Texts of Cultural Practice: Black Theatre and Performance in the UK

Abstract

The above quote taken from my new play, Master Juba, describes the makeup process white performers used to become a blackface minstrel and thus grotesquely caricature black culture. It was one of the most popular forms of entertainment during the nineteenth century, yet race was not allowed to be mixed on stage, until black performers blacked up and imitated white minstrels imitating them. Historically, black people in theatre were not writers or directors, but on-stage spectacles shoring up the colonial imagination of the other. Like Morgan Smith, Ira Aldridge came to Europe to escape racism in the United States during the nineteenth century and played a number of Shakespeare’s leading male roles to popular acclaim. But he experienced similar discrimination in England and fled, eventually finding recognition and prominence in his tours of Western and Eastern Europe. His innovative contribution to the development of the Method School of Acting has still not been fully credited.²

Burn the cork in a saucer with alcohol. Once completely burnt, mash to a fine paste. Then rub a cake of cocoa butter lightly over the face, ears, and neck, then apply a broad streak of carmine to the lips carrying it well beyond the corners of the mouth, then take a little of the prepared burnt cork, moisten it with water, and rub it carefully on the face, ears, neck, and hands being careful to avoid touching the lips. Put on the wig, wipe the palms of the hands clean, and the makeup is completed.¹