Coloring Whiteness: Acts of Critique in Black Performance (Theater: Theory/Text/performance) - Softcover

Carpenter, Faedra Chatard

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0472052365 ISBN 13: 9780472052363

Verlag: The University of Michigan Press, 2014

Inhaltsangabe

Coloring Whiteness pays homage to the ways that African American artists and performers have interrogated tropes and mythologies of whiteness to reveal racial inequalities, focusing on comedy sketches, street theater, visual art, video, TV journalism, and voice-over work since 1964. By investigating enactments of whiteness—from the use of white makeup and suggestive masks, to literary motifs and cultural narratives regarding “white” characteristics and qualities—Faedra Chatard Carpenter explores how artists have challenged commonly held notions of racial identity. Through its layered study of expressive culture, her book considers how artistic and performance strategies are used to “color” whiteness and complicate blackness in our contemporary moment.

Utilizing theories of performance and critical race studies, Coloring Whiteness is also propelled by Carpenter’s dramaturgical sensibilities. Her analysis of primary performance texts is informed not only by traditional print and visual materials, but also by her interviews with African American theater artists, visual artists, and cultural critics. The book is an invaluable contribution to the fields of theater and performance studies, African American studies, cultural studies, critical race studies, and American studies.

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorinnen und Autoren

Faedra Chatard Carpenter is a freelance dramaturg and Assistant Professor in the School of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies at the University of Maryland.

Faedra Chatard Carpenter is a freelance dramaturg and Assistant Professor in the School of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies at the University of Maryland.

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Coloring Whiteness

Acts Of Critique In Black Performance

By Faedra Chatard Carpenter

The University of Michigan Press

Copyright © 2014 Faedra Chatard Carpenter
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-0-472-05236-3

Contents

INTRODUCTION: Dramaturgies of Whiteness in Contemporary African American Performance, 
CHAPTER ONE Douglas Turner Ward's Play on Whiteness: Day of Absence on America's Public Stages, 
CHAPTER TWO Staging Hegemonic Whiteness: The Bluest Eye and the Performative Paradoxes of (In)visibility, 
CHAPTER THREE Whiteness as "Becoming": The Corporeal Crossovers of Daniel Tisdale and Michael Jackson, 
CHAPTER FOUR "Mixing It Up": Enacting Whiteness in the Comedic World of Dave Chappelle, 
CHAPTER FIVE "Sounding Off on Sounding White": Aural Whiteness, Linguistic Whiteface, and the Economics of Opportunity, 
CODA: Whiteface to Postrace? The Artful Interrogations of Jefferson Pinder, 
Notes, 
Bibliography, 
Index, 

CHAPTER 1

Douglas Turner Ward's Play on Whiteness

Day of Absence on America's Public Stages

DRAMATIC RIFFS ON WHITENESS

On November 15, 1965, Douglas Turner Ward's Day of Absence, a "reverse minstrel show done in white-face," debuted at the St. Marks Playhouse. The commercial success of the stage play led to a remarkable event in November 1967: the play was filmed and presented as part of the premiere episode of the Ford Foundation's "television experiment" known as the Public Broadcast Laboratory (PBL) — predecessor to today's Public Broadcasting System (PBS). The debut episode of PBL hoped to address the need for racial dialogue, and to that end the program featured several segments that focused on the issue of race, including Douglas Turner Ward's stage-to-screen presentation of Day of Absence. While Day of Absence was, thematically, an appropriate fit for the evening's program, its inclusion proved to be disastrous for PBL: 29 out of 119 stations dropped the television program before it even aired, citing Day of Absence as their reason.

This chapter uses Douglas Turner Ward's Day of Absence to examine how tropes and theatrical strategies of whiteness are used to foster explorations of African American identity in contemporary performance. By examining the early history and critical reception of the play, it considers how Ward's dramatic presentation of whiteness was originally received on the stage and the small screen, thereby indicating how artistic interrogations of whiteness were interpreted by racially diverse audience members in the 1960s. This exploration highlights a key issue: the significance of "institutional dramaturgy." In this context, institutional dramaturgy refers to the way a producing institution strategically frames and brands its work — a dynamic that inevitably affects how the meaning of a performance text is transmitted and received by potential audiences.

In using Day of Absence as a case study, this chapter not only underscores the ways institutions of theatre and television contextualize their productions, and thereby influence audience perceptions, but it also reveals how the power of these venues can ultimately drive important social concerns into our nation's consciousness. Furthermore, by analyzing the racially charged sociopolitical thrust of Ward's play, this study pays particular attention to how Day of Absence inspired metatheatrical events in the form of sociopolitical protests and expressions of communal solidarity. Considering these metaperformances, my examination highlights the lon

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: The University of Michigan Press
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2014
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 0472052365
• ISBN 13: 9780472052363
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 299
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: Nicht verfügbar