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• Black Theater, City Life: African American Art Institutions and Urban Cultural Ecologies by Macelle Mahala
• Sandra M. Mayo

Theatre historian and educator Macelle Mahala sharpens our understanding of cultural ecology as she documents the relationship between race, historical moment, and milieu in the perseverance and survival of African American theatres. In Black Theater, City Life: African American Art Institutions and [End Page 127] Urban Cultural Ecologies, Mahala focuses on theatres in Cleveland, Pittsburgh, San Francisco, and Atlanta, chronicling their missions, development, challenges, and memorable productions. She juxtaposes this overview with an analysis of the interrelationship between these arts organizations and the communities they serve.

Mahala’s work addresses the scarcity of scholarship on regional theatres. African American theatre historical narratives have often concentrated on the New York area (e.g., Loften Mitchell’s Black Drama, 1967), have given only a brief review of theatre in the regions outside of New York in larger narratives (e.g., Errol Hill and James Hatch’s A History of African American Theatre, 2003), or have developed the history through the work of major writers (e.g., Leslie Catherine Sanders’s The Development of Black Theater in America, 1988). In this regional focus, Mahala’s book joins Jonathan Shandell’s The American Negro Theatre and the Long Civil Rights Era (2019), Sandra M. Mayo and Elvin Holt’s Stages of Struggle and Celebration: A Production History of Black Theatre in Texas (2016), and Harvey Young and Queen Meccasia Zabriskie’s Black Theatre Is Black Life: An Oral History of Chicago Theater and Dance, 1970–2010 (2014). An in-depth study of regional theatres, as achieved by Mahala, complements and broadens our understanding of theatre in America. For example, Hill and Hatch’s laudable study of African American theatre has only a few paragraphs on the arts in the Atlanta area. Mahala addresses this paucity with a chapter that addresses production histories, notable artists, and community partnerships in enlightening detail.

Chapter 1 begins the narrative with Karamu House in Cleveland, founded in 1915 as part of the settlement house program designed to help new immigrants acclimate to the city. This summary of over one hundred years surveys the evolution of the institution from a recreation program to a nationally acclaimed theatre, starting with a children’s theatre initiative. Inspired by actor Charles Gilpin of Eugene O’Neill’s Emperor Jones, Karamu organized the Gilpin Players, originally the Dumas Dramatic Club. Throughout the chapter, Mahala documents the theatre’s policy of colorblind and nontraditional casting, arguing that they reflected the diverse community they served. The chapter showcases Karamu’s storied history of producing folk plays (stories of rural life) in the 1920s, nurturing and inspiring Langston Hughes in the 1930s, and serving as a producing unit of the Federal Theatre also in the 1930s. As Mahala narrates, despite a number of early challenges (the Depression, the destruction of their building by fire, and the disruption of World War II), the company nevertheless engaged with the civil rights movement in the 1960s, the Black Power movement of the 1970s, and witnessed the ascent of August Wilson in the 1980s and ’90s.

In chapter 2, Mahala moves on to representative African American theatres in Pittsburgh that benefited from the amazing success of one of their own, August Wilson. The theatres she focuses on include the Black Horizons Theatre (founded in 1868), Kuntu Repertory Theatre (1974), Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre Company (2003), and the August Wilson African American Cultural Center (2009). This more expansive constellation of organizations allows her to reveal theatres’ engagement through the arts with the Black Power movement, the University of Pittsburgh, street festivals, community uplift programs, youth, and local playwrights.

Chapter 3 takes the reader west, chronicling the Bay Area and focusing first on the Black Repertory Group Theater (founded in 1964). The company was initially housed in and supported by Downs Memorial Methodist Church before relocating in 1987 to a new home in Berkeley, California, funded by the city and other community partners. Mahala continues with the Lorraine Hansberry Theatre (1981...

 审阅者：

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  黑色剧院，城市生活：非裔美国艺术机构和城市文化生态 作者：Macelle Mahala
•  桑德拉·M·梅奥

戏剧历史学家和教育家马塞勒·马哈拉 (Macelle Mahala) 记录了非裔美国戏剧的坚持和生存中种族、历史时刻和环境之间的关系，加深了我们对文化生态的理解。在《黑人剧院》、《城市生活：非裔美国艺术机构》和《城市文化生态》中，马哈拉重点关注克利夫兰、匹兹堡、旧金山和亚特兰大的剧院，记录了它们的使命、发展、挑战和令人难忘的作品。她将这一概述与对这些艺术组织及其所服务的社区之间相互关系的分析并列起来。

马哈拉的作品解决了地区剧院奖学金稀缺的问题。非裔美国戏剧历史叙事往往集中在纽约地区（例如，洛夫滕·米切尔的《黑色戏剧》，1967），在更大的叙事中仅对纽约以外地区的戏剧进行了简要回顾（例如，埃罗尔·希尔和詹姆斯·哈奇的非裔美国戏剧史，2003），或者通过主要作家的作品发展了历史（例如莱斯利·凯瑟琳·桑德斯的《美国黑人戏剧的发展》，1988）。在这一区域焦点上，玛哈拉的书与乔纳森·尚德尔的《美国黑人剧院和漫长的民权时代》（2019年）、桑德拉·M·梅奥和埃尔文·霍尔特的《斗争与庆典的阶段：德克萨斯州黑人剧院的制作历史》（2016年）以及哈维·杨和麦卡西亚·扎布里斯基女王的《黑色剧院就是黑色生活：芝加哥戏剧和舞蹈的口述历史，1970-2010》（2014）。马哈拉对地区剧院的深入研究补充并拓宽了我们对美国戏剧的理解。例如，希尔和哈奇对非裔美国戏剧的值得称赞的研究只有几段关于亚特兰大地区的艺术。马哈拉用一章来解决这一问题，其中详细介绍了制作历史、著名艺术家和社区合作伙伴关系。

第一章从克利夫兰的卡穆之家开始叙述，该之家成立于 1915 年，是旨在帮助新移民适应这座城市的定居之家计划的一部分。这份对一百多年的总结回顾了该机构从一个娱乐节目到一个全国知名剧院的演变，从儿童戏剧倡议开始。受到尤金·奥尼尔的《琼斯皇帝》中演员查尔斯·吉尔平的启发，卡穆组织了吉尔平演员团，最初是杜马斯戏剧俱乐部。在整章中，马哈拉记录了剧院的色盲和非传统选角政策，认为它们反映了他们所服务的多元化社区。本章展示了卡穆在 1920 年代制作民间戏剧（乡村生活故事）、在 1930 年代培养和启发兰斯顿·休斯以及在 1930 年代担任联邦剧院制作单位的传奇历史。正如 Mahala 所叙述的那样，尽管早期遇到了许多挑战（大萧条、建筑物被大火烧毁以及第二次世界大战的破坏），该公司仍然参与了 20 世纪 60 年代的民权运动、1960 年代的黑人权力运动。 20世纪70年代，见证了奥古斯特·威尔逊在20世纪80年代和90年代的崛起。

在第二章中，马哈拉转向匹兹堡具有代表性的非裔美国剧院，这些剧院受益于他们自己的剧院之一奥古斯特·威尔逊的惊人成功。她关注的剧院包括黑色地平线剧院（成立于 1868 年）、昆图剧目剧院（1974 年）、匹兹堡剧作家剧院公司（2003 年）和奥古斯特·威尔逊非裔美国人文化中心（2009 年）。揭示剧院通过艺术与黑人权力运动、匹兹堡大学、街头节日、社区提升计划、青年和当地剧作家的互动。

第 3 章将读者带往西方，记录了湾区的历史，并首先关注黑人剧目剧团剧院（成立于 1964 年）。该公司最初位于唐斯纪念卫理公会教堂 (Downs Memorial Methodist Church) 并得到其支持，随后于 1987 年在该市和其他社区合作伙伴的资助下搬迁至加利福尼亚州伯克利市的新址。 Mahala 继续洛林汉斯伯里剧院 (1981...