Black Acting Methods: Critical Approaches by Sharrell D. Luckett

Abstract

Reviewed by: Black Acting Methods: Critical Approaches by Sharrell D. Luckett Ann C. James Black Acting Methods: Critical Approaches. By Sharrell D. Luckett, with Tia M. Shaffer. Routledge, 2017, pp. 254. When I considered what it would mean to write a book review on Black Acting Methods in the midst of both a pandemic and a social call for change, my instinct was to look at the book’s structure as a whole, including some components that are not usually considered in a review. The book has an anti-patriarchal, decolonized, and ritual-based aesthetic, so its form mirrors its content. Keeping this Afrocentric aesthetic at the forefront, I will use this review not only to examine the chapters themselves, but also to embrace the driving heartbeat that its structure exudes to the reader. Furthermore, this review will consider the impact of the book, which was published in 2017, on university theatre training in a time when the authors of “We See You, White American Theater” and others are calling for transformational justice for Black, Indigenous, and people of color, who have endured attempts at erasure of their identities for over four centuries. The book begins with an inclusion of all the contributors’ biographies and connection to the authors, Sharrell Luckett and Tia Shaffer. This is akin to a “coming to circle” ritual of matriarchal societies where, from the youngest to the oldest, all are considered and counted. We then swiftly move to the unconventional “blessing” by the esteemed Molefi Kete Asante, an early adopter of Afrocentricity, who centers us all in how essential this book is for the American theatre to move through conflict and achieve a more inclusive acting practice. He writes that “Luckett and Shaffer have made their work our work and they have achieved the highest aim of professional life: to create the rubric that defines what comes next” (xvii). Before we have even arrived at page 1, this book feels reverent, ritualistic, and divine. The introduction, called “An Affirmation,” is co-written by the authors. They connect the book to its ancestral wellspring by making the case that it “broadens the theatrical canon and provides a culturally-specific contribution to performance pedagogy” with its Afrocentric approach (1). They proceed to paint the picture of a utopian world in [End Page 274] which all students are having their needs met academically and artistically in their pursuit of theatre, only to end the “Kumbaya” moment with the reality that there is still much work to be done in the areas of equity and inclusion in US academic theatre. This book overtly challenges “whiteness” in our linguistics, in our devising of texts, and as the standard for everything in theatre arts programs, asking: Why must it be so? Why indeed. The introduction also includes a revolutionary theatre-history correction that is sure to raise eyebrows. The authors make it substantially clear that “Western” theatre has origins in Africa, that the Greeks “adopted” the ritualistic practices of African artists and priests and remolded these practices to fit their own tastes and religious rites. Even as they root the art form on the African continent, they welcome all people to find communal ground through this new perspective. Black Acting Methods is not an exclusionary document. On the contrary, the book is focused on critically engaging the masses and educating us away from traditional, patriarchal white theatre practice so that we can celebrate the contributions of dozens of Black innovators in the field who have been working tirelessly to create new pathways to the work through an original Black lens. Luckett and Shaffer guide us, but they are not alone. They have assembled an extraordinary cohort of Black and brown theatre intellectuals—diviners of fresh water to add to the congested pool of white theatre methods. Justin Emeka challenges us to consider playing Shakespeare with de-centered whiteness in his essay, “Seeing Shakespeare through Brown Eyes.” In offering 8, Daniel Banks writes to us as griot by crafting an essay that shatters the very form of writing with headings such as “Mix-tape#1: back-story” and “First break-beat.” He seduces the reader into his rhythm in order to prove...