Manhattan Community College Research Articles

Theatres of the Left 1880-1935: Workers Theatre Movements in Britain and America by Raphael Samuel, Ewan MacColl, and Stuart Cosgrove

Reviews93 or who otherwise fear, with Papp for instance, white autonomy over the third-world theater. An incidental bounty on the historical side is the emergence with the black Shakespeareans of original black drama, including King Shotaway produced by the African Company in the early 1820's with James Hewlett and several melodramas written for Morgan Smith who, in the 1860's and 70's, billed as the "Coloured American Tragedian," toured the British provinces in an enormous repertory. Two melodramas on the Haitian revolution were acted in Chicago and New York (1893, 1912) by Henrietta Vinton Davis, who ended in the Marcus Garvey movement, and the Negro units of the Federal Theatre Project produced some original plays. Professor Hill's compatriot, that admirable actor Errol John, not only performed Othello at the Old Vic in 1963 but also wrote Moon on a Rainbow Shawl (1958, revised 1962), acted in London by Earle Hyman and in New York by James Earl Jones. In the 1970's we had half a dozen books on black actors in movies. We need not regret that their halting though already considerable history in Shakespeare permits no such largesse (or redundancy?) when the one book we have, munificently illustrated, is definitive. DAVID W. BEAMS Borough of Manhattan Community College Raphael Samuel, Ewan MacColl, and Stuart Cosgrove. Theatres of the Left 1880-1935: Workers Theatre Movements in Britain and America. London and Boston: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1985. Pp. 364. $16.95. This book possesses many of the characteristics of the very political theater movements that it discusses: energy, experimentation, confusion, and disorder. It is Professor Samuel's attempt to preserve the history of Britain's fragmentary left-wing theater movements, whose pulsating rises and falls accompanied Britain's turbulent socialist/literary activity in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Yet, uncertain as to whether his mission would be best served by a scholarly analysis, an edition of historical documents, a compilation of oral histories, or an anthology of key plays, Samuel composes his book with nearly equal parts of each. The resulting collage is troublesome; the book is awash in a sea of valuable but unwieldy information. Samuel, a widely-respected social historian, does justice to his material when he concentrates on historical analysis. His opening chapter, "Theatre and Socialism in Britain (1880-1935)," is a stunning overview of the relationship of literature to late nineteenth-century British socialism and the relationship of political drama to that literature. Yet for all its virtues as an article, it does not serve adequately as an introduction to the book. There is not a word in the chapter on England's Yiddish-speaking Workers ' Theatre, but a later chapter on that very subject includes no author's introduction—only a few random documents and a participant's memoir. Similarly, the chapter on the Workers' Theatre's ongoing debate over naturalistic drama would have benefitted immeasurably from a substantial 94Comparative Drama commentary on the political and artistic implications of the radical theater 's rejection of naturalism. As it stands, the chapter contains only the reprints of four articles on the subject from the Workers' Theatre Movement house organ. It contains no discussion of their significance to the Movement, to socialist literature, or to radical drama. A final objection must be raised against Stuart Cosgrove's essay on the political stage in America during the same period—an attempt to compare and contrast two fascinating phenomena in theater history. To his credit, Cosgrove penetrates the superficial similarities between the two movements to point out significant differences, such as the American movement's concern with race relations and government support of American radical theater during the New Deal. But what could have been an invaluable essay is weakened by an apparent lack of thoroughness (Cosgrove does not appear to have made very much use of standard works in this area, such as Clurman's The Fervent Years or Himelstein's Drama Was a Weapon) as well as occasional oversimplification: This anti-racialist stance [in American labor drama] was a reaction to two related reactionary trends which threatened to divide the American working class. The first trend tried to set up...

Sonia Sanchez: Will and Spirit

Dynamic: the word immediately describes Sonia Sanchez and her art. Petite, attractive, her diminutive size, like that of actress Vinie Burrows, seems to acquire physical volume on stage. Born to Wilson L. and the late Lena (Jones) Driver on September 9, 1934, in Birmingham, Alabama, Sanchez was named Wilsonia after her father who had wanted a boy. She has an older sister, Patricia. Her half-brother, Wilson S. Driver, Jr., about whom she is writing, died in 1981. At the age of nine, Sanchez moved to New York, where she attended elementary school, junior high, and George Washington High School. She was graduated from Hunter College in 1955. Selected for a poetry workshop, she studied at New York University with Louise Bogan, for whom she has the highest respect. Her daughter, Anita Sanchez, product of an early marriage, was born on May 24, 1957. The twin sons, Morani Meusi (Black Warrior in Swahili) and Mungu Meusi (Black God) were born on January 26, 1968. Sanchez has taught at several colleges, including San Francisco State (1967-69); University of Pittsburgh (1969-70); Rutgers University (197071); Manhattan Community College (1971-73; Amherst College (197376). At Temple University, where she has been teaching since 1977, currently as Associate Professor, her courses include creative writing, Black Literature, and Women's Studies. She has taught at Graterford Prison as part of a community writing program since fall 1980. In our, interview, April 1, 1981, at the Statler Hilton, New York, where she was staying for the Fifth Annual Conference of the National Council for Black Studies, she discussed her love of teaching:

First-Hand Views Of Recovery

SANDRA JAFFE, RN. MA. was a clinical specialist on the Alcoholism Consultation Team at St. Vincent's Hospital in New York City at the time she met with the nurses described here. She is currently an adjunct professor of nursing at Pace University and at Borough of Manhattan Community College in New York City.

Health Concerns of Women Course at Borough of Manhattan Community College

Health Concerns of Women Course at Borough of Manhattan Community College

The Multinationalization Process, Chaim Ginsburg, Assistant Professor, Manhattan Community College. Abstract from The Journal of Business (Seton Hall University), December 1973, p. 17

The Multinationalization Process, Chaim Ginsburg, Assistant Professor, Manhattan Community College. Abstract from The Journal of Business (Seton Hall University), December 1973, p. 17

: The Urbanization of the Earth . Jorge Arango.

American AnthropologistVolume 75, Issue 6 p. 1851-1852 Free Access Development and Change: The Urbanization of the Earth. JORGE ARANGO. Introduction by Jose Luis Sert RUBY R. LEAVITT, RUBY R. LEAVITT Borough of Manhattan Community College, CUNYSearch for more papers by this author RUBY R. LEAVITT, RUBY R. LEAVITT Borough of Manhattan Community College, CUNYSearch for more papers by this author First published: December 1973 https://doi.org/10.1525/aa.1973.75.6.02a00600AboutPDF ToolsExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat No abstract is available for this article. Volume75, Issue6December 1973Pages 1851-1852 RelatedInformation

Developing Economic Growth in the World

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Additional informationNotes on contributorsMildred Rendl MarcusDr. Mildred Rendl Marcus received her Ph.D. from Radcliffe College, and is an Associate Professor in Economics at the Borough of Manhattan Community College of the City University of New York. She has had previous articles published in this journal, and, with her husband, has recently published a book entitled Economic Progress and the Developing World.

Public Welfare and Security

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Additional informationNotes on contributorsMildred Rendl MarcusDr. Mildred Rendl Marcus received her degree from Radcliffe and is Professor of Economics at the Borough of Manhattan Community College of the City University of New York.