Theatrical Events and African American Audiences: A Study of Contemporary 'Chitlin Circuit' Theatre.

摘要

This dissertation captures the dynamics of black theatrical spectatorship at length through a sustained examination of multiple contemporary "Chitlin Circuit" productions, written, directed, and produced by African American practitioners David Talbert, Je'Caryous Johnson and Gary Guidry, and Tyler Perry, respectively, that reveals the ways in which their theatre-making operates in relation to their attending black audiences. Contemporary "Chitlin Circuit" Theatre is a unique subset of African American musicals that melds religion, comedy, African American vernacular materials and the popular musical forms of Gospel and R&B music into contemporary narratives about urban African American life. Using a series of snapshots from each playwright's oeuvre, I analyze the ways in which differing methods of contemporary "Chitlin Circuit" theatre-making strategically aim and subsequently achieve black spectatorial engagement. Through interdisciplinary methods of research that span across theatre, performance studies, sociology, film and dance studies, I develop an audience-centered research approach that evaluates theatrical audiences through primarily qualitative and embodied forms of research. I demonstrate that the making, doing, and viewing of Contemporary "Chitlin Circuit" Theatre is an interactive and evolving process in which African American practitioners and spectators collaboratively engage in the production of black theatre. In all cases, I uncover how black audiences act as co-producers who position themselves as critical spectators who reject, sanction, and/or confirm on stage content based on how well the material mirrors their individual experiences outside of the theater. Ultimately, through an examination of the plays, the practitioners, and the spectators of Contemporary "Chitlin Circuit" Theatre, this dissertation brings black spectators, who are seldom acknowledged within the field, to the forefront of an American theatre reception study and, in so doing, underscores the necessity of considering the implications of race within examinations of theatrical events.