Note On Commercial Theatre Analysis
Suzanne Gwiazdowski
American Literature Since 1865
Miss Cassidy
April 5, 2016
Note on Commercial Theatre by Langston Hughes
Note on Commercial Theatre was written in 1940 during the Jim Crow era. Langston Hughes, an African American, was a champion for the African American people writing about the inequalities they experienced not only in the segregated south but the everyday inequalities. In this poem, he writes about the talents African Americans possess in the Arts, including contemporary music and spirituals sung in the fields and churches and how they are not getting recognition for what they have accomplished.
Notes on Commercial Theatre is saying that the different genres of music dedicated to the African Americans have been scooped up by the white man, as he has discovered its importance to the American musical experience. The white man has the money and connections to present this music to the wealthy Americans on Broadway, the …show more content…
Their music was changed to be accepted by the whites who were more affluent and would be attending the productions at these concert halls. The speaker continues by writing that the blacks were given parts in musicals and productions that were takes offs on famous pieces of art and not productions that were about the black man. Carmen Jones is a takeoff on the opera Carmen by Bizet, Macbeth otherwise recognized as Voodoo Macbeth portraits blacks in the play set in Haiti, directed by Orson Wells and funded by the Federal Theatre Project and Swing Mikados based on the Gilbert and Sullivan operetta, casting all black actors but again directed by a white director and funded by the Negro Theatre Project. (The previous information was shared with me by my nephew who has a Masters Degree in Theatre
American Literature Since 1865
Miss Cassidy
April 5, 2016
Note on Commercial Theatre by Langston Hughes
Note on Commercial Theatre was written in 1940 during the Jim Crow era. Langston Hughes, an African American, was a champion for the African American people writing about the inequalities they experienced not only in the segregated south but the everyday inequalities. In this poem, he writes about the talents African Americans possess in the Arts, including contemporary music and spirituals sung in the fields and churches and how they are not getting recognition for what they have accomplished.
Notes on Commercial Theatre is saying that the different genres of music dedicated to the African Americans have been scooped up by the white man, as he has discovered its importance to the American musical experience. The white man has the money and connections to present this music to the wealthy Americans on Broadway, the …show more content…
Their music was changed to be accepted by the whites who were more affluent and would be attending the productions at these concert halls. The speaker continues by writing that the blacks were given parts in musicals and productions that were takes offs on famous pieces of art and not productions that were about the black man. Carmen Jones is a takeoff on the opera Carmen by Bizet, Macbeth otherwise recognized as Voodoo Macbeth portraits blacks in the play set in Haiti, directed by Orson Wells and funded by the Federal Theatre Project and Swing Mikados based on the Gilbert and Sullivan operetta, casting all black actors but again directed by a white director and funded by the Negro Theatre Project. (The previous information was shared with me by my nephew who has a Masters Degree in Theatre