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HISTORICAL DICTIONARY OF AFRICAN AMERICAN THEATER. By Anthony D. Hill, with Douglas Q. Barnett. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2009; pp. 542. $115.00 cloth.
Anthony Hill and Douglas Barnett provide theatre practitioners, scholars, and all manner of theatre enthusiasts with a comprehensive, up-to-date reference in their Historical Dictionary of African American Theater, which chronicles nearly 200 years of black theatre in the United States, from 1816 to 2008. Hills work is enhanced by his previous publications, such as Pages from the Harlem Renaissance (1996); Barnetts experience as writer, director, actor, and founder of Black Arts/West in Seattle complements Hills more academic perspective. Hill and Barnett are the sole authors of the entriesa monumental undertaking.
A brief, informative chronology of African American theatre highlights (e.g., the debut performance of the Williams and Walker musical comedy team in 1899), as well as related historical moments (e.g., the 1922 House of Representatives anti-lynching bill) precedes the body of the Dictionary. The introduction covers four periods: the 1810s through 1940s; the 1950s and 60s; the 1970s and 80s; and, finally, the 1990s to 2008. This periodization aligns well with black theatre activity, charting its development from a small number of playwrights, theatres, and actors in the nineteenth century through an explosion of work during the Harlem Renaissance and the Second Black Renaissance during the 1960s and 70s, to the ascendancy of August Wilson, George C. Wolfe, and Tyler Perry during the...