Research Catalog

Title

American Negro Theatre records, 1940-1981, bulk(1940-1950).

Author

American Negro Theatre.

Supplementary Content

Finding Aid

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Additional Authors

• O'Neal, Frederick, 1905-1992.
• Hill, Abram, 1911-1986.
• Simms, Hilda, 1918-1994.
• Glanville, Maxwell, 1918-1992.
• Childress, Alice.
• Gribble, Harry Wagstaff, 1896-1981.

Description

.4 lin. ft.

Summary

The records contain ANT's constitution and by-laws; correspondence by Frederick O'Neal, Abram Hill, Maxwell Glanville, Hilda Sims, Alice Childress, and Harry Wagstaff Gribble; assorted programs; minutes of the board of directors; financial records; articles; ANT's School of Drama; Planning, Administrative, Reorganization, Playreading and Audience Building Committees minutes and notes; and Theatre Renovations information.

Donor/Sponsor

Schomburg NEH Blacks on Stage: African-American Theater Arts Collections Project.

Subject

• O'Neal, Frederick, 1905-1992
• American Negro Theatre
• African American theater
• African American actors
• Acting > Study and teaching > New York (State) > New York
• African Americans in the performing arts
• Harlem (New York, N.Y.)

Source (note)

• O'Neal, Frederick

Biography (note)

• The American Negro Theatre (ANT) co-founded by Frederick O'Neal and Abram Hill, was established to provide black actors, playwrights, directors and other theatre-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.

Processing Action (note)

• Accessioned
• Surveyed
• Cataloging updated
• Processed.
• Cat. updated

Call Number

Sc MG 70

OCLC

NYPW89-A14

Author

American Negro Theatre.

Title

American Negro Theatre records, 1940-1981, bulk(1940-1950).

Biography

The American Negro Theatre (ANT) co-founded by Frederick O'Neal and Abram Hill, was established to provide black actors, playwrights, directors and other theatre-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.

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.

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.

Finding Aids

Finding aid available in repository.

Connect to:

NYPL Digital Collections

Finding Aid

Added Author

O'Neal, Frederick, 1905-1992.

Hill, Abram, 1911-1986.

Simms, Hilda, 1918-1994.

Glanville, Maxwell, 1918-1992.

Childress, Alice.

Gribble, Harry Wagstaff, 1896-1981.

Research Call Number

Sc MG 70