From the Project Curator

Welcome to Howard Players Theatre History Archive.

I'm Professor Denise J. Hart, a full professor at Howard University. As a practicing Dramaturge and Theatre History Scholar I've developed an intense love of unearthing theatrical genealogies to find hidden gems, make historic and contemporary connections and then share my findings.

This research is my social justice contribution. I aim to unveil the evolution of black theatre as told through the Howard Players because if we don't take ownership of telling our story we participate in its erasure. Using archival methods to tell the rarely told accomplishments of Black Theatre practitioners help us to build on our legacy with intention.

Professor, Denise J. Hart, MFA

Dramaturgical Research Principles

Dramaturgy centers observing and reflecting. Dramaturges examine organizational, societal discourses and story narrative through the lens of the current Zeitgeist along with interrogating intra-cultural and cross-cultural cues, historical references of ideology, politics, gender, racial representation, social and economic environment, psychological underpinnings and thematic expressions to offer comprehensive exploration of the context in which experiences and stories reside.

During the execution of this research project, I engaged Dramaturgical Theatre principles and methodologies to guide my work.

Digital Humanities Research Archive

Howard Players Theatre History Archive (HPTHA) is a publicly available digital humanities research archives project that chronicles and documents the hidden history of the Howard Players collegiate theatrical production history from 1909-2019.

It builds on my 2018 research published by Routledge Press, The Howard University Players: From respectability politics to Black representation.

This research responds to the question, "How does the Howard Players theatre history contribute to the evolution of Black Theatre and American theatre from 1909-2019?" It seeks to encourage exploration and interrogation of the genealogy of Black theatre viewed through the lens of Black collegiate theatre.

This project, comprising 100+ years of theatrical production, is rife with materials that often times, have rarely been studied comprehensively and at minimum, is certainly under researched. Thus, this research will provide humanities scholars with a deeper understanding of the contributions of Black theatre to the American Theatre.

This research is a resource for researchers, educators and the general public to study the history of Black Theatre.

It's unique factor is the comprehensive digitized snapshot of different time periods and access to biographical information, photographs, playbills, other theatre ephemera, news, video, oral histories and documents related to Howard Players theatrical production from 1909-2019 that have not been brought together before as a single collection.

The Beginning

I started this research project in 2016. However, in 2018 with support from my department chair, Nefertiti Burton, things really took off when I presented my preliminary research findings at the Black Theatre Network conference.

Thereafter, I methodically researched every year of campus life at Howard University from 1909-2019 to create a repository documenting theatrical performance on the campus.

I'm a 1996 graduate of the Department of Theatre Arts and former president of the historic student drama group, the Howard Players, so it was helpful to be able to pull from my and my classmates momentum of memory for that time period. Additionally, I've been a faculty member in the department since 2000 so I had that familiarity to lean on. However, for roughly eighty years of research I did a lot of "diggin' in the crates!" I've looked through and read tons of newspapers, articles, books, essays, visited archives and interviewed former faculty and alumni. I've read everything I could get my hands on that mentioned anything pertaining to Howard Players theatrical production from 1909-2019!

Why Undertake This Research?

There are six primary reasons for undertaking this research:

Because lesser known culturally specific performance/production histories are apt to be excluded from the digital archive field.
To record past endeavors for current and future interrogation.
To document the Howard Player's contribution to Washington DC and national arts and culture through theatrical production.
To document lesser known and less produced black plays and musicals.
To elevate black academic theatre's contribution to the history of American theatre in higher education.
To broaden the body of academic and black centric theatrical production research making it available to theatre and humanities scholars researching and writing about black theatre from the early 1900’s forward.

A Digital Destination

This under researched material is a digital destination providing a meaningful resource for researchers and educators. It's a historic touchstone, honoring and bearing witness to the efforts of the many individuals throughout the years who sought to elevate and evolve Black Theatre.

It acknowledges the significant accomplishments born from the Howard Player's commitment to uplifting arts and humanities. Chronicling, documenting and contextualizing the history of Howard Players theatrical production is a long overdue endeavor because its history is commingled with definitive movements for Black Theatre and performance in the United States.

If you'd like to learn more about the development of theatre on Howard's campus prior to 1909, click HERE to read my brief article The Journey Begins: Theatre at Howard 1904-1909

Onward,

Denise Joy

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