All Black Showcase: The Effectiveness of a Negro Theatre Production

Abstract

C ontemporary theater is vitalized by the works of black playwrights expressing the feelings and frustrations of black people. To their audiences they say more than just enjoy, they say look, feel, understand, and change! This is theater as a social force. How successful are these plays? How strong is their impact? this theater produce Experimental research to investigate audience responses is common in other communication areas; it is rare in the theater. This doesn't have to be the case. It doesn't detract from the integrity of a production to try to measure its effects in more specific terms than critical reaction. It may tell us a great deal we want to know about the production, especially when we expect responses other than appreciation and enjoyment. It is important when we want to answer the question, Did this theater experience do what we expected it to do? This is a report of the use of communication research techniques applied to the black theater production, A Hand is on the Gate, presented to a predominantly white college community to see how effective the production was with respect to key social and entertainment dimensions. It also looks toward the broader question: Can entertaining theater be an effective agent for social change? And it suggests that communication research methods can be profitably used in the theater.