Willis Richardson, a pioneer in the black theatre movement, emerged as a playwright at the dawn of the New Negro Renaissance. Richardson was a significant playwright and drama anthologist during the 1920s and 1930s. However, over the past decades his works have been largely forgotten. Within these contemporary times, few people are aware of his true contributions to the development of black drama. But among his contemporaries, he was recognized as a leading playwright. Such is evidenced in an April 1940 letter he received from Montgomery Gregory that called him a pioneer playwright.
Bernard Peterson has accurately described Richardson as a theatrical pioneer who was the first critically significant and productive African American playwright. Richardson forged the way for countless others who came after him, many of whom were able to garner the laurels and accolades that he himself was not accorded during his lifetime, much to his frustration and disappointment. Not only did he have a passion for writing, and particularly drama, he was considered a trailblazer among black dramatists.
In his own words, as early as 1922, Richardson sent a letter to Gregory stating Negro drama has been, next to my wife and children, the very hope of my life. I shall do all within my power to advance it. During these formative years of black drama, Richardson exerted his energies towards promoting and perfecting his craft.
Born in Wilmington, North Carolina, Richardson and his parents, Willis Wilder and Agnes Ann Harper Richardson, moved to Washington, DC shortly after the Wilmington Riots of 1898. The riots resulted in the death of sixteen blacks. It is evident that this event had an impact on Richardson as a child, because he recalls it in details in his unpublished autobiography. Aspects of his early life and the identity of his biological parents are somewhat difficult to determine. For a greater scrutiny on these aspects of his life, see pages 8-11 of Christine Grays Willis Richardson, Forgotten Pioneer of African American Drama.
Richardsons father, who read to him as a young boy, encouraged his interest in books and writing. As a child, neighbors often criticized Richardson for reading too much; however, in his own words he states I would forget the rest of the world and become a part of the adventures of Frank and Dick Merriwell, the Liberty Boys of Seventy-Six, the James Boys, and others too numerous to mention.
Richardson attended M Street School, later named Dunbar High School, which was the first public high school for blacks in the United States. His experiences at M Street had a positive impact on his life. Mary Burrill, his English teacher who was a playwright, encouraged him. She was influential in having Richardsons first play read and evaluated by Alain Locke. Angelina Grimke, also an English teacher at the school, reviewed some of his poems; and it was her play, Rachel, that would give him his impetus to seek a career as a dramatist. In March 1916, Richardson and Otto Bohannan saw Rachel.
As result of this experience, Richardson was motivated to study the techniques of drama through a correspondence course. He had already completed a poetry course through the same correspondence school. Finally, Richardson had contact with Edward Christopher Williams who was principal and his Latin teacher during the time that he matriculated at M Street School.
Williams served as an early mentor and encouraged Richardson to write. In Williams words, Richardsons plays were the best he had seen from the black race; and it was Williams (1923) who was instrumental in having some of Richardsons plays read by Locke and Gregory at Howard University. This was around the same time that Locke and Gregory were setting up the Howard University Players. Williams and Richardson would later collaborate on the play, The Chasm (1926).
After graduating from M Street School in 1910, Richardson turned down a scholarship to Howard University because of his familys financial circumstances. Rather than attend the University, he had to seek employment. He began working at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing in 1911 and retired in 1954. It was at the Bureau that he met his future wife, Mary Ellen Jones, in 1912. They were married two years later on September 14, 1914. Ellen and Willis Richardson had three daughters.
Gray points out that Richardson was at one time considered the hope and promise of black drama, a playwright whose work was in great demand by little theatre groups and dramatic clubs . His plays were performed in black high schools, colleges and universities and by community groups across the country. Patsy Perry further elaborates that Richardson was recognized as the great spirit encouraging the creation of A Negro Theatre movement. He supplied original plays for black producers; and directed the Little Theatre Group in Washington, DC.
His accomplishments and the firsts in his career were many. The Deacons Awakening was his first play published in Crisis (November 1920). On May 15, 1923, The Chip Womans Fortune opened at the Frazee Theatre on Broadway. It shared the bill with Shakespeares The Comedy of Errors and Oscar Wildes Salome. The Chip Womans Fortune was the first serious drama by a black that appeared on Broadway. It is for this first milestone that Richardson is most remembered.
On March 29, 1924, his play, Mortgaged, was produced by the Howard University Players. Except for the plays written by Howard University students in Montgomery Gregorys playwriting class, this was the first play written by a black dramatist that was staged at the University.
There were many successes for Richardson during the height of the Renaissance. In 1925 his play, Mortgaged, was published in Alain Lockes The New Negro. His folk drama, Compromise, was the first play by a black dramatist to be presented by the Gilpin Players in Cleveland. In addition to the previously mentioned accomplishments, he won first prize in the Crisis Drama Awards for The Broken Banjo; and he received an honorable mention for plays in the Opportunity Contest for The Fall of the Conjurer.
The following year (1926) he won first prize in Crisis plays category for Boot-Black Lover. In 1928, he won the Edith Schwab Cup at Yale University for The Broken Banjo. In presenting this play, which was produced by the Dixwell Players, they won over eight white theatre groups.
At the request of Carter G. Woodson, founder of the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History, Richardson compiled his first anthology in 1930. The plays in this anthology, Plays and Pageants from the Life of the Negro, were written by black authors, were not in dialect, and had subject matter suitable for school age youngsters. James Lesesne Wells executed the illustrations for this anthology. Five years later (1935), Richardson co-edited with May Miller a second anthology, Negro History in Thirteen Plays.
In addition to writing, Richardson was very active in the circle of other writers. He was a regular between 1926-1936 with the Saturday Nighters at Georgia Douglas Johnsons home.
Posthumously, Richardson was awarded the AUDELCO prize, which is a testament to his excellence in black theatre.
Fitzpatrick, Sandra and Goodwin, Maria R., editors. The Guide to Black Washington. New York: Hippocrene Books, Inc., 1999.
Gray, Christine Rauchfuss. Willis Richardson, Forgotten Pioneer of African-American Drama. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1999.
Perry, Patsy, Willis Richardson, in Dictionary of Literary Biography. vol. 51, Afro-American Writers from the Harlem Renaissance to 1940, edited by Trudier Harris (Detroit: Gale Research Inc., 1987).
Stratford, Mary, A Love and a Talent, in Washington Afro-American (November 10, 1956).
Richardson, Willis. Characters. Opportunity 3 (1925): 183.
________________. The Hope of a Negro Drama. Crisis 19 (1919): 338-39.
________________. The Negro Audience. Opportunity 3 (1925): 123.
________________. The Negro and the Stage. Opportunity 2(1924): 310.
________________. Propaganda in the Theatre. The Messenger 6 (1924): 353-54.
Richardson, Willis, The Black Horseman, The Kings Dilemma, and The House of Sham, in Plays and Pageants from the Life of the Negro, edited by Willis Richardson (Washington, DC: Associated Publishers, Inc., 1930).
__________________, The Broken Banjo, in The Crisis Reader, edited by Sondra Kathryn Wilson (New York: Random House, 1999).
___________________, The Chip Womans Fortune, in Anthology of the American Negro in the Theatre, compiled and edited by Lindsay Patterson (Washington, DC: Association for the Study of Negro Life and History, 1967).
___________________, Compromise: A Folk Play, in The New Negro, edited by Alain Locke (New York: Albert and Charles Boni, 1925).
___________________, Mortgaged, in The New Negro Renaissance: An Anthology, edited by Arthur P. Davis and Michael W. Peplow (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1975).
___________________, A Pillar of the Church, in Lost Plays of the Harlem Renaissance, 1920-1940, edited by James V. Hatch and Leo Hamalian (Detroit: Wayne State University, 1996).
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Willis Richardson, mwanzilishi wa harakati za ukumbi wa michezo wa weusi, alionekana kama mwandishi wa michezo katika mapambazuko ya New Negro Renaissance. Richardson alikuwa mwandishi wa michezo na mchoraji wa michezo ya kuigiza katika miaka ya 1920 na 1930. Hata hivyo, katika miongo iliyopita kazi zake zimesahaulika sana. Ndani ya nyakati hizi za kisasa, watu wachache wanajua michango yake ya kweli kwa maendeleo ya mchezo wa kuigiza mweusi. Lakini miongoni mwa watu wa wakati wake, alitambuliwa kuwa mwandishi mashuhuri wa michezo. "Hiyo ni kwa sababu ya barua aliyoipokea kutoka kwa Montgomery Gregory mnamo Aprili 1940 ambayo ilimwita ""mwandishi wa michezo wa upainia.""" Bernard Peterson amemtaja Richardson kama mwanzilishi wa michezo ya kuigiza ambaye alikuwa mwandishi wa kwanza wa michezo wa Kiafrika wa Amerika. Richardson aliwaongoza wengine wengi waliokuja baada yake, wengi wao waliweza kupata sifa na sifa ambazo yeye mwenyewe hakupata wakati wa maisha yake, kwa kukatishwa tamaa na kukata tamaa kwake. Si kwamba tu alikuwa na shauku ya kuandika, na hasa mchezo wa kuigiza, alichukuliwa kuwa mwanzilishi kati ya waigizaji weusi. "Mwaka 1922 Richardson alimtumia Gregory barua akisema: ""Mchezo wa kuigiza wa weusi umekuwa, pamoja na mke wangu na watoto wangu, matumaini ya maisha yangu." Nitafanya yote niwezayo kuendeleza mradi huo. Wakati wa miaka hii ya kuunda ya mchezo mweusi wa kuigiza, Richardson alitumia nishati yake kukuza na kukamilisha ufundi wake. Richardson alizaliwa huko Wilmington, North Carolina, na wazazi wake, Willis Wilder na Agnes Ann Harper Richardson, walihamia Washington, DC muda mfupi baada ya ghasia za Wilmington za 1898. Ghasia hizo zilisababisha kifo cha watu weusi kumi na sita. Ni dhahiri kwamba tukio hili lilikuwa na athari kwa Richardson kama mtoto, kwa sababu anakumbuka kwa undani katika wasifu wake usiochapishwa. Sehemu za maisha yake ya utotoni na utambulisho wa wazazi wake wa kibiolojia ni vigumu kuamua. "Kwa maelezo zaidi kuhusu maisha yake, tazama kitabu ""Christine Grays Willis Richardson, Forgotten Pioneer of African American Drama"" (kurasa 8-11)." Baba ya Richardson, ambaye alimsomea akiwa mvulana mdogo, alimshawishi apendezwe na vitabu na uandishi. "Mwanzoni mwa miaka ya 1970, Richardson alishtakiwa na majirani kwa kusoma sana, lakini baadaye alisema, ""Ningesahau ulimwengu wote na kuwa sehemu ya vituko vya Frank na Dick Merriwell, Liberty Boys ya 76, James Boys, na wengine wengi sana kutajwa.""" Richardson alihudhuria shule ya M Street, baadaye jina lake Dunbar High School, ambayo ilikuwa shule ya sekondari ya umma ya kwanza kwa weusi nchini Marekani. Mambo aliyojionea katika M Street yaliathiri maisha yake kwa njia nzuri. Mary Burrill, mwalimu wake wa Kiingereza ambaye alikuwa mwandishi wa michezo, alimtia moyo. Alikuwa na ushawishi katika kuwa na Richardson ya kwanza kucheza kusoma na tathmini na Alain Locke. Angelina Grimm, mwalimu wa Kiingereza katika shule hiyo, alirudia baadhi ya mashairi yake, na ilikuwa ni mchezo wake, Rachel, ambayo ingempa msukumo wa kutafuta kazi kama mwandishi wa michezo. Mwaka 1916 Richard na Otto Bohannan walianza kuwasiliana na Rachel. Matokeo ya uzoefu huo yalimchochea Richardson kujifunza mbinu za uigizaji kupitia kozi ya mawasiliano. Tayari alikuwa amemaliza kozi ya ushairi kupitia shule hiyo hiyo ya mawasiliano. Richardson alikutana na Edward Christopher Williams, aliyekuwa mwalimu mkuu wa shule hiyo na mwalimu wake wa Kilatini wakati alipokuwa akisoma katika shule ya M Street. Williams alihudumu kama mshauri wa mapema na kumtia moyo Richardson kuandika. "Williams alisema, ""Mchezo wa Richardson ulikuwa bora zaidi alioona kutoka kwa jamii nyeusi, na ilikuwa Williams (1923) ambaye alikuwa na jukumu muhimu katika kuwa na baadhi ya michezo ya Richardson kusoma na Locke na Gregory katika Chuo Kikuu cha Howard.""" Hii ilikuwa karibu wakati huo huo kwamba Locke na Gregory walikuwa kuanzisha Howard Chuo Kikuu Wachezaji. Williams na Richardson baadaye walishirikiana kwenye mchezo, The Chasm (1926). Baada ya kuhitimu kutoka shule ya M Street mwaka 1910, Richardson alikataa kupata udhamini wa chuo kikuu cha Howard kwa sababu ya hali ya kifedha ya familia yake. Badala ya kwenda chuo kikuu, alilazimika kutafuta kazi. Alianza kazi katika Ofisi ya Uchongaji na Uchapishaji mnamo 1911 na kustaafu mnamo 1954. Katika ofisi hiyo alikutana na mke wake wa baadaye, Mary Ellen Jones, mwaka wa 1912. Walifunga ndoa miaka miwili baadaye, Septemba 14, 1914. Ellen na Willis Richardson walikuwa na mabinti watatu. "Grey anasema kwamba Richardson wakati mmoja alichukuliwa kuwa ""tumaini na ahadi ya mchezo wa kuigiza mweusi,"" mwandishi wa michezo ambaye kazi yake ilikuwa katika mahitaji makubwa na makundi madogo ya ukumbi wa michezo na vilabu vya kuigiza." Michezo yake ilichezwa katika shule za sekondari za weusi, vyuo vikuu na vyuo vikuu na na vikundi vya jamii kote nchini. Patsy Perry anaeleza zaidi kwamba Richardson alitambuliwa kama roho kubwa ya kuhamasisha uundaji wa harakati ya A Negro Theatre. Alitoa michezo ya awali kwa wazalishaji weusi; na kuelekeza Kikundi cha Little Theatre huko Washington, DC. Mafanikio yake na mambo ya kwanza katika kazi yake yalikuwa mengi. The Deacons Awakening ilikuwa mchezo wake wa kwanza kuchapishwa katika Mgogoro (Novemba 1920). "Mwezi Mei 15, 1923, ""The Chip Woman's Fortune"" ilifunguliwa katika ukumbi wa michezo wa Broadway." Ilishiriki muswada huo na The Comedy of Errors ya Shakespeare na Oscar Wildes Salome. The Chip Womans Fortune ilikuwa mchezo wa kuigiza wa kwanza wa kweli uliofanywa na mtu mweusi ulioonekana kwenye Broadway. Richardson anakumbukwa sana kwa sababu ya hatua hiyo ya kwanza. "Mwaka 1924 alicheza katika mchezo wa ""Mortgaged"" na Howard University Players." Isipokuwa kwa michezo iliyoandikwa na wanafunzi wa Chuo Kikuu cha Howard katika darasa la uandishi wa michezo ya Montgomery Gregory, hii ilikuwa mchezo wa kwanza ulioandikwa na mwandishi mweusi wa michezo ya kuigiza ambao uliwekwa katika Chuo Kikuu. Richardson alifanikiwa sana wakati wa kipindi cha Enzi ya Renaissance. "Mwaka 1925 alicheza mchezo wa kuigiza ""Mortgaged"" na kuichapisha katika kitabu cha Alain Locke ""The New Negro.""" Mchezo wake wa watu, Compromise, ulikuwa mchezo wa kwanza na mwandishi wa michezo mweusi kuwasilishwa na Wachezaji wa Gilpin huko Cleveland. "Alichukua tuzo ya kwanza katika tuzo ya Crisis Drama kwa ""The Broken Banjo"" na tuzo ya heshima kwa ""The Fall of the Conjurer.""" Mwaka uliofuata (1926) alishinda tuzo ya kwanza katika Crisis kucheza jamii kwa Boot-Black Mpenzi. Mwaka 1928 alishinda tuzo ya Edith Schwab Cup kwa wimbo wake The Broken Banjo. Katika kuwasilisha mchezo huu, ambao ulitengenezwa na Wachezaji wa Dixwell, walishinda zaidi ya vikundi nane vya ukumbi wa michezo vya wazungu. Baada ya kuanzishwa kwa Shirika la Kujifunza Maisha na Historia ya Wazungu (AASLH), Richardson aliandika kitabu chake cha kwanza cha vitabu mwaka 1930. "Mchoro wa ""Play and Pageant from the Life of the Negro"" uliandikwa na waandishi weusi, haukuwa katika lahaja, na ulikuwa na mada inayofaa vijana wa umri wa shule." Jamesesne Wells alitengeneza michoro ya kitabu hicho. Mwaka 1935 Richardson na May Miller walichapisha kitabu cha pili, Negro History in Thirteen Plays. Mbali na kuandika, Richardson alikuwa hai sana katika mzunguko wa waandishi wengine. Mwaka 1926 akaanza kucheza na kikundi cha Saturday Nighters cha Georgia Douglas Johnson. Baada ya kifo chake, Richardson alipewa tuzo ya AUDELCO, ambayo ni ushahidi wa ubora wake katika ukumbi wa michezo mweusi. Fitzpatrick, Sandra na Goodwin, Maria R., wahariri. Mwongozo wa Washington Nyeusi. New York, Hippocrine Books, Inc. Gray, Christine Rauchfuss. Willis Richardson, Mtangulizi Aliyeasikiwa wa Drama ya Waafrika-Wamarekani. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1999. Perry, Patsy, Willis Richardson, katika Kamusi ya Biografia ya Fasihi. Kitabu cha Kitabu. "Mchoro wa ""Wanafunzi wa Afrika kutoka Harlem Renaissance hadi 1940"" na Trudie Harris, ""Mwanzo wa Mafundisho ya Afrika"" na ""Mwanzo wa Mafundisho ya Afrika""" "Mwanamke huyo, Mary, aliandika kitabu ""A Love and a Talent"" katika gazeti la Washington Post, Novemba 10, 1956." Richardson, Willis. Wahusika. Uwezekano wa 3 (Mwaka 1925): 183 (trg) =""sw""> Kwa nini? Tumaini la Drama ya Weusi. Mshtuko wa 19 - 338 (trg) =""sw""> Kwa nini? Wasikilizaji Weusi. Uwezekano wa 3 (Mwaka 1925): 123 (trg) =""sw""> Kwa nini? The Negro na Jukwaa. Uwezekano wa 2 (1924) (trg) =""sw""> Kwa nini? Uenezaji-habari katika Jumba la Maonyesho. The Messenger 6 (1924), na 353-54. "Wachezaji wa ""The Black Horseman,"" ""The Kings Dilemma,"" na ""The House of Sham"" ni vitabu vya kuigiza na maonyesho kutoka kwa maisha ya Negro, vilivyopangwa na Willis Richardson, Washington, DC, Associated Publishers, Inc." The Broken Banjo: The Crisis Reader, iliyochapishwa na Sondra Kathryn Wilson (New York: Random House, 1999). "The Chip Women's Fortune: Anthology of the American Negro in the Theatre, iliyoandikwa na kuhaririwa na Lindsay Patterson, ni kitabu cha kwanza cha American Society of Negro Studies, kilichochapishwa na The New York Times." "Kama ilivyoelezwa katika kitabu cha ""Compromise: A Folk Play"" cha The New Negro, kilichochapishwa na Alain Locke, New York: Albert & Charles Boni, 1925." "Muziki wa ""The New Negro Renaissance: An Anthology"" wa Arthur P. Davis na Michael W. Peeple, 1975" "A Pillar of the Church: Lost Plays of the Harlem Renaissance (1920-1940) - James V. Hatch na Leo Hamelin, ""Mwanzo wa Kanisa"" (Detroit: Wayne State University, 1996) " "Kutoka kwa ""Harlem Renaissance"" hadi ""Black Renaissance"" na ""Black Renaissance"" na ""Black Renaissance"" na ""Black Renaissance"" na ""Black Renaissance"" na ""Black Renaissance"" na ""Black Renaissance"" na ""Black Renaissance"" na ""Black Renaissance"" na ""Black Renaissance"" na ""Black Renaissance"" na ""Black Renaissance"" na ""Black Renaissance"" na ""Black Renaissance"" na ""Black Renaissance."""