Chitlin' circuit

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The "Chitlin' Circuit" was the collective name given to the string of venues throughout the eastern and southern United States, such as the Cotton Club and Victory Grill, that were safe and acceptable for African American musicians, comedians, and other entertainers to perform at during the age of racial segregation in the United States. The starting place of entertainers such as Cab Calloway, Duke Ellington, Ray Charles, The Supremes, Ike & Tina Turner, Patti LaBelle, Jimi Hendrix, Gladys Knight & the Pips, The Isley Brothers, and The Jackson 5, the "Chitlin' Circuit" (which derives its name from the soul food item chitterlings: boiled pig intestines) was the main way of seeing many popular black acts before the days of integration.

Main theaters on the chitlin' circuit included the Apollo Theater in Harlem, the Regal Theatre in Chicago, the Howard Theatre in Washington, DC, the Uptown Theatre in Philadelphia, the Royal Theatre in Baltimore, and the Fox Theatre in Detroit.

[edit] Contemporary use

Ebony magazine prefers the term "urban theater circuit" for recent work like that of playwright and actor Tyler Perry. In a January 2004 interview with Perry, the genre's leading practitioner, Ebony wrote that his work marked, "a new chapter in the urban theater circuit as a whole -- a genre that has been dogged by criticism from some Blacks in the traditional theater. Perry, as the most visibly recognized player in the circuit, has felt the brunt of this criticism. "They say that Tyler Perry has set the Black race back some 500 years with these types of 'chitlin' circuit' shows. The problem with the naysayers is that they don't take the opportunity to see my shows," Perry argues. "With my shows, I try to build a bridge that marries what's deemed 'legitimate theater' and so-called 'chitlin' circuit theater,' and I think I've done pretty well with that, in bringing people in to enjoy a more elevated level of theater." [1]