Wednesday, October 10, 2007
The Gift of Laughter
Fauset's article was very intruiging to me. I'm not very familiar with plays and other forms of performing arts so the African American's role in acting was new to me. A few things that Fauset said stood out to me. One of them was "He was sad wih the sadness of hopeless frustration". In this articles Fauset showed us another area where the color of someones skill matters more than the talent and makeup of the person. African American actors and playwrites were limited by the role they were allowed to play; "His expansion was always upward but never outward". Once again thier actions were limited. I liked how Fauset showed how this can be and was worked around to show that the "funny man" was breaking with thier tragic past and that this can to be shown in thier role. In the end the gift of laughter was somewhat healing to them and Fauset believes it is a gift.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
I’m not familiar with performing arts either so it was great to be able to learn where African American’s stood in this profession. I like the quotes you chose from Fauset. She makes interesting statements which help emphasize the hardships that African Americans faced; “his expansion was always upward but never outward.” I think that Fauset also uses her hopeful outlook at the situation to show how strong Bert Williams and other minstrels were during that time. It seems as though she is saying that they broke through the performing arts and even though it wasn’t easy, they made history and they will continue to represent their race in positive ways.
"His expansion was always upward but never outward." That quote really reminds me of the milionaire's warning to the narrator in "Autobiography..." not to try to pursue a career in music in the United States because his future would never be successful and he wouldn't even get the recognition he deserved. I feel that it is such a shame that so many black performers and writers had to give up their true dreams and simply settle for something less. How frustrating for those who lived to perform and write and participate in the arts.
Post a Comment