American Negro Theatre records

1940-1981 [bulk 1940-1950] D

The American Negro Theatre (ANT) co-founded by Frederick O'Neal and Abram Hill, was established to provide black actors, playwrights, directors and other theatre-related professionals with opportunities to work in productions that illustrated the diversity of black life. On June 5, 1940, O'Neal and Hill, and twenty-eight other individuals met in Harlem to discuss the formation of a permanent acting company produced by blacks. In the wake of the demise of the WPA Federal Theatre Project (Negro Unit) in 1939, and the Rose McCleandon Players in 1941, ANT's purpose was formulated at their second meeting in the basement of the 135th Street Branch Library. Many members of the Rose McClendon Players, O'Neal, Ruby Dee and Helen Martin, among them, helped to establish ANT.

O'Neal and Hill both brought a wealth of knowledge and experience in the theatre to the ANT. O'Neal graduated from the New Theatre School and the American Theatre Wing. He studied with such notables as Komisarjevsky, Lem Ward, John Bond and Doris Sorrell. In 1927, O'Neal had organized the Ira Aldridge Players in St. Louis, Missouri, and at the suggestion of Harlem Renaissance writer Zora Neale Hurston, had moved to New York in 1936. Hill had graduated from Lincoln University in Pennsylvania, and did further study at Columbia University and the New School for Social Research where he studied playwriting and play analysis.

As ANT took shape, O'Neal's and Hill's goal of creating a truly diverse theatre was reflected in the construction of ANT's governing documents; the constitution, by-laws and aims and objectives. These documents provided for rules and regulations in all sectors of maintaining a functioning and progressive theatre. Special consideration was given to fund raising and audience building. ANT's program was essentially divided into three categories: stage productions, a training program and radio programs.

Considering the dilemma many black playwrights and actors faced in the 1940s, such as the lack of professional experience, skillful preparation, and few outlets for their works, ANT's mission was to break this cycle by providing opportunities to develop the skills of fledgling talents. Their sense of professionalism was also exhibited in their decision to offer classes in acting, voice and speech, body movement, stage craft, choral singing, radio voice training and playwriting. O'Neal believed that hard discipline was one of ANT's main contributions to black theatre. Indeed, ANT members were fined if they were late for a rehearsal or performance, which helped to consolidate their reputation as a serious theatre company.

For the first five years (1940-1945) ANT was housed in the basement of the 135th Street Branch Library of the New York Public Library, known as the “Harlem Library Little Theatre.” According to historian Ethel Pitts, this space was especially renovated for the group with “new lights, new seats, a larger foyer, storage room, work space and dressing rooms.” In 1945, ANT was forced to move to the Elks Lodge at 15 West 126th Street, which was renamed as the American Negro Theatre Playhouse.

From 1940-1949, nineteen plays, twelve of them original, were produced by ANT. “On Striver's Row,” “Walk Hard--Talk Loud,” (both written by Hill), and “Rain” were well-received plays. However, commercial success struck with Philip Yordan's “Anna Lucasta,” adapted for a black cast. Starring Hilda Simms as the wayward protagonist, the play had a successful run in Harlem, and went on to Broadway, Chicago and London. Hill and numerous black playwrights such as Countee Cullen (“One Way To Heaven”), Theodore Browne (“Go Down Moses” and “Natural Man”), Owen Dodson (“Garden of Time”), and Curtis Cooksey (“Starlight”) were able to see full-fledged productions of their plays. ANT also exhibited the talents of several now well-known actors and actresses, some for the first time, including Ruby Dee, Sidney Poitier, Harry Belafonte, Alvin and Alice Childress, Hilda Simms, Earl Hyman, Isabel Sanford, Vinie Burroughs, Helen Martin, Roger Furman, Maxwell Glanville, Clarice Taylor, Gordon Heath and Hilda Hayes. Although primarily focused on the development of black talent, ANT had white members and produced works by white playwrights such as Yordan (“Anna Lucasta”), Henry and Phoebe Ephron (“Three's a Family”, and Henry Wagstaff Gribble (“Almost Faithful”).

Amid their successes, ANT's financial problems were ever present. Throughout its ten-year history, there were concerted efforts to build and establish audience support and membership in the theater as vehicles to finance salaries, production and administrative costs. In 1944, ANT received a John D. Rockefeller Foundation grant for $21,500. According to O'Neal, it was the only grant ANT ever received. Despite the company's consideration of undertaking a major fund raising campaign in 1948, O'Neal observed that there was never a full canvasing of the community for support.

In 1949, ANT's Reorganization Committee worked to find new ways to address the company's administrative and financial problems. Although ANT continued to produce plays, many members, including founders Hill and O'Neal subsequently resigned. In 1950, ANT made its final move to a loft on West 125th Street, and according to O'Neal, officially went out of business a year later.

• Pitts, Ethel Louise. “The American Negro Theatre, 1940-1949.” Ph.D. diss., University of Missouri/Columbia, 1975.