In “The Lafayette Theatre: Crucible of African-American Dramatic Arts”, Cary D. Wintz reveals how Anita Bush and the Lafayette Theatre transformed and refined the quality and perception of African-Americans in dramatic arts, dually clearing racial stereotypes and paving way for the race film industry.
Originally, Black presence in theater was through comedic and musical acts that consisted of vaudeville and coon shows. This presence transformed with the help of refined writers and performers who elevated the quality of these performances. The first example Wintz defines is the musical comedy In Dahomey that was successful because of its high quality in music, scenery, and story plot. During this same period, there were several notable writers in black musical theater, including Bert Williams and George Walker, who produced shows that successfully created a networking base for black performers and entertainers.
In 1921, the revolutionary return of Black musical theater coincided with an era of talented musicians. Shuffle Along was a revolutionary show because it introduced jazz and dance, and spurred demand for more African-American productions. However, critics of black musical theater still felt that it reflected low culture. Anita Bush made significant progress in changing this; her primary goal was to create a African-American theater company that would debunk the misperception that African-American performers could only sing, dance, and perform slapstick comedy well. She organized and ran her own theater stock company, Anita Bush Stock Company, first partnered with Lincoln Theatre, and performed plays. Shortly after, she moved her company to the Lafayette Theatre in Harlem, also known as “The House Beautiful”. She eventually had to sell her ownership rights to Walton, finally renaming the group to Lafayette Players.
The theater proceeded to undergo numerous ownership changes, from Elite to Quality Amusement Corporations. Robert Levy at Quality successful produced high-class race pictures, both classic and popular shows from white theater repertory, that starred members of Lafayette Players. Lafayette transformed into a place for black performers to perform freely and expressively to black audiences.Throughout the late 20th century, the Theatre transformed from the location of New York’s Negro Theatre Project, to a church and then an apartment complex.
The Lafayette Theater, with the great influence of Anita Bush, is linked closely and attributed to the creation of the race film industry. This connection is clear because talents in theater were cast in the film industry, and vice versa. For example, Anita’s production at Lincoln incorporated African-American film actors, while Oscar Micheaux’s films took in cast from the Lafayette Players. Many of the Players started stunning film careers, like Lawrence Chenault and Evelyn Preer.
By creating a talented stock company and partnering with Lafayette Theatre, Bush formed a creative space for these talents to perform expressively and grow. The Theatre stood for outstanding African-American arts and demonstrated how these black performers were sophisticated and brilliant in their skillsets. The actors who came out of the Lafayette Players found success in race film, affirming Bush’s influence in this industry. Anita Bush successfully transformed the quality of African-American theater performances and strongly contributed to the development of the race film industry.
This really complements the article Anastasia summarized! This tension within the African-American community about what constituted a “high-class moving picture” was really pronounced, and you can see what a responsibility people felt to portray their race in a dignified way. In a way, the film industry in general was struggling with this question of how to distinguish itself from carnival, vaudeville, and other “low-class” entertainments — but as you note, the question was much more urgent for African American actors and filmmakers.