Mitchell, Loften 1919–2001

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Loften Mitchell 1919–2001

Playwright

As both a playwright and a theatre historian, Loften Mitchell has made an invaluable impact on American drama. His critical works, such as Black Drama and Voices of the Black Theatre, contain insights on the contributions of African Americans to the theatre. His plays address themes of unity, black pride, and perseverance.

Mitchell was born on April 15,1919, in Columbus, North Carolina. Shortly after his birth, the family later moved to Harlem where, as a high school student, Mitchell wrote sketches for the Salem Church’s Progressive Dramatizers Group. He then acted with the Rose McClendon Players. In Harlem, Mitchell was exposed to up-and-coming black theatrical performers, such as Ethel Waters and George Wiltshire. It was also in Harlem that Mitchell learned firsthand about the discrimination of blacks in America. When he was ten-years-old, Mitchell had a job selling newspapers on the streets of New York and once got into a fight with a white boy who informed him that the street belonged more to whites than to blacks. Mitchell also realized the theatre was not immune to racial discrimination. He saw the way African Americans were misrepresented in the theatre and decided to work toward shattering negative images of blacks. Mitchell dedicated himself to projecting blacks in a realistic way, and decided that the best vehicle to accomplish this was African-American history.

With limited opportunities for black actors in 1930s New York, Mitchell left the city to attend Talladega College in Alabama on scholarship. He recalled in a Freedomways interview, as quoted in Negro Playwrights in the American Theatre, 1925-1959, that, although many blacks during the Depression were either financially or academically ineligible, “Southern Negro colleges, offering athletic scholarships and grants-in-aid, rescued many from the despair into which they had been dumped.” While at Talladega, Mitchell wrote the paper which later became the basis for his lauded collection, Black Drama: The Story of the American Negro in the Theatre.

During World War II, Mitchell spent two years in the U.S. Navy as a seaman second-class. He then enrolled in graduate school at Columbia University, where, from 1947 to l951, he studied playwriting. He accepted a job as a social investigator with the Department of Welfare in 1948, continuing his studies during the evening. During this period, Mitchell wrote one of his first successful plays, 1946’s Blood in the Night. 1948’s The Bancroft Dynasty and The Cellar (1952) followed. From 1950 to 1962, Mitchell wrote for and acted in The Later Years, a weekly program on New York’s WNYC radio station. In addition to his work for WNYC, Mitchell wrote a daily show for WWRL called the Friendly Advisor in 1954.

For his 1957 play, A Land Beyond the River, Mitchell adapted the story of Joseph DeLaine, the South Carolina schoolteacher and pastor whose historic court case brought about the end of segregation in America’s public schools. In Mitchell’s dramatization a sickly but courageous black woman, Martha Layne, proposes the lawsuit, and her husband, Joseph, rallies the support of other black citizens and a sympathetic white physician. The couple

At a Glance…

Born on April 15, 1919, in Columbus, NC; died May 14, 2001, in Queens, NY; son of Willia Spaulding Mitchell and Ulysses Sanford Mitchell; married Helen Marsh, 1948 (divorced 1956); children: Thomas, Melvin; married Gloria Anderson, 1991. Education: City College, New York, 1937-38; Talladega College, Alabama, B.A., A, sociology, 1943; Columbia University, New York, M.A., 1947-51. Military Service: United States Naval Reserve, seaman second class, 1944-45.

Career: Playwright. 115th Street People’s Theatre and Harlem Showcase, New York, actor, stage manager, and press agent, 1946-52; social worker, 1947-58, Day Center Program for Older Persons, social worker, 1959-66; State University of New York, Binghamton, professor of African-American Studies and Theatre, 1971-85, professor emeritus; NAACP Freedom Journal, editor, 1964.

Awards: Guggenheim fellowship, 1958; Rockefeller grant, 1961; Harlem Cultural Council award, 1969; State University of New York Research Foundation award, 1974; Audelco award, 1979.

struggles with intimidating threats, the burning of their home, and Martha’s poor health. Their struggles convince most community members to accept a local court decision to provide a “separate, but equal” school for blacks. Joseph, however, argues that black children would not receive an equivalent education under such a system and convinces the community to appeal to a higher court. After a long run Off-Broadway, the play was published as a book. Mitchell won a Guggenheim award in 1958, allowing him to return to Columbia for one year and write.

With 1963’s Tell Pharaoh, Mitchell surveyed African-American history. His characters reflect on their African heritage, their experiences as slaves, and the ongoing struggle for civil rights. The play recalls African-American martyrs and heros, celebrating their contributions to American life. Music sets the mood and underscores the play’s sentiments.

A later work, Miss Waters, To You (1983), was based on the life of actress and singer Ethel Waters. Through a series of scenes and musical numbers, Mitchell depicts Waters’s transition from a struggling 17-year-old divorcée to an accomplished performer. Other African-American figures that appear as characters in the play include Bessie Smith, Duke Ellington, Lena Home, and Cab Calloway. These characters offer each other moral support and teach Waters how to endure racial prejudice in show business. However, some critics noted that such scenes weakened the play’s credibility as a true portrait of Waters’s life—her animosity toward black entertainers such as Home was well known. The drama also glosses over Waters’s less admirable traits.

Mitchell died on May 14, 2001, in Queens, New York. He was 82 years old.

Selected writings

Plays

Shattered Dreams, first produced in New York, 1938.

Blood in the Night, first produced in New York, 1946.

The Bancroft Dynasty, first produced in New York, 1948.

The Cellar, first produced in New York, 1952.

A Land Beyond the River, first produced in New York, 1957; published 1963.

The Phonograph first produced in New York, 1961.

Tell Pharaoh, televised 1963; first produced in New York, 1967; published 1970.

(with Irving Burgie) Ballad for Bimshire, first produced in New York, 1963; revised version produced Cleveland, 1964.

(with John Oliver Killens) Ballad of the Winter Soldiers, first produced in New York, 1964.

Star of the Morning: Scenes in the Life of Bert Williams, first produced in Cleveland, 1965; revised version produced New York, 1985; published 1971.

The Final Solution to the Black Problem in the United States; or, The of the American Empire, first produced in New York, 1970.

Sojourn to the South of the Wall, first produced 1973; revised version produced 1983.

The Walls Came Tumbling Down, music by Willard Roosevelt first produced in New York, 1976.

Bubbling Brown Sugar, concept by Rosetta LeNoire, music by Danny Holgate, Emme Kemp, and Lilian Lopez, first produced in New York, 1976; published, 1985.

Cartoons for a Lunch Hour, music by Rudy Stevenson, first produced in New York, 1978.

A Gypsy Girl, first produced in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, 1982.

Miss Waters, To You, concept by Rosetta LeNoire, first produced in New York, 1983.