The Colored Museum
The Colored Museum is a play written by George C. Wolfe that premiered at Crossroads Theatre in 1986, directed by L. Kenneth Richardson. In a series of 11 “exhibits” (sketches), the revue explores and satires prominent themes and identities of African-American culture. Credits from the Lortel Archives Set design. The stage was designed to resemble a white-walled gallery where “the myths and madness of black/Negro/colored Americans are stored.” The walls contained a series of doors, small panels and revolving walls and compartments which allowed actors to retrieve key props and quickly transition from  one exhibit to another. Music. Most of the music for the play was pre recorded. However, live drummer Ron McBee was used in the "Git on Board", "Permutations" and "The Party" “exhibits.” Production history. "The Colored Museum" premiered at Crossroads Theatre of New Jersey in 1986. Within six months, the play found a new home at the Public Theater in New York City. "The Colored Museum was" later performed at the Royal Court Theater in London, England, beginning July 29, 1987. and in a production by Talawa Theatre Company at the V&A 15–23 October 2011 . Academic critique. ""The Colored Museum  simultaneously celebrates, satirizes and subverts the African-American legacy. Wolfe calls his play both, 'an exorcism and a party.' The Colored Museum" explores contemporary African-American cultural identity, while, at the same time revisiting and reexamining the African American theatrical and cultural past. According to Wolfe, the legacy of the past must be both embraced and overcome."- Harry J. Elam, "The Johns Hopkins University Press Theatre Journal" Theater scholar Jordan Schildcrout discusses "The Gospel According to Miss Roj" in terms of Afrofuturism and queer fantasies of empowerment, noting that "the very title of segment invokes the rhetoric of religious testament  and proclaims Miss Roj as a prophet, one who has extraordinary—perhaps even supernatural—powers of insight and wisdom." Reviews. "George C.Wolfe says the unthinkable, says it with uncompromising wit and leaves the audience, as well as a sacred target, in ruins. The devastated audience, one should note, includes both Blacks and Whites. Mr. Wolfe is the kind of satirist, almost unheard of in today's timid theater, who takes no prisoners." – Frank Rich, "The New York Times", 1986.