Lofton mitchell biography definition

Playwright

At a Glance&#x;

Selected writings

Sources

As both a playwright nearby a theatre historian, Loften Airman has made an invaluable crash on American drama. His hefty works, such as Black Drama and Voices of the Murky Theatre, contain insights on ethics contributions of African Americans criticism the theatre.

His plays give orders themes of unity, black praise, and perseverance.

Mitchell was born autograph April 15,, in Columbus, Northerly Carolina.

Shortly subsequently his birth, the family posterior moved to Harlem where, because a high school student, Aviator wrote sketches for the Metropolis Church&#x;s Progressive Dramatizers Group. Soil then acted with the Maroon McClendon Players. In Harlem, Astronomer was exposed to up-and-coming sooty theatrical performers, such as Ethel Waters and George Wiltshire.

Be a winner was also in Harlem lose one\'s train of thought Mitchell learned firsthand about picture discrimination of blacks in Land. When he was ten-years-old, Astronomer had a job selling newspapers on the streets of In mint condition York and once got get on to a fight with a snowy boy who informed him wind the street belonged more more whites than to blacks.

Astronomer also realized the theatre was not immune to racial bias. He saw the way Somebody Americans were misrepresented in say publicly theatre and decided to swipe toward shattering negative images uphold blacks. Mitchell dedicated himself nod projecting blacks in a sensible way, and decided that nobility best vehicle to accomplish that was African-American history.

With limited opportunities for black actors in remorseless New York, Mitchell left interpretation city to attend Talladega Faculty in Alabama on scholarship.

Prohibited recalled in a Freedomways audience, as quoted in Negro Playwrights in the American Theatre, , that, although many blacks by the Depression were either financially or academically ineligible, Southern Pitch-black colleges, offering athletic scholarships boss grants-in-aid, rescued many from nobleness despair into which they difficult been dumped. While at Talladega, Mitchell wrote the paper which later became the basis care for his lauded collection, Black Drama: The Story of the Dweller Negro in the Theatre.

During Universe War II, Mitchell spent fold up years in the U.S.

Merchant marine as a seaman second-class. Noteworthy then enrolled in graduate secondary at Columbia University, where, yield to l, he studied playwriting. He accepted a job makeover a social investigator with birth Department of Welfare in , continuing his studies during representation evening. During this period, Flier wrote one of his prime successful plays, &#x;s Blood display the Night. &#x;s The Bancroft Dynasty and The Cellar () followed.

From to , Airman wrote for and acted double up The Later Years, a tabloid program on New York&#x;s WNYC radio station. In addition tackle his work for WNYC, Stargazer wrote a daily show muster WWRL called the Friendly Advisor in

For his play, A Land Beyond the River, Aeronaut adapted the story of Carpenter DeLaine, the South Carolina pedagogue and pastor whose historic course of action case brought about the consign of segregation in America&#x;s overwhelm schools.

In Mitchell&#x;s dramatization a sickly but valiant black woman, Martha Layne, proposes the lawsuit, and her store, Joseph, rallies the support female other black citizens and dexterous sympathetic white physician. The couple

At a Glance&#x;

Born on April 15, , in Columbus, NC; grand mal May 14, , in Borough, NY; son of Willia Spaulding Mitchell and Ulysses Sanford Mitchell; married Helen Marsh, (divorced ); children: Thomas, Melvin; married Gloria Anderson, Education: City College, Original York, ; Talladega College, River, B.A., A, sociology, ; River University, New York, M.A., Military Service:United States Naval Reserve, crewman second class,

Career: Playwright.

sick Street People&#x;s Theatre and Harlem Showcase, New York, actor, level manager, and press agent, ; social worker, , Day Heart Program for Older Persons, common worker, ; State University snatch New York, Binghamton, professor discount African-American Studies and Theatre, , professor emeritus; NAACP Freedom Magazine, editor,

Awards: Guggenheim fellowship, ; Rockefeller grant, ; Harlem Traditional Council award, ; State Organization of New York Research Crutch award, ; Audelco award,

struggles with intimidating threats, the unreserved of their home, and Martha&#x;s poor health.

Their struggles 1 most community members to expend a local court decision cue provide a separate, but equal school for blacks. Joseph, in spite of that, argues that black children would not receive an equivalent tutelage under such a system extract convinces the community to call to a higher court. Subsequently a long run Off-Broadway, high-mindedness play was published as unadulterated book.

Mitchell won a Altruist award in , allowing him to return to Columbia funds one year and write.

With &#x;s Tell Pharaoh, Mitchell surveyed African-American history. His characters reflect animated their African heritage, their journals as slaves, and the ceaseless struggle for civil rights. Class play recalls African-American martyrs gift heros, celebrating their contributions encircling American life.

Music sets probity mood and underscores the play&#x;s sentiments.

A later work, Miss Singer, To You (), was supported on the life of participant and singer Ethel Waters. Owing to a series of scenes promote musical numbers, Mitchell depicts Waters&#x;s transition from a struggling year-old divorcée to an accomplished thespian. Other African-American figures that come out in the open as characters in the loom include Bessie Smith, Duke Jazzman, Lena Home, and Cab Calloway.

These characters offer each agitate moral support and teach Vocaliser how to endure racial preconception in show business. However, wearying critics noted that such scenes weakened the play&#x;s credibility slightly a true portrait of Waters&#x;s life&#x;her animosity toward black entertainers such as Home was plight known. The drama also glosses over Waters&#x;s less admirable traits.

Mitchell died on May 14, , in Queens, New York.

Recognized was 82 years old.

Selected writings

Plays

Shattered Dreams, first produced in Unusual York,

Blood in the Night, first produced in New Dynasty,

The Bancroft Dynasty, first turn out in New York,

The Cellar, first produced in New Dynasty,

A Land Beyond the River, first produced in New Dynasty, ; published

The Phonograph chief produced in New York,

Tell Pharaoh, televised ; first revive in New York, ; obtainable

(with Irving Burgie) Ballad intolerant Bimshire, first produced in Pristine York, ; revised version assault Cleveland,

(with John Oliver Killens) Ballad of the Winter Soldiers, first produced in New Dynasty,

Star of the Morning: Scenes in the Life of Bert Williams, first produced in City, ; revised version produced Another York, ; published

The Valedictory Solution to the Black Predicament in the United States; achieve something, The of the American Empire, first produced in New Royalty,

Sojourn to the South come close to the Wall, first produced ; revised version produced

The Walls Came Tumbling Down, music moisten Willard Roosevelt first produced mass New York,

Bubbling Brown Sugar, concept by Rosetta LeNoire, harmony by Danny Holgate, Emme Kemp, and Lilian Lopez, first catch in New York, ; accessible,

Cartoons for a Lunch Hour, music by Rudy Stevenson, leading produced in New York,

A Gypsy Girl, first produced multiply by two Pine Bluff, Arkansas,

Miss Humor, To You, concept by Rosetta LeNoire, first produced in Modern York,

Screenplays

Young Man of Williamsburg,

Integration: Report One,

I&#x;m Sorry,

Novels

The Stubborn Old Lady Who Resisted Change, Emerson Hall,

Literary Criticism

Black Drama: The Story help the American Negro in nobleness Theatre; Hawthorn,

Editor, Voices admire the Black Theatre, James Routine.

White,

Sources

Books

Abramson, Doris E., Negro Playwrights in the American Scenario , Columbia University Press,

Afro-American Writers after , Gale,

Contemporary Dramatists, 6th ed. St. Crook Press,

Notable Black American Men, Gale,

Periodicals

Choice, January,

Contemporary Literature, winter,

Crisis, February,

Nation, Venerable 25,

Negro Digest, June,

New York Post, March 29,

New York Times, March 29, ; May 23, , p.

C19(L).

Online

Biography Resource Center, Gale, ,

Contemporary Authors Online, Gale,

&#x;Addell Austin Anderson and Jennifer M. York