|
Blackface
Blackface is the practice of performers using burned cork, shoe polish, or theatrical makeup to portray a caricature of black people on stage or in entertainment. Scholarship on the origins or definition of blackface vary with some taking a global perspective that includes European culture and Western colonialism. Blackface became a global phenomenon as an outgrowth of theatrical practices of racial misrepresentation, racial impersonation popular throughout Britain and its colonial empire, where it was integral to the development of imperial racial politics. Scholars with this wider view may date the practice of blackface to as early as Medieval Europe's mystery plays when bitumen and coal were used to darken the skin of white performers portraying demons, devils, and damned souls. Still others date the practice to English Renaissance theatre, English Renaissance theater, in works such as William Shakespeare's ''Othello''. However, some scholars see blackface as a specific pract ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Minstrel Show
The minstrel show, also called minstrelsy, was an American form of theater developed in the early 19th century. The shows were performed by mostly white actors wearing blackface makeup for the purpose of portraying racial stereotypes of African Americans. There were very few African-American performers and black-only minstrel groups that also formed and toured. Minstrel shows stereotyped blacks as dimwitted, lazy, buffoonish, cowardly, superstitious, and happy-go-lucky.The Coon Character , Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memorabilia, Ferris State University. Retrieved 29 January 2016.John Kenrick , musicals101.com. 1996, revised 2003. Retrieved 9 November 2011. A recurring character was Jim Crow, an exaggerated portray ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stereotypes Of African Americans
Stereotypes of African Americans are misleading beliefs about the African-American culture, culture of people with partial or total ancestry from any Black people, black racial groups of Africa whose ancestors resided in the United States since before 1865. These stereotypes are largely connected to the Racism against African Americans, racism and the Racial discrimination, discrimination faced by African Americans. These beliefs date back to the Slavery in the colonial history of the United States, slavery of black people during the Colonial history of the United States, colonial era and they have evolved within Culture of the United States, American society over time. The first significant display of stereotypes of African Americans was in the form of minstrel shows. Minstrel shows boomed at the beginning in the nineteenth century; these shows were theatrical plays that used White people, white actors who performed in blackface and wore torn attire to portray African-Americ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ayanna Thompson
Ayanna Thompson is Regents Professor of English at Arizona State University and Director of the Arizona Center for Medieval & Renaissance Studies (ACMRS). She was the 2018–19 president of the Shakespeare Association of America. She specializes in Renaissance drama and issues of race in performance. Education Thompson graduated with an A.B. from Columbia University in 1994, where she was a Kluge scholar, and was mentored by Edward Said. She won a Marshall Scholarship to study at the University of Sussex, receiving a Masters in 1995. She received her PhD from Harvard University in 2001. Her doctoral dissertation was ''Depicting Race and Torture on the Early Modern Stage''. Career Thompson was previously an investment banker at Lehman Brothers. Thompson was Professor at Arizona State University 2004-2013 before her appointment at George Washington University. Thompson returned to the Phoenix Arizona region after five years. Thompson served as a Phi Beta Kappa Visiting Scholar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bert Williams
Bert Williams (November 12, 1874 – March 4, 1922) was a Bahamian-born American entertainer, one of the pre-eminent entertainers of the vaudeville era and one of the most popular comedians for all audiences of his time. While some sources have credited him as being the first Black man to have a leading role in a film with '' Darktown Jubilee'' in 1914, other sources have credited actor Sam Lucas with this same distinction for a different 1914 film, the World Film Company's ''Uncle Tom's Cabin''. '' Ebony'' stated that "''Darktown Follies'' was the first attempt of an independent film company to star a black actor in a movie", and credited the work as beginning a period in independent American cinema that explored "black themes" within works made for African-American audiences by independent producers. Williams was by far the best-selling Black recording artist before 1920. In 1918, the '' New York Dramatic Mirror'' called Williams "one of the great comedians of the world." W ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tom Show
Tom show is a general term for any play or musical based (often only loosely) on the 1852 novel ''Uncle Tom's Cabin'' by Harriet Beecher Stowe. The novel attempts to depict the harsh reality of slavery. Due to the weak copyright laws at the time, a number of unauthorized plays based on the novel were staged for decades, many of them mocking the novel's social message, and leading to the pejorative term " Uncle Tom". Even though ''Uncle Tom's Cabin'' was the best-selling novel of the 19th century, far more Americans of that time saw the story in a stage play or musical than read the book."People & Events: Uncle Tom's Cabin Takes the Nation by Storm" ''Stephen Foster'', The American Experience, PBS, accessed April 19, 2007. In 1902, it was reported that a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Othello
''The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice'', often shortened to ''Othello'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare around 1603. Set in Venice and Cyprus, the play depicts the Moorish military commander Othello as he is manipulated by his ensign, Iago, into suspecting his wife Desdemona of infidelity. ''Othello'' is widely considered one of Shakespeare's greatest works and is usually classified among his major tragedies alongside ''Macbeth'', ''King Lear'', and ''Hamlet''. Unpublished in the author's life, the play survives in one quarto edition from 1622 and in the First Folio. ''Othello'' has been one of Shakespeare's most popular plays, both among playgoers and literary critics, since its first performance, spawning numerous stage, screen, and operatic adaptations. Among actors, the roles of Othello, Iago, Desdemona, and Emilia (Iago's wife) are regarded as highly demanding and desirable. Critical attention has focused on the nature of the play's tragedy, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Strausbaugh
John Strausbaugh (born 1951, in Baltimore, Maryland) is an American author, cultural commentator, and host of ''The New York Times'' ''Weekend Explorer'' video podcast series on New York City. Among other topics, he is an authority on the history of New York City. His 2016 book, ''City of Sedition: The History of New York City During the Civil War'', chronicles the localized conflicts between New York constituent groups and how their respective actions helped or hampered President Lincoln's war effort. His most recent book, ''Victory City: A History of New York and New Yorkers during World War II'', was issued by Grand Central Publishing in December 2018. Strausbaugh's 2013 book ''The Village: 400 Years of Beats and Bohemians, Radicals and Rogues, a History of Greenwich Village'' (Ecco) explains the tumultuous events that made New York's Greenwich Village the cultural engine of America. The book is described by Kurt Andersen as "the definitive history of America's bohemian wel ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Uncle Tom's Cabin
''Uncle Tom's Cabin; or, Life Among the Lowly'' is an anti-slavery novel by American author Harriet Beecher Stowe. Published in two Volume (bibliography), volumes in 1852, the novel had a profound effect on attitudes toward African Americans and Slavery in the United States, slavery in the U.S., and is said to have "helped lay the groundwork for the American Civil War". Stowe, a Connecticut-born teacher at the Hartford Female Seminary, was part of the religious Beecher family and an active Abolitionism in the United States, abolitionist. She wrote the sentimental novel to depict the reality of slavery while also asserting that Christian love could overcome slavery. The novel focuses on the character of Uncle Tom, a long-suffering black slave around whom the stories of the other characters revolve. In the United States, ''Uncle Tom's Cabin'' was the best-selling novel and the second best-selling book of the 19th century, following the Bible. It is credited with helping fuel th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Theatrical Makeup
Theatrical makeup is makeup that is used to assist in creating the appearance of the characters that actors portray during a theater production. Background In Greek and Roman theatre, makeup was unnecessary. Actors wore various masks, allowing them to portray another gender, age, or entirely different likeness. Thespis, considered to be the first actor, used white lead and wine to paint his face. In medieval Europe, actors altered their appearances by painting their faces a different color. Performers who portrayed God painted their faces white or gold; actors playing angels painted their faces red. During the Renaissance, actors were creative and resourceful when making-over their faces. They used lamb's wool for false beards and flour as face paint. Advancements in stage lighting technology required stage makeup to evolve beyond one over-all face colour to a multidimensional craft. Originally, theatres used candles and oil lamps; these two sources of light were dim and allo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Louisiana State University
Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, commonly referred to as Louisiana State University (LSU), is an American Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, United States. The university was founded in 1860 near Pineville, Louisiana, under the name Louisiana State Seminary of Learning & Military Academy. The current LSU main campus was dedicated in 1926 and consists of more than 250 buildings constructed in the style of Renaissance, Italian Renaissance architect Andrea Palladio, occupying a plateau on the banks of the Mississippi River. LSU is the Flagship campus, flagship university of the state of Louisiana, as well as the flagship institution of the Louisiana State University System. In 2021, the university enrolled over 28,000 undergraduate and more than 4,500 graduate students in 14 schools and colleges. It is Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, classified ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mystery Play
Mystery plays and miracle plays (they are distinguished as two different forms although the terms are often used interchangeably) are among the earliest formally developed plays in medieval Europe. Medieval mystery plays focused on the representation of Bible stories in churches as tableaux with accompanying antiphonal song. They told of subjects such as the Creation, Adam and Eve, the murder of Abel, and the Last Judgment. Often they were performed together in cycles which could last for days. The name derives from '' mystery'' used in its sense of ''miracle,'' but an occasionally quoted derivation is from ''ministerium'', meaning ''craft'', and so the 'mysteries' or plays performed by the craft guilds. Origins As early as the fifth century, living tableaux were introduced into sacred services. The plays originated as simple ''tropes'', verbal embellishments of liturgical texts, and slowly became more elaborate. At an early period chants from the service of the day were ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Smithsonian (magazine)
''Smithsonian'' is a magazine covering science, history, art, popular culture and innovation. The first issue was published in 1970. History The history of ''Smithsonian'' began when Edward K. Thompson, the retired editor of ''Life'' magazine, was asked by then-Secretary of the Smithsonian, S. Dillon Ripley, to produce a magazine "about things in which the Smithsonian nstitutionis interested, might be interested or ought to be interested." Thompson later recalled that his philosophy for the new magazine was that it "would stir curiosity in already receptive minds. It would deal with history as it is relevant to the present. It would present art, since true art is never dated, in the richest possible reproduction. It would peer into the future via coverage of social progress and of science and technology. Technical matters would be digested and made intelligible by skilled writers who would stimulate readers to reach upward while not turning them off with jargon. We would fin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
