THE IMPACT OF RACE: Theater and Culture

Sometimes, while reading King's book on black America and theater, readers may start feeling like they're flipping through the pages of a stage manager's notebook. Names, productions, more names and a litany of economic concerns abound; with the exception of the introductory chapter and a few others, this is little but a record of what has been created on the stage and who has been responsible for creating it. But perhaps, in a world where black theater is still scarce and severely underfunded, that's enough. King isn't interested in proposing grand theories or constructing coherent arguments. Instead, the founder and producing director of New York's New Federal Theatre does what every great director must do: he looks around at his resources and comes up with a way to build. He writes, "What we're trying to do down here in the Lower East Side of New York is turn bricks into sentences, suppressed intellectual energy into art." Alas, King occasionally diverges from this voice and rambles on about the various playwrights and productions he's encountered throughout his career, which will hold the attention of only practitioners of theater or those who study it. However, there are some shining moments of clarity, as when King considers how grand and important his work and the work of other black thespians has been. He is nothing short of visionary: "A kind of first anger in the art and the films may be just tough enough and honest enough to save us all." B&w photos not seen by PW . (Jan. 16)