Date of Award
5-1933
Document Type
Undergraduate Thesis
Degree Name
Bachelor of Arts
Degree Discipline
English
Abstract
"The Negro has had some part in American drama practically from its inception."1 Whatever else the Negro may contribute as a gift to this composite civilization, there is already the general recognition that his folk-music born of the pangs and sorrows of slavery, has made America and the world his eternal debtor. The same racial characteristics that are responsible for this music are destined to express themselves with similar excellences in the kindred art of drama.
The drama of Negro life is developing primarily because a native drama is in process of evolution. This, although it heralds the awakening of the dormant dramatic gifts of the Negro and has meant the phenomenal rise within a decade's span of a Negro drama and a possible Negro Theatre. For pioneering genii in the development of the native American drama such as Eugene O'Neill, Ridgely Torrence, and Paul Green, now see and recognize the dramatically undeveloped potentialities of Negro life and folk ways as a promising province of native idioms and source material in which a developing national drama can find distinctive new themes, characteristics, and typical situations, authentic atmosphere. "The growing number of successful and representative plays of this type form a valuable and significant contribution to the theatre of today, and open intriguing and fascinating possibilities for the theatre of tomorrow."2
1Locke - Plays of Negro Life. 2 Ibid
Committee Chair/Advisor
O. J. Baker
Publisher
Prairie View State Normal and Industrial College
Rights
© 2021 Prairie View A & M University
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
Date of Digitization
8-10-2021
Contributing Institution
John B Coleman Library
City of Publication
Prairie View
MIME Type
Application/PDF
Recommended Citation
Wells, M. E. (1933). The Contribution of the Negro to the Drama. Retrieved from https://digitalcommons.pvamu.edu/pvamu-theses/215