THE FREE SOUTHERN THEATER BY THE FREE SOUTHERN THEATER

by Thomas C.; Richard Schechner & Gilbert Moses--Eds. Dent ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 1, 1969

Subtitled A Documentary of the South's Radical Black Theater with journals, letters, poetry, essays and a play written by those who built it, this is a moving history of a rare commitment and the energies and agonies of those who tried and failed to ""translate the FST from rhetoric to reality."" The play was not the thing, communication and involvement were as this small, fragmented troupe tried with all aesthetic earnestness to create a black theater within the framework of black experience. In the midst of Mississippi heat and hot rednecked collars on a below survival budget and with outdated or inadequate scripts and increasing internal disaffection. You get the picture from all sides, from the slow radicalism of Gibert Moses who believed that black theater could not be integrated theater and dropped out to the bemused understanding of Richard Schechner who copped out. But there were marvelous moments in black backwaters where audiences were confronted for the first time with brothers telling it like it is. The book ends on a note of affirmation by the ever perserving Director, Thomas Dent, and hopefully it will engender new enthusiasm for an idea that should not die.

Pub Date: Aug. 1, 1969

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Bobbs-Merrill

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1969

Categories: NONFICTION