Protest and Minority Theatre in 1968
Hair, guerrilla theatre, and artistic movements abroad
The theatre scene on Broadway in 1968 was varied with a mix of classic and Golden Age hits, with new rock n’ roll musicals catapulting into the public eye. In the 1967–69 Broadway season, Hair and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead(the latter won the Tony Award in 1968 for Best Original Play) were introduced, and Fiddler on the Roof and Hello, Dolly! still ran to great success. A new form of performance eclipsed in 1968: Protest Theatre. Guerrilla theatre was the most popular form of protest theatre, with groups like the Bread and Puppet Theatre (pictured) and the San Francisco Mime Troupe taking to performing avant-garde pieces in the streets during rallies and marches. This movement also involved the Mexican troupe El Teatro Campesino, a performance group that challenged the traditional American narrative by focusing on the Chicano civil rights movement and creating theatre designed by/for Mexican minorities.
Progress was made in African American theatre as well. In Harlem in 1968, Dr. Barbara Ann Teer founded the National Black Theatre. It was the first wide scale initiative in theatre made for, and by, an exclusively black community, to “produce transformational theatrical experiences that enhance African American cultural identity by telling authentic stories of the Black experience.” (Check out this video on the NBT here!)
Changes in theatre weren’t just confined to Broadway and the United States. In the United Kingdom, the Theatres Act of 1968 abolished censorship by repealing the Theatres Act of 1843, which censored public theatre under the crown’s jurisdiction. This new era of freedom in theatre extended beyond Europe into the Middle East. Since the explosion in popularity of rock n’ roll, its influences had crossed the world and led Dan Almagor, an Israeli playwright, to introduce the 1960s rock musical in Israel as an ambivalent response to Zionist ideology. By 1968, theatre had transformed from the straightforward early 20th century trend of audience and actor to a multi-faceted, interactive, and progressive venue for social and political commentary.
