Richmond planet. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1883-1938, 1921-06-11

4
rode III their iimousines. "--hc laugh
| cd-"wc-l | couldn't afford oven a sec
ond-h flivver.
I AS time went on, | wanted 10 do
serious dramatic work. But If l hal
conridcd that ambition 10 IL manager
| I'd have got the bgSeSC laugh IF my
career. Nobody thinks IL strange that
Il white man should black up anil play
Il Negro role. But who would dream
OF letting Negro make up us II white
man and play such u part? l have
done it rCpcatCdly-hut where? In
comrnni of colored players, before
| coloreu audiences. No one e.Sc knew
or cared what we were doing. No crit
les came to see us i'll order to Judge
| the art OF our work. Only oncein
| Chicago-But I'll tell you how that
| happened.
| Il had been working in vaudeville;
doing little act which Paul Dunbar,
| the Negro poet, wrote and guve to ME.
years ago. 1t showed me us an old col
| ored Baptist preacher, who after
years of opposition to all kinds of gam
/ bling and sporting lifc sees his only
| son ride horse race. had been do
ing similar old-men parts until l was
afraid l was becoming ticketed as t;lul
and nothing more.
"a. said just now, wanted to It
"As l said just now, ! wanted to act
' i'll regular plays; but every door 70
realizing that ambition seemed to be
shut, locked, and doubled -decked. Once
when Lillian Morrison and / were do
ing turn together in vaudeville,
. elaborated 1t and made it q genuine
Dit OF story. But the manager snti:
, See here! You can't do that. That's
' a sketch!'
! do you see? We were colored.
therefore, we must not be permitted
to act. Only white folks were allowed
to do that. Apparently ,colored folks
were not supposed to be regular hui
man beings, with a knowledge OF
lie. They were just human eccentric,
Ties That did certain old tricks, wore
certain Kinds Of queer clothes, and
were funny, tho way monkeys in q
ZOO are funny.
wen, you can't blame ME if wan
{" 10 40 something more than q mon.
Key can you? | was getting fifty do
l"rS II week then; which wasn't bad.
CONSIDERING my color. But l made uD
my mind that there must be some wav
"i n'c W get II chance at real acting.
t"i1 fauucSlllC.
had been playing the secondratc
to"hS III The Middle-West, with Chi
rnso as my headquarters And a grou,
y, 'h'r'v or us colored people in Chi
1"s" h''a peeR getting together for
~" E'ehiis' whenever we could, and
,"'''hs pays. We took published
p,"ss ana having cast ourselves for
'lo"S characters, read the pats
"i"u"' L was not the only one that
m"n'eo 10 attempt serious dramatic
"u,h, 50 finally we organized what we
cailed the Pekin Players. nfter Tho
i."l"e VI inc theatre where we were 60
ing to make the venture,
That was in 1906. There wero allow
ell or us III the company, and we mr.
on such plays as Young Mrs. wiz
throp' and other refined comedies -,
that type. Some oSf the actors were
so white that they needed no moko.un
the rest OF us id use il. All of rs war,
sincere Ill our attempt to produce
something OF genuine artistic worth
DOUBT II. you could find an actrcss
OF greater dramatic power than orr
Ieaulng woman. Her name was Mary
White; and she was. in fact 90 wbi,r
that no one would have SUSPECTED thut
l.
what mas become of her. Perhaps she
found that it paid better to he white
when the report got out that ,
company of colored people was produc
ing regular plays, quite n good MANY
white people thought it would bc an
amusing experience to visit the then
ire. Thcy expected to find it very finn
ny--likc going to Il darby camp-mrrt
ing, or something of that sort, so
'hey came to laugh. But they remoi,,
ca 10 applaud We proved to them that
NEGROES can act. Even the critics nd
mitted it.
But we made very little money.
we could not have II ftkStc,ass theo.
ire, nor charge hieS&pffccA Our so1or.
les were small. MApaid s35 n wccle
at the start. Latter received S5O j.,
week. which was about the top figure
compare that with theSsalaries. ru,.
hing into hundreds OF dollars a week.
received by white palyers doing eo,d
work in serious plays.
After while we decided ia If.
tempt road tour. We took nine ,r
our original company and started ont.
o"r manager had hcc,'"h ..s for four
teen weeks ut Il New Orleans theatre.
ana for month we played there 10
crowded houses. You can't uu1,,.
stand how happy we al! were
! II seemed to me that I could ask
nothing better than to stay there for
ever, doing the kind OF work I hai
become so interested in feeling that
was developing what talent T had.
Trying to depict life and human nature
as 1t is--not simply making a mon.
Key or myself for someone to LAUGH
at.
But when we had been there four
weeks, the owner of the theatre de,ia
cd that he wanted to break our run
ana let minstrel show have the
, mouse for week or two. AS soon "a
our manager heard OF this, he told rs
not to worry; that he would make tho
proprietor stick to his contract. IF we
nad been white, there would, have