Raymond O'Neil

Raymond O'Neil was a European trained American theater director. After studying, "in Europe's Art theatres [and] serving as the art director at the Cleavland Playhouse, O'Neil resigned [in order] to form a company of professional black actors in Chicago. He was inspired from seeing, "African American nightclub performers in Chicago."[1] O'Neil persuaded several of the Lafayette Players [another little-theatre group out of New York originally called the Anita Bush Stock Company formed by Anita Bush (1883–1974)] to join him by promising them roles that were not previously available.[2] Under O'Neil's direction the performers received, over a twelve month period, extensive artistic training much like many European theatrical groups at the time. Raymond O'Neil was, " interest[ed] in the work of [Edward] Gordon Craig and other modernists and in the experimental techniques and motives of the Moscow Art Theatre."[3] "He sought, not to train [the actors] in imitation of the more inhibited white actors, but to develop their particular racial characteristics-freshness and vigor of their emotional responses, their spontaneity and intense mood, their freedom from intellectual and artistic obsessions."[4] He was interested in "experimenting with the Negro art form in the commercial theatre",[5] and "establishing a national black theatre company.[6]

See also

References

  1. ^ Wintz, Cary D. and Paul Finkelman. Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance. New York: Routledge, 2004.
  2. ^ Hill, Errol G. and James V. Hatch. A History of African American Theatre. Cambridge: Cambridge Press, 2003.
  3. ^ Peterson, Bernard L. The African American Theatre Directory 1816-1960: A Comprehensive Guide to Early Black Theatre Organizations, Companies, Theatres, and Performing Groups. Westport: Greenwood Press, 1997.
  4. ^ Hill, Errol G. and James V. Hatch. A History of African American Theatre. Cambridge: Cambridge Press, 2003.
  5. ^ Peterson, Bernard L. The African American Theatre Directory 1816-1960: A Comprehensive Guide to Early Black Theatre Organizations, Companies, Theatres, and Performing Groups. Westport: Greenwood Press, 1997.
  6. ^ Krasner, David. A Beautiful Pageant: African American Theatre, Drama, and Performance in the Harlem Renaissance, 1920-1927. New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2002.