Brooks McNamara

This collection of modern American plays, introduced by Brooks McNamara, includes "Streamers" by David Rabe, "Crimes of the Heart" by Beth Henley, and "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom" by August Wilson, with five others

Plays from the Contemporary American Theater

Richard Schechner

Jerry Rojo

Eighteen Projects

Theatres, Spaces, Environments

James V. Hatch

Annemarie Bean

Chair Department of Performing Arts Brooks McNamara

A sourcebook of contemporary and historical commentary on America's first popular mass entertainment. As the blackface minstrel show evolved from its beginnings in the American Revolution to its peak during the late 1800s, its frenetic dances, low-brow humor, and lively music provided more than mere entertainment. Indeed, these imitations and parodies shaped society's perceptions of African Americans-and of women-as well as made their mark on national identity, policymaking decisions, and other entertainment forms such as vaudeville, burlesque, the revue, and, eventually, film, radio, and television. Gathered here are rare primary materials-including firsthand accounts of minstrel shows, minstrelsy guides, jokes, sketches, and sheet music-and the best of contemporary scholarship on minstrelsy.

Readings in Nineteenth-Century Blackface Minstrelsy

Inside the Minstrel Mask

The Devil's Own Nights

The New York Concert Saloon

Brooks McNamara

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