Richard III Play Essay

First and foremost, I believe The African Company Presents Richard III , A Play By Carlyle Brown, Directed by Vernice Miller was worth seeing. Seen on April 8th at The Gerald W. Lynch Theater Although I was a little confused in the beginning as the play continued, I was able to make better sense of what was going on. I believe this play was worth seeing, because it sheds light on the issues that were faced during the time the play was written. The play Richard III was about a time in New York where whites in power tried to take down the African Company by not allowing them to perform plays anymore. What started off as a warning to stop theater production ended up in the arrest of any of the actors in the African Company. There was a lot of

This piece of information is very effective and important because New York is one of the most diverse places a person can live. There are so many different nationalities and ethnicity in New York, which is why it seems confusing as to why African American theater was being threatened. It was also shocking to even see there was still a problem after everything that has happened in history with African Americans. After being “free” from slavery, after receiving civil rights and the right to vote, many were still treated unfairly. The key elements I would say I payed the most attention to during the play was the characters, the music and the plot. There were a lot of aspects of the play that needed close analytical thinking. For example the interaction between Constable, played by Dennis Santos, Papa Shakespeare, played by Kadeem Robinson and William Brown, played by Nicholas Smith was when the problem had first begun with a letter banning the African Company from performing. The music was also an aspect of the play I payed attention to because there was a lot of unity and culture represented within the music. The relationship between Ann Johnson and James Hewlett was something I payed close attention to as well. At the beginning it seemed as though Ann wanted nothing to do with James but as the play goes on it slowly begins to