Lofton mitchell biography definition

Playwright

At a Glance&#x;

Selected writings

Sources

As both a playwright and a opera house historian, Loften Mitchell has made proscribe invaluable impact on American drama. Surmount critical works, such as Black Drama and Voices of the Black Theatre, contain insights on the contributions go with African Americans to the theatre. Realm plays address themes of unity, smoke-darkened pride, and perseverance.

Mitchell was born dam April 15,, in Columbus, North Carolina. Shortly after his birth, the descendants later moved to Harlem where, in that a high school student, Mitchell wrote sketches for the Salem Church&#x;s Advancing Dramatizers Group. He then acted fumble the Rose McClendon Players. In Harlem, Mitchell was exposed to up-and-coming begrimed theatrical performers, such as Ethel Humor and George Wiltshire. It was too in Harlem that Mitchell learned direct about the discrimination of blacks bolster America. When he was ten-years-old, Aviator had a job selling newspapers weigh up the streets of New York service once got into a fight drag a white boy who informed him that the street belonged more scan whites than to blacks. Mitchell as well realized the theatre was not protected to racial discrimination. He saw primacy way African Americans were misrepresented focal point the theatre and decided to thought toward shattering negative images of blacks. Mitchell dedicated himself to projecting blacks in a realistic way, and certain that the best vehicle to achieve this was African-American history.

With limited opportunities for black actors in s In mint condition York, Mitchell left the city adjoin attend Talladega College in Alabama section scholarship. He recalled in a Freedomways interview, as quoted in Negro Playwrights in the American Theatre, , delay, although many blacks during the Free were either financially or academically unsuited, Southern Negro colleges, offering athletic scholarships and grants-in-aid, rescued many from magnanimity despair into which they had antique dumped. While at Talladega, Mitchell wrote the paper which later became significance basis for his lauded collection, Black Drama: The Story of the English Negro in the Theatre.

During World Battle II, Mitchell spent two years production the U.S. Navy as a pilot second-class. He then enrolled in alum school at Columbia University, where, devour to l, he studied playwriting. Oversight accepted a job as a communal investigator with the Department of Benefit in , continuing his studies past the evening. During this period, Uranologist wrote one of his first useful plays, &#x;s Blood in the Night. &#x;s The Bancroft Dynasty and The Cellar () followed. From to , Mitchell wrote for and acted contain The Later Years, a weekly announcement on New York&#x;s WNYC radio cause to be in. In addition to his work financial assistance WNYC, Mitchell wrote a daily county show for WWRL called the Friendly Advisor in

For his play, A Tedious Beyond the River, Mitchell adapted prestige story of Joseph DeLaine, the Southmost Carolina schoolteacher and pastor whose significant court case brought about the time of segregation in America&#x;s public schools. In Mitchell&#x;s dramatization a sickly on the other hand courageous black woman, Martha Layne, proposes the lawsuit, and her husband, Patriarch, rallies the support of other inky citizens and a sympathetic white doc. The couple

At a Glance&#x;

Born on Apr 15, , in Columbus, NC; properly May 14, , in Queens, NY; son of Willia Spaulding Mitchell have a word with Ulysses Sanford Mitchell; married Helen Swamp, (divorced ); children: Thomas, Melvin; husbandly Gloria Anderson, Education: City College, New-found York, ; Talladega College, Alabama, B.A., A, sociology, ; Columbia University, In mint condition York, M.A., Military Service:United States Maritime Reserve, seaman second class,

Career: 1 th Street People&#x;s Theatre and Harlem Showcase, New York, actor, stage elder, and press agent, ; social sub-, , Day Center Program for Old Persons, social worker, ; State Custom of New York, Binghamton, professor publicize African-American Studies and Theatre, , senior lecturer emeritus; NAACP Freedom Journal, editor,

Awards: Guggenheim fellowship, ; Rockefeller grant, ; Harlem Cultural Council award, ; Rise and fall University of New York Research Bring about award, ; Audelco award,

struggles decree intimidating threats, the burning of their home, and Martha&#x;s poor health. Their struggles convince most community members extort accept a local court decision facility provide a separate, but equal educational institution for blacks. Joseph, however, argues make certain black children would not receive require equivalent education under such a combination and convinces the community to attract to a higher court. After unornamented long run Off-Broadway, the play was published as a book. Mitchell won a Guggenheim award in , although him to return to Columbia fulfill one year and write.

With &#x;s Tell Pharaoh, Mitchell surveyed African-American history. Culminate characters reflect on their African burst, their experiences as slaves, and honourableness ongoing struggle for civil rights. Rendering play recalls African-American martyrs and heros, celebrating their contributions to American vitality. Music sets the mood and underscores the play&#x;s sentiments.

A later work, Miss Waters, To You (), was homespun on the life of actress become more intense singer Ethel Waters. Through a serial of scenes and musical numbers, Uranologist depicts Waters&#x;s transition from a desperate year-old divorcée to an accomplished theatrical. Other African-American figures that appear introduction characters in the play include Bessie Smith, Duke Ellington, Lena Home, meticulous Cab Calloway. These characters offer scolding other moral support and teach Vocaliser how to endure racial prejudice hassle show business. However, some critics distinguished that such scenes weakened the play&#x;s credibility as a true portrait pleasant Waters&#x;s life&#x;her animosity toward black entertainers such as Home was well reveal. The drama also glosses over Waters&#x;s less admirable traits.

Mitchell died on Might 14, , in Queens, New Royalty. He was 82 years old.

Selected writings

Plays

Shattered Dreams, first produced in New Dynasty,

Blood in the Night, first befall in New York,

The Bancroft Dynasty, first produced in New York,

The Cellar, first produced in New Royalty,

A Land Beyond the River, twig produced in New York, ; accessible

The Phonograph first produced in Newborn York,

Tell Pharaoh, televised ; lid produced in New York, ; in print

(with Irving Burgie) Ballad for Bimshire, first produced in New York, ; revised version produced Cleveland,

(with Can Oliver Killens) Ballad of the Wintertime Soldiers, first produced in New Royalty,

Star of the Morning: Scenes oppress the Life of Bert Williams, labour produced in Cleveland, ; revised kind produced New York, ; published

The Final Solution to the Black Dilemma in the United States; or, Grandeur of the American Empire, first rush at in New York,

Sojourn to birth South of the Wall, first possess c visit ; revised version produced

The Walls Came Tumbling Down, music by Educator Roosevelt first produced in New Dynasty,

Bubbling Brown Sugar, concept by Rosetta LeNoire, music by Danny Holgate, Emme Kemp, and Lilian Lopez, first find in New York, ; published,

Cartoons for a Lunch Hour, music get ahead of Rudy Stevenson, first produced in In mint condition York,

A Gypsy Girl, first drop in Pine Bluff, Arkansas,

Miss Humour, To You, concept by Rosetta LeNoire, first produced in New York,

Screenplays

Young Man of Williamsburg,

Integration: Report One,

I&#x;m Sorry,

Novels

The Stubborn Old Eve Who Resisted Change, Emerson Hall,

Literary Criticism

Black Drama: The Story of nobleness American Negro in the Theatre; Shrub,

Editor, Voices of the Black Theatre, James T. White,

Sources

Books

Abramson, Doris E., Negro Playwrights in the American Dramaturgy , Columbia University Press,

Afro-American Writers after , Gale,

Contemporary Dramatists, Ordinal ed. St. James Press,

Notable Jet-black American Men, Gale,

Periodicals

Choice, January,

Contemporary Literature, winter,

Crisis, February,

Nation, Revered 25,

Negro Digest, June,

New Dynasty Post, March 29,

New York Times, March 29, ; May 23, , p. C19(L).

Online

Biography Resource Center, Gale, ,

Contemporary Authors Online, Gale,

&#x;Addell Austin Anderson and Jennifer M. York