Tommy Hollis THE COLORED MUSEUM George C. Wolfe Public Theater 1987 Playbill

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Tommy Hollis THE COLORED MUSEUM George C. Wolfe Public Theater May 1987 Playbill
How timely to be thinking about this powerful theatrical performance.  And to recall how we go on these long wonderful audience journey's with a new artist and we never forget the first time we saw their great work.  As if we were Columbus discovering a new land.  I say, time for a revival.  In 2021 land, that may mean streaming.
"George C.Wolfe says the unthinkable, says it with uncompromising wit and leaves the audience, as well as a sacred target, in ruins. The devastated audience, one should note, includes both Blacks and Whites. Mr. Wolfe is the kind of satirist, almost unheard of in today's timid theater, who takes no prisoners." – Frank Rich,
The New York Times
, 1986
Excerpted from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Colored Museum
is a play written by George C. Wolfe that premiered at Crossroads Theatre in 1986, directed by L. Kenneth Richardson.
In a series of 11 “exhibits” (sketches), the revue explores and satires prominent themes and identities of African-American culture.
The Colored Museum
premiered at Crossroads Theatre of New Jersey in 1986.
Within six months, the play found a new home at the Public Theater in New York City.
The Colored Museum was
later performed at the Royal Court Theater in London, England, beginning July 29, 1987 and in a production by Talawa Theatre Company at the V&A 15–23 October 2011
"
The Colored Museum
simultaneously celebrates, satirizes and subverts the African-American legacy. Wolfe calls his play both, 'an exorcism and a party.'
The Colored Museum
explores contemporary African-American cultural identity, while, at the same time revisiting and reexamining the African American theatrical and cultural past. According to Wolfe, the legacy of the past must be both embraced and overcome."- Harry J. Elam,
The Johns Hopkins University Press Theatre Journal
Theater scholar Jordan Schildcrout discusses "The Gospel According to Miss Roj" in terms of Afrofuturism and queer fantasies of empowerment, noting that "the very title of segment invokes the rhetoric of religious testament and proclaims Miss Roj as a prophet, one who has extraordinary—perhaps even supernatural—powers of insight and wisdom."
Original New York cast
Colette Baptiste
Loretta Devine
Tommy Hollis
Reggie Montgomery
Vickilyn Reynolds
Jonea Thomas
Danitra Vance