[Rarebooks] FS: The Beginnings of African-American theater, 1917, price greatly reduced

[Charles Agvent]

Price reduced:     Was $450,      Now $300

TORRENCE, Ridgely. GRANNY MAUMEE. THE RIDER OF DREAMS. SIMON THE 
CYRENIAN. PLAYS FOR A NEGRO THEATRE. New York: Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 
1917. First Edition. Cloth-backed boards. This collection of plays by 
the white playwright Torrence was published the same month as their 
first production on Broadway (with perhaps the first Black actors to 
appear in leading roles on Broadway), a production James Weldon Johnson 
in BLACK MANHATTAN called "the most important single event in the entire 
history of the Negro in the American theatre.... It was the first time 
anywhere in the United States for Negroes in the dramatic theatre to 
command the serious attention of the critics and of the general press 
and public." Raoul Abdul in his article "The Negro Playwright on 
Broadway" dates the true beginning of African-American theatre to the 
date these one-act plays premiered: "These plays by a white poet opened 
two great doors: the door to the use of Negro life as material for 
serious theatre and the door to acceptance of Negro actors as performers 
in non-musical theatre." An important and scarce book, especially in 
this condition. Fine in a Near Fine dustwrapper with small chips at the 
rear. (#001276) $300.00

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