What Do We Mean by Excellence?
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 Excellence
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.
- The Oscars started in 1929. Acting awards were won by 16 black actors in that time.
- The Tony’s were created 18 years later in 1947. Since then 50 black actors have won awards.
This is one of the best reasons why we love theater, and why you should love it too.