Gender, Sexuality, and Performance (372-0-20)

Topic

Black Women on the Musical Stage

Instructors

Afua A Osseo - Asare

Meeting Info

Wirtz 235 Seminar Room 1: Wed 3:00PM - 5:50PM

Overview of class

Topic: Black Women on the Musical Stage.

This course engages the performances of Black women on the US musical stage from 1900 to 1970, focusing on singer-actresses and their vocal sound. Under the capacious vaudeville tent or proscenium arch of musical theatre belting, how did the blues shouter's sound influence the Broadway belter's technique? How were these sounds carried forward by Black torch singers and character actresses, nightclub vocalists, television variety performers and Black Broadway glamour girls? Drawing on the work of scholars Shane Vogel and Daphne Brooks, we will read performers' autobiographies as performance theory and understand Black women singers as skillful arrangers of sound-voice teachers whose varied "singing lessons" function as vibrant scenarios for performance analysis. Our studies will take seriously what Sissieretta Jones, Bessie Smith, Ethel Waters, Pearl Bailey, Juanita Hall, Lena Horne, Diahann Carroll, Leslie Uggams, and Eartha Kitt have had to say and teach about singing on the musical stage.

Registration Requirements

Enrollment should be limited to upper-level undergrads (juniors and seniors) and is also open to grad students (MFA and PhD).

Teaching Method

Seminar

Evaluation Method

Final paper

Class Materials (Required)

TBD

Class Attributes

Literature & Fine Arts Distro Area