BHS Day 27: Vinnette Carroll

 

Hi! For the last Music and Entertainment Spotlight, we're focusing on a behind the scenes pioneer in the film industry. She preferred not to focus on the fact that she was a female director, preferring instead to focus on positively highlighting the Black experience through her art. While she preferred not to focus on it and I will honor that by not bringing too much attention to it either, I can acknowledge that for the time she was active in the industry, there were few women doing what she was doing and even fewer Black women, which opened the door for her to become a pioneer of the theater. Let's get into it!

Source

Name: Vinnette Justine Carroll, 1922-2002

Profession: Director, playwright, actress

Why is the Spotlight on her today? For her contributions to the theater world and her efforts to provide positive representation for Blacks through her plays

Notables:

--Was the first Black female director of a Broadway play

--Helped define a new genre in Broadway plays, the "gospel song play," which was intended to bring in the gospel roots many Blacks had and tie it into the experience being relayed in the play

--Founded the Urban Arts Corps, which was a not-for-profit community theater intended to help aspiring actors in nearby underserved communities

--Attended Edwin Piscator's Dramatic Workshop at the New School for Social Research

--Taught at her former high school, a performing arts school, as a theater arts teacher and director of the high school productions

--Collaborated on a play that was later nominated for three Tonys

--Created her own one-woman show and toured the US and West Indies

--Created her first play based on the works of James Weldon Johnson

--Won both an Emmy and an Obie for her work, the former for Beyond the Blues, a tv show she co-created, and the latter for her acting in Moon Over a Rainbow Shawl

--Formed an all-Black cast of the play Dark at the Moon, which launched the career of James Earl Jones, among others

--Created her final company, the Vinnette Carroll Repertory Company and served as artistic director and producer

--Was awarded a scholarship to attend the New School for Social Research as a postgrad in clinical and industrial psychology

--Studied at former classmate Lee Strasberg's studio, combining some of those techniques with those of Piscator and Bertolt Brecht to develop her own style of drama

Further reading and resources:

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Quote of the Day:

"I have had a great deal of hurt in the theater both as a Negro and as a woman, but I don’t get immobilized by it."

-Vinnette Carroll

Today's organization: Black Women for Wellness

What does this organization provide? Health services, advocacy and research into health issues that specifically affect the Black female community. They want to provide accessible and affordable services, create new community leaders to speak on health-related concerns, education for the community and society at large on the health issues Black females face, and provide research into the challenges we face. There are multiple programs that provide sex education for youth, diabetes prevention education, education for healthy eating, empowerment through voting, among others. This organization is California-based.

Donate | Volunteer

See you tomorrow!