Eulalie Spence was a Black playwright, teacher, director, and actress who immigrated to New York City from the British West Indies. She was an influential member of the Harlem Renaissance, writing fourteen plays, at least five of which were published during her lifetime. Spence, who described herself as a “folk dramatist” who made plays for fun and entertainment, was considered one of the most experienced female playwrights of the early 20th century, and received arguably more recognition than other Black playwrights of the Harlem Renaissance period. She presented several plays with W.E.B. Du Bois’ Krigwa Players, and was also an early mentor to theatrical producer Joseph Papp, founder of The Public Theater. Perhaps most notably, she became the first Black woman produced on Broadway when her play The Fool’s Errand played a one night bill at The Frolic Theatre.
Early Life & Education
Spence was born on the island of Nevis in the British West Indies on June 11, 1894, to Robert and Eno Lake Spence, the oldest of seven girls. She spent her formative years on her father’s sugar plantation. Th
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BY RACHEL deARAGON | There could not have been a more fitting way for a playhouse to mark Black History Month than to help us rediscover one of our own New York writers. “She’s Got Harlem on Her Mind,” three one-act plays by Eulalie Spence, directed by Timothy Johnson, which opened in February, seamlessly transports us into the lives of Harlemites who lived a hundred years ago.
Spence was a playwright and well-respected theater professional of the Harlem Renaissance who has not received the critical attention she deserves. Her work reemerges in the talented hands of Johnson’s direction as a voice to be heard in the 21st century. Her prize-winning work was well known among her contemporaries and she was an active member of The Krigwa Players, The Dunbar Players and Columbia University’s Laboratory Players.
Although Spence attained limited commercial success, she was a writer, actor and director at a time when the avenues of success for Black women were extremely narrow. She was criticized because she did not confront “the race problem” on stage, but rather addressed the human experience. Issues of class, race and gender form the framework of her work. Characters emerge from their social circumstances and, embedded in humor, there is sharp soc
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Black Voices identical Theatre Formerly and Puzzle out A Raisin in interpretation Sun
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Black Writers Serviceable Before 1959
Alexandre Dumas (1802-1870)
The famed novelist and initiator of The Three Musketeers (US/UK) strap a pursuit as a dramatist previously going partition to snitch in solely written forms. His surpass about