![Penumbra Theatre Company entrance](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/76/Penumbra_Theatre_Company_entrance.jpg)
The Penumbra Theatre Company, an
African-American
African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American ...
theatre company in
Saint Paul
Paul; grc, Παῦλος, translit=Paulos; cop, ⲡⲁⲩⲗⲟⲥ; hbo, פאולוס השליח (previously called Saul of Tarsus;; ar, بولس الطرسوسي; grc, Σαῦλος Ταρσεύς, Saũlos Tarseús; tr, Tarsuslu Pavlus; ...
,
Minnesota
Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to ...
, was founded by
Lou Bellamy in 1976. The theater has been recognized for its artistic quality and its role in launching the careers of playwrights including two-time
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize () is an award for achievements in newspaper, magazine, online journalism, literature, and musical composition within the United States. It was established in 1917 by provisions in the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made h ...
-winner
August Wilson
August Wilson ( Frederick August Kittel Jr.; April 27, 1945 – October 2, 2005) was an American playwright. He has been referred to as the "theater's poet of Black America". He is best known for a series of ten plays, collectively called ' (or ...
.
In 2020 the company announced its transformation into The Penumbra Center for Racial Healing.
Origins
Due to displacement and segregation in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, many African Americans were aided by
settlement homes for not only economic and social services, but programming for the arts as well. The
Hallie Q. Brown Community Center of
Saint Paul, Minnesota
Saint Paul (abbreviated St. Paul) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital of the U.S. state of Minnesota and the county seat of Ramsey County, Minnesota, Ramsey County. Situated on high bluffs overlooking a bend in the Mississip ...
much like the
South Side Settlement house in
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
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and
Henry Street Settlement house in
New York
New York most commonly refers to:
* New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
* New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States
New York may also refer to:
Film and television
* '' ...
, wanted to invest more in its art programming because it gave community members the tools to craft a voice within a community through visual arts, music, literature, and theatre. These centers were not only a popular outlet for entertainment, but also a critical part of the
Black Arts Movement
The Black Arts Movement (BAM) was an African American-led art movement that was active during the 1960s and 1970s. Through activism and art, BAM created new cultural institutions and conveyed a message of black pride. The movement expanded from ...
where African Americans spoke out about racial inequalities and allowed them to shape a sense of identity. The Hallie Q. Brown Community Center's second executive director, Henry R. Thomas, drafted a construction plan to incorporate a fully functional theater within its Martin Luther King Jr. facility to support these demands.
In 1976, the
Comprehensive Employment and Training Act
The Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (CETA, ) was a United States federal law enacted by the Congress, and signed into law by President Richard Nixon on December 28, 1973 to train workers and provide them with jobs in the public service. ...
(CETA) awarded the Hallie Q. Brown Community Center a $150,000 grant to further develop its cultural arts programming. The
CETA funding enabled the appointment of
Lou Bellamy, a theatre arts graduate student at
University of Minnesota
The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Tw ...
, as the center's cultural arts director where he later founded the Penumbra Theatre Company. In 1991 Penumbra transitioned to a separate organization, independent of the Hallie Q. Brown Community Center.
Early Seasons
''Eden (1976)'' by
Steve Carter was the first production to launch of the 1977–78 season of the Penumbra Theatre Company. It explores diversity of ethnicities within the African-American community. The
Negro Ensemble Company
The Negro Ensemble Company (NEC) is a New York City-based theater company and workshop established in 1967 by playwright Douglas Turner Ward, producer-actor Robert Hooks, and theater manager Gerald S. Krone, with funding from the Ford Foundation. ...
had recently premiered this performance, giving the Penumbra a direct tie to the
Black Arts movement
The Black Arts Movement (BAM) was an African American-led art movement that was active during the 1960s and 1970s. Through activism and art, BAM created new cultural institutions and conveyed a message of black pride. The movement expanded from ...
. Another relation to the movement is
Ed Bullins
Edward Artie Bullins (July 2, 1935November 13, 2021), sometimes publishing as Kingsley B. Bass Jr, was an American playwright. He won awards including the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award and several Obie Awards. Bullins was associated with ...
, a prominent editor, theorist, and playwright who wrote Penumbra's second production, the 1975 Broadway transfer of ''The Taking of Miss Jane''. The third production, ''Heartland, Louisiana'', showcases original work by Penumbra's resident playwright, Horace Bond, who was Bellamy's former graduate advisor and mentor. Bond focused mainly on developing African-American productions, particularly in the south. This proved successful in captivating and connecting African-American audiences who either grew up in the heavily segregated south and moved to northern cities or had relatives that had done so. For the fourth production, the Company staged the historic work of
William Wells Brown
William Wells Brown (c. 1814 – November 6, 1884) was a prominent abolitionist lecturer, novelist, playwright, and historian in the United States. Born into slavery in Montgomery County, Kentucky, near the town of Mount Sterling, Brown escape ...
’s
''The Escape; or, a Leap for Freedom''. Penumbra chose to actively produce plays that dealt with the implications and practices of
minstrelsy in an effort to further investigate the history of African-American theatre.
Penumbra initially identified itself as a multiracial company. While the company’s members, staff, and audience has always been ethnically diverse, their leadership and productions have a distinguishable dominance of African-American culture.
[Mahala, Macelle (2013). Penumbra: The Premiere Stage for African American Drama. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. p. 9.] As its first few seasons continued, it began to fully emerge as an African-American theatre company.
Black Theater
In Penumbra, Bellamy and the other founders explored what black theater could be. "What has emerged is a style informed and shaped by the community in which this theater resides," Bellamy said. "I want to reflect that community and speak to it." Over time that has come to mean specifically black theater for black audiences, but open to everyone; incorporating historical works of
Langston Hughes
James Mercer Langston Hughes (February 1, 1901 – May 22, 1967) was an American poet, social activist, novelist, playwright, and columnist from Joplin, Missouri. One of the earliest innovators of the literary art form called jazz poetry, Hug ...
, new works of August Wilson, adaptions of
Zora Neale Hurston
Zora Neale Hurston (January 7, 1891 – January 28, 1960) was an American author, anthropologist, and filmmaker. She portrayed racial struggles in the early-1900s American South and published research on Hoodoo (spirituality), hoodoo. The most ...
's stories and ''Black Nativity,'' Penumbra's annual Christmas show, all infused with the essence of black vernacular.
Twin Cities theater critic Peter Vaughan attributed Penumbra's national success to these factors: strong artistic quality, solid long-range strategic plan, emphasis on hiring experienced administrators, and increased corporate and foundation support.
"Bellamy.. insists that black theater – which he defines as stories of the black experience, rooted in the black community, as told by blacks – can only be done correctly with a deep understanding of black literature and culture, including the impact of slavery. Without that background, Bellamy says, a director is likely to overlook or misread clues embedded in the text – everything from West-African story motifs to the tendency of a race cowed by slavery to hide learning rather than to celebrate it."
Company Members
Original ensemble
Estelene Bell, Phil Blackwell, Danny Clark, Gordon Cronce, Laura Drake, Mazi Johnson, Ruth Lasila, Tia Mann, Jay Patterson, Claude Purdy, Faye M. Price, Abdul Salaam El Razzac, G. Travis Williams, James A. Williams,
Marion McClinton
Marion Isaac McClinton (July 26, 1954 – November 28, 2019) was an American theatre director, playwright, and actor. He was nominated for the Tony Award for ''King Hedley II''. He won the 2000 Vivian Robinson Audelco Black Theatre Awards, Direc ...
and
August Wilson
August Wilson ( Frederick August Kittel Jr.; April 27, 1945 – October 2, 2005) was an American playwright. He has been referred to as the "theater's poet of Black America". He is best known for a series of ten plays, collectively called ' (or ...
Original staff
Ken Evins, W. J. E. “Strider” Hammer, Scott Peters, Scott Price, Anne Deem, Craig Theisen, Richard Thompson, Ron Schultz, and Mary Winchell
Notable company members
August Wilson. Penumbra helped launch Pulitzer-Prize-winning playwright and poet
August Wilson
August Wilson ( Frederick August Kittel Jr.; April 27, 1945 – October 2, 2005) was an American playwright. He has been referred to as the "theater's poet of Black America". He is best known for a series of ten plays, collectively called ' (or ...
early in his career. Encouraged to move to St. Paul from his native Pittsburgh in 1978 by his friend Claude Purdy, he started to write from his experience.
Wilson's first play, ''
Black Bart and the Sacred Hills'' (1977), and later ''
Jitney!'' (1982) premiered at the Penumbra Theater. His work is still regularly played on the Penumbra stage.
“We are what we imagine ourselves to be, and we can only imagine what we know to be possible. The founding of Penumbra Theatre enlarged that possibility. And its corresponding success provokes the community to a higher expectation of itself. I became a playwright because I saw where my chosen profession was being sanctioned by a group of black men and women who were willing to invest their lives and their talent in assuming a responsibility for our presence in the world and the conduct of our industry as black Americans."
- August Wilson, Written to commemorate the 20th anniversary of The Penumbra Theatre Company in 1996
Lou Bellamy founded the Penumbra theater in 1976, and remained the artistic director of the company until 2017, when the position was filled by his daughter, Sarah Bellamy.
He has served as the Associate Professor at the
University of Minnesota
The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Tw ...
in the Department of Theatre Arts and Dance for over 30 years. Lou Bellamy is largely credited for the artistic success of the Penumbra theater, as he is responsible for hiring and gestating some of the theater's more celebrated artists (Including writer
August Wilson
August Wilson ( Frederick August Kittel Jr.; April 27, 1945 – October 2, 2005) was an American playwright. He has been referred to as the "theater's poet of Black America". He is best known for a series of ten plays, collectively called ' (or ...
and director
Claude Purdy).
In May 2001, Lou Bellamy won an
Obie award
The Obie Awards or Off-Broadway Theater Awards are annual awards originally given by ''The Village Voice'' newspaper to theatre artists and groups in New York City. In September 2014, the awards were jointly presented and administered with the A ...
for his directorial contribution to
August Wilson
August Wilson ( Frederick August Kittel Jr.; April 27, 1945 – October 2, 2005) was an American playwright. He has been referred to as the "theater's poet of Black America". He is best known for a series of ten plays, collectively called ' (or ...
's
Two Trains Running
''Two Trains Running'' is a 1990 play by American playwright August Wilson, the sixth in his ten-part series ''The Pittsburgh Cycle''. The play takes place in 1968 in the Hill District, an African-American neighborhood in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. ...
.
Programing
The 135-seat theater serves as a space to showcase the exploration of the African-American experience. Each year, Penumbra performs for over 40,000 people and conducts educational outreach workshops for more than 5,000 students. The theater employs more actors, choreographers, dancers, directors, and administrators of color than all other theaters in Minnesota combined.
Located at St Paul's Hallie Q. Brown Community Center in the Martin Luther King Center building, the Penumbra is the largest of three African-American theaters in the United States, has nurtured important talents and created unique spaces for the black voice past and present.
Cornerstone
In 1984, Penumbra theatre launched the Cornerstone New Play Contest to provide a realistic opportunity for new black playwrights who were just starting out. They intended to continue performing black classics, but wanted to expand in to new work as well. Cornerstone was instantly successful as ''Jitney'' by August Wilson was the first script produced that year.
Ten years later, over 300 scripts were submitted for consideration, and Penumbra became able to offer a cash award thanks to a grant from the
Jerome Foundation
James Jerome Hill II (March 2, 1905 – November 21, 1972) was an American filmmaker and artist known for his award-winning documentary and experimental films.
Career
Hill was the child of railroad executive Louis W. Hill.
He was educated at Y ...
.
Outreach initiatives
In addition to theatrical performances, the Penumbra Theater also runs public events, dialogues, workshops and a variety of other events aimed at social awareness. Programs include the Fund for Improvement of Post-Secondary Education, workshops on race, a summer institute for teenagers, and performances and internships for students.
Critical reception and awards
* In 2000,
Danny Glover
Danny Lebern Glover (; born July 22, 1946) is an American actor, film director, and political activist. He is widely known for his lead role as Roger Murtaugh in the ''Lethal Weapon'' film series. He also had leading roles in his films include ...
presented the Penumbra Theatre company with the Jujamcyn Award in New York City, putting the company on the top list of regional theatres.
References
Further reading
*
External links
Penumbra Theatre Company home pagePenumbra Theatre Company Records 1976 – 2012University of Minnesota Libraries
{{Authority control
African-American history in Minneapolis–Saint Paul
African-American theatre companies
Black theatre
Theatre companies in Saint Paul, Minnesota
Theatres in Minnesota
Arts organizations established in 1976