ABSTRACT Title of Dissertation: THE PHENOMENOLOGY OF ...

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Chapter II: The Royal Marionettes The Roots of Blackface Puppetry While it was the American stage that produced the troublesome vestige known as blackface, puppeteers on the other side of the Atlantic were the first to render it in wood and paint. Thanks to an unusually visible series of marionette productions, one can trace the introduction of blackface puppetry to the United States from its loose origins in Punch and Judy, to the standards set by Lambert D’Arc and William John Bullock’s Royal Marionettes, and finally to a complicated dissemination in late nineteenth-century American theatre. For Paul McPharlin, the eidos of blackface puppetry begins with the Jim Crow figure of English “Punch” shows. He identifies its origin, somewhat erroneously, in T. D. Rice’s 1836 visit to London. 22 George Speight argues that the Jim Crow puppet is really an invention of the English stage renamed to draw on Jim Crow’s popularity. In either case, the black character of Punch and Judy is at least an important footnote to the development of blackface puppetry. The theatre’s first “Negro puppet” is a black servant who tries to silence Punch’s incessant ringing of a bell, at the instruction of his unmet master. Like nearly all his fellow supporting characters, the servant is made a fool by the protagonist. Sometime in the 1850s he came to be called Jim Crow, and his appearances would occasionally feature the figure dancing and singing to Rice’s popular song. 23 It would be easy to make too much of its American heritage, which is influential 22 See: Paul McPharlin, The Puppet Theatre in America: A History, 1524-1948 (Boston: Plays, Inc., 1949). 23 nd George Speight, The History of English Puppet Theatre, 2 edition (Carbondale: Southern University Press, 1990), 218-20. 21
in creating the first connection between American minstrelsy and the puppet theatre. It represents the first recorded example of blackface puppetry in theatre history, one that has appeared inconsistently in English Punch plays throughout the last two-hundred-plus years, but it is not as directly connected to blackface puppetry in the United States as the Lambert D’Arc and William John Bullock marionettes. No records show Shallaballa, the unnamed black domestic, or the Jim Crow minstrel puppet traveling to the United States. George Speight notes: “The Negro servant or the nigger minstrel [was] in every case a typical foreign resident […] in England […] the characters of the Punch and Judy show are of unquestioned English descent.” 24 Perhaps Speight and McPharlin are being equally hyperbolic. McPharlin certainly oversimplifies the origin of the Jim Crow puppet, by suggesting it was an adaptation of American minstrelsy without giving fair consideration to its English precedent. Speight, however, neglects the significance of the Jim Crow character in changing the essence of the “Negro puppet.” The nineteenth-century puppeteers transformed the blackface character’s name, and certain characteristics, from those of an African foreign resident, to those of an American blackface clown. Thus, it is important to cite this first example of blackface puppetry, at least for its influence on the minstrel marionette tradition. The puppet black of Punch and Judy shows likely exerts some influence on marionette minstrel shows, associating the blackface puppet with dancer/singer, exotic other, and object of ridicule, all fundamental essences of blackface puppetry. 24 nd George Speight, The History of English Puppet Theatre, 2 edition (Carbondale: Southern University Press, 1990), 220. 22
Page 1 and 2: ABSTRACT Title of Dissertation: THE
Page 3 and 4: THE PHENOMENOLOGY OF RACIALISM: BLA
Page 5 and 6: Dedication This dissertation is ded
Page 7 and 8: Table of Contents Dedication.......
Page 9 and 10: House and the Brooklyn Academy of M
Page 11 and 12: Bert O’States expands on the meth
Page 13 and 14: previous related performances, are
Page 15 and 16: “blackface” as counterfeit perf
Page 17 and 18: demands of this transcendent notion
Page 19 and 20: To manage such an investigation, th
Page 21 and 22: a celebration of superiority. 20 Th
Page 23 and 24: playbill, minstrel show script, con
Page 25 and 26: Lano fancies himself an advocate of
Page 27: of the African American race, and s
Page 31 and 32: In order to explain the interaction
Page 33 and 34: performance. 29 Marionette minstrel
Page 35 and 36: Nonetheless, it maintains the criss
Page 37 and 38: 3), into more complex types. By the
Page 39 and 40: from the head and leg strings, can
Page 41 and 42: leased Queen’s Hall in Liverpool
Page 43 and 44: effectively capture the nonlinear p
Page 45 and 46: other puppet, is not slack and seem
Page 47 and 48: was already showing considerable ar
Page 49 and 50: The Marionettes in Performance The
Page 51 and 52: of an aged former slave who has esc
Page 53 and 54: The criminal acts and dishonesty de
Page 55 and 56: Antislavery songs in a marionette p
Page 57 and 58: e useful to compare the joke exchan
Page 59 and 60: the figure, once “folded up prepa
Page 61 and 62: eginning with a wide variety of mar
Page 63 and 64: Christy Minstrels, with their reper
Page 65 and 66: Walter E. Deaves Edwin Deaves, Walt
Page 67 and 68: some images of minstrel players (re
Page 69 and 70: Yet, one cannot easily reduce the s
Page 71 and 72: Daniel Meader Sometime after 1874,
Page 73 and 74: lackface makeup, rather than authen
Page 75 and 76: figure 12. His hair is slightly hig
Page 77 and 78: puppets for the last time, he may s
Page 79 and 80:
The Meader Uncle Tom suggests the e
Page 81 and 82:
Chapter III: David Lano The Essence
Page 83 and 84:
lackface characters for ridicule; h
Page 85 and 86:
doctor. Lano then depicts the black
Page 87 and 88:
A colored quartet now sang. They we
Page 89 and 90:
The Career of David Lano While thre
Page 91 and 92:
Lano’s solo career. One of the la
Page 93 and 94:
human oddities. Like many of its ki
Page 95 and 96:
“continually transforms necessity
Page 97 and 98:
David Lano’s Work Lano’s extant
Page 99 and 100:
such as the kakunga of the Suku peo
Page 101 and 102:
The clothes are a curious blend of
Page 103 and 104:
the age of ten, he presented his ow
Page 105 and 106:
Punch murdering the Servant. Lano c
Page 107 and 108:
form by introducing sentimental mus
Page 109 and 110:
creation on the basis of active mot
Page 111 and 112:
divided between the “Sambo” and
Page 113 and 114:
Though they share in the appercepti
Page 115 and 116:
mild embarrassment on his use of Ji
Page 117 and 118:
“The marionette can be anything o
Page 119 and 120:
he [can] find them.” 147 Calthrop
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of the Moor, who is, though still m
Page 123 and 124:
slanted and sharp, the nostrils are
Page 125 and 126:
perhaps the beginning puppeteer, wh
Page 127 and 128:
taken it from playwright Tsou Ku Ch
Page 129 and 130:
figure, who dismisses his complaint
Page 131 and 132:
Thus, the structure of the play pre
Page 133 and 134:
Chapter V: The Majors The major pup
Page 135 and 136:
Bedchamber.” 165 Sarg described:
Page 137 and 138:
Critics and fellow puppeteers prais
Page 139 and 140:
Sarg and Blackface Though Sarg neve
Page 141 and 142:
“Skin me, Brer Fox,” sez Brer R
Page 143 and 144:
possibilities of puppetry led him t
Page 145 and 146:
was common with the so-called “To
Page 147 and 148:
present his particular imaginations
Page 149 and 150:
herself in need of independent econ
Page 151 and 152:
The Essence of Puppetry for Sue Has
Page 153 and 154:
the head to the right and left, to
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art,” and “a descendent of the
Page 157 and 158:
puppeteers to avoid complicated and
Page 159 and 160:
delicate verisimilitude for blackfa
Page 161 and 162:
Remo Bufano: The Local Emcees the E
Page 163 and 164:
Club’s stage (ca 1932) began with
Page 165 and 166:
world culture, including a Medieval
Page 167 and 168:
impressive aspects of elaborate, la
Page 169 and 170:
capture the great variety of black
Page 171 and 172:
tangled a Prime Minister marionette
Page 173 and 174:
program continued with a pair of ne
Page 175 and 176:
no good messin’ aroun’ wid whit
Page 177 and 178:
By inaugurating the action with thi
Page 179 and 180:
lackface stereotypes, but also mark
Page 181 and 182:
Brown’s puppetry work is enigmati
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(Marionette Minstrel Show), and Bru
Page 185 and 186:
and personality for her/his creatio
Page 187 and 188:
Paris’s semiotic choices introduc
Page 189 and 190:
characters were common to the varie
Page 191 and 192:
However, the essential realism of t
Page 193 and 194:
A ninth grade Art Club in Oshkosh,
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the Royal Marionettes, with some re
Page 197 and 198:
slips away with his clothes. The ti
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the same moment, Mumbo commented on
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Munger also introduced a range of a
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minstrelsy. They would also permit
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yo all arrested.” 249 In the same
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exclamation; “Oh, my lan’! Now
Page 209 and 210:
Tom. Simon Legree was a puppet base
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event led to a full season of produ
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comic context of their puppet plays
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epresentations of blacks would cont
Page 217 and 218:
impressive, and touted his enterpri
Page 219 and 220:
clearly believes that some other pu
Page 221 and 222:
of the play to connect with African
Page 223 and 224:
its length (see figure 52). Finally
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O’Neill’s take on Henri Christo
Page 227 and 228:
audiences, then goes on to suggest
Page 229 and 230:
Chesse’s reading of Brutus was th
Page 231 and 232:
meticulous artistic strokes then, c
Page 233 and 234:
Many of the lost objects may have b
Page 235 and 236:
sketches would be well-served by th
Page 237 and 238:
The FTP production of Little Black
Page 239 and 240:
transmitted to, and circulated with
Page 241 and 242:
Conclusion: Phenomenology, Authenti
Page 243 and 244:
the essence of less grotesque black
Page 245 and 246:
used them in plays where puppets ce
Page 247 and 248:
minstrelsy-derived Topsy, as genuin
Page 249 and 250:
productions featuring blackface cha
Page 251 and 252:
_. Race and Ethnic Relations. 3 rd
Page 253 and 254:
Durham, Weldon B. ed. American Thea
Page 255 and 256:
Hill, Errol. Shakespeare in Sable:
Page 257 and 258:
Mahar, William J. Behind the Burnt
Page 259 and 260:
Powell, Herbert Preston. The World'
Page 261 and 262:
Spurling, Laurie. Phenomenology and
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