Before Welles: A 1935 Boston Production

Abstract

I am a filmmaker working on a documentary about the Negro Theatre Project in 1930s Boston. This project is very near and dear to my heart, primarily because my family was extensively involved in it, starting from my grandfather Lorenzo Quarles (who was the stage manager) to my aunts and uncles (who were actors and directors), including Frank Silvera and Luoneal Mason. As a contemporary producer who has produced films and film festivals for filmmakers of color, I am also passionately invested in recovering the histories of earlier institutions that supported black artists. Since this Boston troupe mounted an all-black classical Macbeth in 1935, a half-year before Welles’s “Voodoo” Macbeth, I believe it is crucial to document this little-heralded antecedent to the far more famous Harlem production.