Mbtprograms

Melvin B. Tolson



[ 1898-1966 ]

A Selection of Theater Programs

from the Melvin B. Tolson Papers


at the Library of Congress
Washington D.C.

The programs below show that Tolson fulfilled the
intent of the Dust Bowl Dream. From Sartre and Ibsen
to Langston Hughes and Lorraine Hansberry, the
Players brought mainstream hits to their audiences,
as well as the promised ‘home-grown’ theater with
plays written by Tolson himself. His adaptation of
“Fire in the Flint” by Walter White was performed at
the NAACP convention of 1952. The text of three of
his own plays can be found via our


Tolson
Issue, FlashPoint #14.

Click through the image for a larger view

Simply Heavenly

November 5th, 1955

Langston
University

from the Dust Bowl programs:

      

The Negro’s place in the field of drama has been
under the shadow of Old Jim Crow. Where is the
black Eugene O’Neill? The Anton Chekov? The J.M.
Synge? Until that question is answered the Negro
people shall not have reached intellectual
maturity in America. The theater is the caviar of
a people’s culture.

      
Sterling
Brown says: “Only one Negro play of complete Negro
authorhsip has had a Broadway run.”

      
So
the Dust Bowl Players will entertain you with hits
from the Great White Way. Later on, they hope to
give you some genuine Negro drama made at home.
You remember what Paul Green and the Carolina
Players did at Chapel Hill – how they caused the
critics and the tophats to look in that direction?
Well, out here in the Dust Bowl some Negro
playwrights and actors and theatergoers are going
to “let down their buckets where they are.”

      
And
we won’t be alone! There is a drama renaissance in
Negro colleges like Dillard, Florida A & M,
Fisk, Tuskegee, Tennessee State, Lincoln, Howard.

      
Since
we must start from scratch, you dear patron, will
have to help us scratch! So a merry evening to one
and all!