Since before the turn of the century, Brooklyn-bred rapper Masta Ace has put out numerous studio albums, most of which see him employ an incredibly detail-oriented, storytelling-based approach. But now, with an upcoming play titled The Falling Season, roughly influenced by his beloved LPs like Disposable Arts (2001), A Long Hot Summer (2004), and The Falling Season (2016), Ace is preparing to take his raps to the theatre.
Everyday during Black History Month in February we explored the theater accomplishments of blacks daily on our social media, and examples of black theater excellence weekly in the blog. In reviewing these, I want to repeat the difference between the two.
A black theater accomplishment is a black person doing something good, such as winning a notable achievement or being the first black person or organization to do something. Black theater excellence happens when the first black person wins an award, as is the case with Jaunita Hall, or when the only person to accomplish something notable is black, like Audra McDonald.
Black theater history is filled with examples of excellence.
For this last blog post on the subject for now, I want to mention one more example. The hip hop musical Hamilton was nominated for sixteen Tony awards, more award nominations than any other musical ever. This shows better than anything else theater’s unique accessibility and openness to everyone.
Ultimately, theater is more diverse and accepting than any other performing art.
Want more proof? One statistic that demonstrates this best is the comparison between acting awards in film and theater.
This is one of the best reasons why we love theater, and why you should love it too.
This month’s blogs are all about black theater excellence – those things that cannot be excelled, only equaled. This week’s blog is about firsts. Not just the first black person to accomplish something, but the first person ever to accomplish it.
The first, mentioned last week was Audra McDonald. She won a Tony in all acting categories. Usually no one can win more Tony awards than those that exist, but additional awards can be created.
This is what happened in the case of Juanita Hall. Before 1950, Tony’s were given to the best actor and the best actress. In that year the supporting category was created. Ms. Hall became the first black person to win a Tony, and was the first person in history to win a best supporting actress. Other actors have won this award, including Audra McDonald, but only one was the first.
Another first is Geoffrey Holder. In 1975 he became the first black person, and the first person to be nominated in the same year for multiple awards. In addition, he was the first black person to be nominated for best director and best costume designer and also the first person to win both categories.
Wining multiple Tony’s in the same night has happened again, but Mr. Holder was the first.
History is more than a record of events – even a record of important events, since what is “important” depends on the opinion of the the person making the record. As we in hip hop put it, “who lives, who dies, who tells your story.”
The second blog for black theater history month is not, “this event in black theater history happened,” like those we are posting about daily on our social media. Rather it is about those things that are rare and spectacular. Events of black theater history excellence. Achievements that will never be surpassed.
I’ll point out one here, and in next weeks blog I’ll mention another – so stay tuned.
The event of excellence in today’s blog are the accomplishments of the actor Audra McDonald.
At the moment, no other actor has won more Tony awards. She has won six, and four wins is the next closest. (So in this generation her record is probably safe, unless someone wins more than six.)
There are, however, only four categories of acting awards: lead actor in a play, supporting actor in a play, lead actor in a musical and supporting actor in a musical. She is the only actor to win in all four categories. No other actor can beat that, they can only tie it – and she was the first.
Let us know if you have any suggestions for this, and check back next week for who or what our second event of excellence is.
We are a hip hop theater company. Our focus this month is the history of black theater.
Every day this month we will be highlighting an aspect of that history in our social media. If you don’t already follow us, please do. We will be posting a lot of interesting facts of black theater.
We divide theater history in to two categories.
These two categories are divided into subcategories:
Historically, some categories fit better with a particular subcategory. Which was the first black theater company in the United States is easy to discover, as is what was the first black Broadway show.
Also, we can see for any particular year what was the best show or who was the best actor.
It is not so easy to determine what was the best physical theater space.
Sometimes first and best are combined. For example, Audra McDonald is the first, and so far the only, actor to win best acting Tony in all four acting categories. She also has more acting awards than any other actor, ever.
Please check our social media for more black theater history facts.
If you have any suggestions for items to be included next year, please let us know.
How do we define it?
A definition of a thing has a hard core, with edges getting more fuzzy until you can say that it is not one of those things.
Think about a chair. It has a back, four legs, room for one person to sit, and arms. Something with all those items is definitely a chair. That is its hard core.
But you can lose one leg and it’s still a chair.
Think about a chair with rockers, instead of legs. Lose all the core and it’s not a chair.
A work of hip hop theater has at least one of the pillars of hip hop.
I hope to get a dialog going on this issue, so please write us and let us know your thoughts.
The book suggestion for this week is Jeff Walker’s “Rhymecology – The Art of Hip Hop Lyrics”