When Lorraine Hansberry commented on her masterpiece A Raisin in the Sun she commented that her play was an American story as opposed to an African American story. The basis for this assertion rests in the fact that most of the family in this play could have been Italian, Polish or Spanish and the play still would have worked. There is something distinctly American about the struggle for upward mobility. The problem I have with this assert is the implication that the African American experience is divorced from the American experience. This idea leads to the question of what makes art specifically African American.
Bill T Jones stated that no matter the form or style of the art he does it is black art because the artist is black. There is a universal language in art that does allow forms and styles to be adopted by people other than those who originated it. This story about an American family struggle to get ahead is told through realism. The style of realism may be why the play was so well received. If the same story had been told through the style of Yoruba performance ritual or Noh theatre would it have worked for American audiences? In the 1950s the play probably would not have been as well received or well understood had it been told in a style deemed more “ethnic”. I contend that Lorraine Hansberry choice to tell this story through realism is very justified.
First off, what is an African American style? Not all African Americans are Yoruba descendents so that is not our style. Also, let us not deny the affect the African American culture has had on the larger culture as a whole. Therefore, any American style or story is by its very nature part African American due to African American influence in this culture.
Lorraine Hansberry had no need to describe her story as an “American” story. Any African American story will be an American story. Most of the struggles of African Americans have their roots in class struggles which cross race lines.
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You raise an interesting argument in this response. I struggle with where my opinion lands on this subject. On one hand, I agree that this is an American experience told in this play. It is true, it could have been written for another culture and would have still worked. However, there are specific issues that are sensitive and specific to the African American experience. So the question is still raised...what makes a play an African American Play?
Is it the vernacular in the writing? Then one may argue a sound definition of what that may be? Like many others, I would be offended if the masses assume that their is a "specific" way in which all African American talks.
Is it specific subject matter that causes the label? For example...If I wrote a play about the transformation of natural hair to a relaxed style?
Does it directly relate to what audience base the writer wants to target the production for?
Like I said before, I don't know the answer. I think of August Wilson's work. His body of work does a wonderful job portraying the African American experience. On the flip, it embodies the american experience because these were the conditions that African Americans had to endure during those specific time frames that he writes about. Even saying all of this, I still would put his plays under the title of an African American Play.
My conflict with this topic is transparent and honest. I don't know if I will ever agree on one set answer.
Triza you really drove home some really important points with this entry. I agree with you that it is not fair or even possible to define what exactly it means to be African-American theatre. Obviously we all have different ways of looking at it. For example look at the two examples you cited. Both Bill T Jones and Lorraine Hansberry are esteemed theatre artists whose opinions should be highly regarded. This being said they have very different views about what can be considered black theatre.
I agree that Lorraine Hansberry's assertion that "A Raisin in the Sun" is not black theatre but American theatre is flawed in that it negates the uniqueness of the African American experience. However I am a firm believer in always honoring the integrity of the playwright when it comes to theatre. I feel like every playwright has the right to classify their work however they want to classify it. Weather or not people agree with them is another story but that right is and always will be theirs.
When Jones says that the work takes on the identity of the creator I say to myself , ok that makes sense. The problem I have with this statement is how then do you classify works where playwrights write out side of how they personally identify. For example for this recent studio slot we had a white female write and direct a play entirely about the African American experience. How then does this play classify. When I see it I say, ok this is about black people so it is a black play. Then, I see that the playwright is white so is it a white play?
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