Research Catalog

Details

Description

1. 0.67 linear feet (2 boxes)

Summary

1. This collection includes material gathered for an exhibition that would tell the story of the ANT and the achievements of its various performers. This material, sent by various alumni, includes such as updated resumes, programs, photographs, and press clippings.

Subject

1. Briggs-Hall, Austin
2. Burrows, Vinie
3. Carter, Dorothy
4. Childress, Alice
5. Dee, Ruby
6. Evans, Chickie
7. Glanville, Maxwell, 1918-1992
8. Greaves, William
9. Haynes, Hilda, 1912-1986
10. Henderson, Vickie
11. Jeannette, Gertrude, 1914-2018
12. Leyba, Claire
13. O'Neal, Frederick, 1905-1992
14. Pichard, Juanita B
15. Richardson, Virgil, 1916-2004
16. Rowan, Pearl
17. Thomas, Franklin (Actor)
18. Trotman, James
19. Trotman, Olive Tucker
20. Truesdale, Ted
21. Wallace, Emmett Babe, 1909-2006
22. Wilbur, James (Actor)
23. American Negro Theatre
24. American Negro Theatre -- History
25. New York Public Library. 135th Street Branch
26. Acting -- Study and teaching -- New York (State) -- New York
27. African American actors
28. African American theater
29. African Americans in the performing arts
30. African American actors -- New York (State) -- New York
31. African American theater -- New York (State) -- New York
32. African Americans in the performing arts -- New York (State) -- New York
33. Harlem (New York, N.Y.) -- Intellectual life

Genre/Form

1. Clippings (information artifacts)
2. Photographs.
3. Programs (documents)
4. Résumés (personnel records)

Call number

1. Sc MG 515

Location of other archival materials (note)

1. American Negro Theatre records, Sc MG 70, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture American Negro Theatre scrapbook, Sc MG 363, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture

Biography (note)

1. This collection was created by the American Negro Theatre Alumni Committee as part of the 1986 fundraising campaign for the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. The campaign led to the opening of the expanded Schomburg Center complex that houses the renovated basement theater (the former 135th Street Branch Library, now known as the Landmark Building), which housed the ANT for several years.
2. The American Negro Theatre (ANT) co-founded by Frederick O'Neal and Abram Hill, was established to provide Black actors, playwrights, directors, and other theater-related professionals with opportunities to work in productions that illustrated the diversity of Black life. ANT's program was essentially divided into three categories: stage productions, a training program, and radio programs.
3. From 1940-1949, nineteen plays, twelve of them original, were produced by ANT. On Striver's Row, Walk Hard--Talk Loud, (both written by Hill), and Rain were well-received plays. However, commercial success struck with Philip Yordan's Anna Lucasta. ANT also exhibited the talents of several now well-known actors and actresses, some for the first time, including Ruby Dee, Sidney Poitier, Harry Belafonte, Alvin and Alice Childress, Hilda Simms, Earl Hyman, Isabel Sanford, Vinie Burroughs, Helen Martin, Roger Furman, Maxwell Glanville, Clarice Taylor, Gordon Heath, and Hilda Hayes.
4. For the first five years (1940-1945), ANT was housed in the basement of the 135th Street Branch Library of the New York Public Library, known as the "Harlem Library Little Theatre". In 1945, ANT moved to the Elks Lodge at 15 West 126th Street, which was renamed the American Negro Theatre Playhouse. In 1950, ANT made its final move to a loft on West 125th Street, and according to O'Neal, officially went out of business a year later.

Processing action (note)

1. Processing Information: Accessioned by Diana Lachatanere in 1993-1994.

Author

1. American Negro Theatre. Alumni Committee.

Title

1. American Negro Theatre Alumni collection.

Production

1. 1987.

Type of content

1. text
2. still image

Type of medium

1. unmediated

Type of carrier

1. sheet

Biography

1. This collection was created by the American Negro Theatre Alumni Committee as part of the 1986 fundraising campaign for the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. The campaign led to the opening of the expanded Schomburg Center complex that houses the renovated basement theater (the former 135th Street Branch Library, now known as the Landmark Building), which housed the ANT for several years.

Location of other archival materials

1. American Negro Theatre records, Sc MG 70, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture American Negro Theatre scrapbook, Sc MG 363, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture

Biography

1. The American Negro Theatre (ANT) co-founded by Frederick O'Neal and Abram Hill, was established to provide Black actors, playwrights, directors, and other theater-related professionals with opportunities to work in productions that illustrated the diversity of Black life. ANT's program was essentially divided into three categories: stage productions, a training program, and radio programs.
2. From 1940-1949, nineteen plays, twelve of them original, were produced by ANT. On Striver's Row, Walk Hard--Talk Loud, (both written by Hill), and Rain were well-received plays. However, commercial success struck with Philip Yordan's Anna Lucasta. ANT also exhibited the talents of several now well-known actors and actresses, some for the first time, including Ruby Dee, Sidney Poitier, Harry Belafonte, Alvin and Alice Childress, Hilda Simms, Earl Hyman, Isabel Sanford, Vinie Burroughs, Helen Martin, Roger Furman, Maxwell Glanville, Clarice Taylor, Gordon Heath, and Hilda Hayes.
3. For the first five years (1940-1945), ANT was housed in the basement of the 135th Street Branch Library of the New York Public Library, known as the "Harlem Library Little Theatre". In 1945, ANT moved to the Elks Lodge at 15 West 126th Street, which was renamed the American Negro Theatre Playhouse. In 1950, ANT made its final move to a loft on West 125th Street, and according to O'Neal, officially went out of business a year later.

Processing action

1. Processing Information: Accessioned by Diana Lachatanere in 1993-1994.

Connect to:

1. Finding aid

Research call number

1. Sc MG 515