it witnessed the production with a distinguished cast, including
Guy Bates Post and Annie Russell, at the New Theatre in New
York City, of Edward Sheldon's The Nigger (later called
The Governor), a somewhat melodramatic treatment of the
tragedy of racial admixture in the South. It marks the first
sincere attempt to sound the depths of our racial experience for
modern drama. A more sympathetic and poetic utilization of
this dramatic material appears a few years later in the composition of three one-act plays (Granny Maumee, The Rider of Dreams, and Simon the Cyrenian), by Ridgely
Torrence. Of equal importance was the artistic staging of
these plays with a cast of talented Negro actors by Sheldon,
Mrs. Norman Hapgood, and others. The venture was a
pleasing artistic success, and but for the intervention of the
World War might have resulted in the establishment of a
permanent Negro Little Theatre in New York City. Not only
had the public been impressed with the artistic value of such
plays, but it also had been given its first demonstration of the
ability of the Negro actor in other than burlesque parts. Opal
Cooper especially won the plaudits of the critics, and, like John
the Baptist, he proved to be only the forerunner of one who
was to touch the peaks of histrionic accomplishment.
Then by a tour-de-force of genius—for the histrionic ability of Charles Gilpin has been as effective as the dramatic genius of Eugene O'Neill—the serious play of Negro life broke through to public favor and critical recognition. Overnight this weird psychological study of race experience was hailed as a dramatic masterpiece and an unknown Negro was selected by the Drama League as one of the ten foremost actors on the American stage. In any further development of Negro drama, The Emperor Jones, written by O'Neill, interpreted by Gilpin, and produced by the Provincetown Players, will tower as a beacon-light of inspiration. It marks the breakwater plunge of Negro drama into the main stream of American drama.
In 1923 Raymond O'Neill assembled a noteworthy group of Negro actors in Chicago and formed the “Ethiopian Art Theatre.” Following successful presentation there he launched
