945) among others. An opponent of racial discrimination, Light was appointed Director of the "Philadelphia Black Unit" of the

(FTP) in 1936; a branch of the FTP whose mission was to create employment opportunities for black performers in order to combat institutional racism in the American theatre. He was appointed to that post by actress

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 n ...

who oversaw FTP's African American theatre units nationally. Light had worked with McClendon earlier when he directed her in the Broadway production of Annie Nathan Meyer's anti-racism drama ''

Black Souls ''Black Souls'' ( it, Anime nere) is a 2014 Italian-French crime drama film directed by Francesco Munzi. It was nominated for the Golden Lion at the 71st Venice International Film Festival. It was also selected to be screened in the Contemporar ...

'' in 1932; a work which centered around the lynching of an innocent black man on the campus of a college in the American south. Working closely with Jasper Deeter and the Hedgerow Theatre among other Philadelphia impresarios, Light directed, produced, and promoted numerous plays with all-black casts in Philadelphia during the mid to late 1930s through his work with the FTP.Witham, Introduction and Chapter 1 He continued to pursue other projects to promote black artists after the

. His final directing assignment on Broadway was a revival of Aristophanes's '' Lysistrata'' at the Belasco Theatre that starred an all-black cast led by Etta Moten Barnett in the title role and

Sidney Poitier Sidney Poitier ( ; February 20, 1927 – January 6, 2022) was an American actor, film director, and diplomat. In 1964, he was the first black actor and first Bahamian to win the Academy Award for Best Actor. He received two competitive ...

as Polydorus in 1946.Goudsouzian, p. 394

Educator

In 1928 Light was appointed director of the Yale Dramatic Association at the Yale School of Drama. He joined the faculty of The New School for Social Research (NSSR) in the 1930s, and ultimately became the Dean of NSSR's

School of Drama A drama school, stage school or theatre school is an undergraduate and/or graduate school or department at a college or university; or a free-standing institution (such as the Drama section at the Juilliard School); which specializes in the pre ...

from 1939 to 1942.

Personal life and death

Light was married twice. His first marriage to Sue Jenkins ended in divorce. His second marriage was to Patti Margolies. He died at the age of 69 at his home in Manhattan on February 11, 1964.

References

Citations

Bibliography

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External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Light, James 1894 births 1964 deaths American stage actors American theatre directors Carnegie Mellon University alumni Columbia University alumni David Geffen School of Drama at Yale University faculty Federal Theatre Project people Male actors from Pittsburgh Ohio State University alumni The New School faculty