Abstract
The performance project (Dis)Embodied Voices documented and vivified long-forgotten Early American black women’s experiences by devising a living historiography from personal letters, memoirs, diaries, court records, poems, and newspapers. The nine original monologues became the play I Will Speak for Myself , which recovers sixteen women who lived between 1649 and 1865 from Vermont to New Orleans. By crafting performance through a rigorous investment in the historical evidence and a commitment to truthful depiction in every word and sound, the play enacts life as a free woman, as an indentured servant, and as a former slave. This paper explores the transformation of written texts into the (Dis)Embodied Voices performance script and, specifically, the development of each woman’s distinctive sound. In many ways, these women exemplify the origination of the American sound and each case posed unique issues of evidence, language construction, and dialect choices. Crafting credible identities required striking a delicate balance between scholarly rigor and artistic license, bringing historical research and performance together so that what begin as disembodied voices become distinctive characters that more accurately shape our understanding of the abolitionist movement, life after slavery, and the fight for women’s education and equality.
Highlights
Recuperating the lives of seventeenth, eighteenth, and early nineteenth-century African American women presents a particular challenge for both the historian and the theatre artist: the traces that remain of their stories are often buried deep in records left by others
This article traces the transformation of archival texts into the (Dis)Embodied Voices performance script through a close examination of the development of the dialects and language for three of the characters from the southern American states, “Sarah,” “Lucinda,” and “Mary.” Crafting tangible and credible identities required striking a delicate balance between scholarly rigor and artistic license by investing in the historical evidence and committing to a truthful depiction in every word and sound, while vigilantly interrogating the standardization of black speech from the 1600s to the 1900s
(Dis)Embodied Voices and (Dis)Appearing Dialects aligned with the popular cultural phenomenon of Margaret Mitchell's 1936 novel Gone With the Wind and the enormously popular 1939 filmic depiction, compelled me, as playwright, dramaturg, and director, to re-examine our choices around Sarah Gudger’s vocal embodiment so that our production might not reinforce the troubled mediation of African American lives
Summary
Recuperating the lives of seventeenth, eighteenth, and early nineteenth-century African American women presents a particular challenge for both the historian and the theatre artist: the traces that remain of their stories are often buried deep in records left by others. This article traces the transformation of archival texts into the (Dis)Embodied Voices performance script through a close examination of the development of the dialects and language for three of the characters from the southern American states, “Sarah,” “Lucinda,” and “Mary.” Crafting tangible and credible identities required striking a delicate balance between scholarly rigor and artistic license by investing in the historical evidence and committing to a truthful depiction in every word and sound, while vigilantly interrogating the standardization of black speech from the 1600s to the 1900s. Each case posed unique issues of authentication in evidence, interpretation, language construction, and performance choices but, in many ways, these individual voices begin to illuminate the origins of American southern dialects and the historical linguistic richness of the United States Conjuring these three women’s distinctly American sounds foregrounded the notion that the ways in which dialects have developed have impacted American formations of race and gender across the centuries by supporting racial stereotypes, emphasizing access to education, and revealing a deeply interpersonal colonization process
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