African Grove, Early 19th century theatre in West Village, Manhattan, US.
African Grove Theatre was a two-story wooden building in the West Village neighborhood of Manhattan, considered the first African American theater company in the United States. It offered regular evening performances for Black audiences and welcomed other guests as well, in a city where such a space did not otherwise exist.
William Alexander Brown founded the theater in 1821, creating the first known performance space in the country built around Black artists and Black audiences. The authorities shut it down more than once, and it eventually ceased operating in the mid-1820s.
The African Grove Theatre staged Shakespeare plays with Black performers and drew mixed audiences at a time when most venues in the city either segregated or turned away Black patrons. Seeing Black actors on stage in classical roles was something New Yorkers had no other place to experience.
The theater no longer exists, but the area around present-day Hudson Street in the West Village marks roughly where it once stood. Walking through the neighborhood gives a good sense of the urban setting where this theater once operated.
James Hewlett, a performer from this company, is the first documented Black actor to play Othello on stage. His performances drew attention from other New York theaters and helped make Black actors in classical roles visible to wider audiences.
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