The African Company Presents Richard III

Act One

Stephen Price, the impresario and manager of the Park Theatre in New York City, announces to the audience that he is producing William Shakespeare’s Richard III, with the title villain to be portrayed by the famous English actor, Junius Brutus Booth. However, Price warns that there is another company that attempted to perform the same play in an affront to the Park Theatre and its artistic integrity: The African Grove Theatre Company. This rival group is made up of black actors and plays to riotous black audiences, and is now locked up in the Eldridge Street Jail, so that the Park Theatre’s production may continue.

The action now moves back in time, several days prior. Sarah, an actress with the African Grove Company, is trying to teach her friend Ann to waltz--a skill Sarah learned from her employer, the wealthy (and white) Mrs. Van Dam. Ann tells Sarah about the events at the African Grove the night before; while the black audience was strolling around, like they “thought