19th Century Photography

PLAYWRIGHT: You know, it’s really hard to describe how this scene works –
BJJ: because it actually would have been really exciting 150 years ago – having someone caught by a photograph.
PLAYWRIGHT: They were a very novel thing.

Here are a few videos of experts describing and showing cameras from the mid-19th century:

Photography in the 19th century was actually very much rooted in theatre. Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre, creator of the most common early photographic process, was a scenic painter and co-owner of the Diorama in Paris from 1822-1839. The Diorama specialized in a form of illusionist entertainment, displaying enormous scenic paintings of exotic places, manipulating them with light, and even placing real objects, animals or people in front of them. As with most scenic artists of the time, Daguerre began his paintings by tracing real scenes using the camera’s predecessor, the camera obscura. It was while trying to find a way of streamlining this process that he developed his “daguerrotype” method of photography (1839-1860).

The camera obscura, one of the predecessors of photographic technology

Daguerre’s Diorama, a popular 19th centure Parisian spectacle involving theatrical paintings, props and lighting effects

Daguerre’s process involved taking a highly polished sheet of silver-plated copper, exposing it to iodine vapors to make it light-sensitive, taking the exposure within the box camera, developing with mercury fumes, and then stabilizing the image with salt water or sodium thiosulphate. The effect was a backwards photograph, reflective like a mirror and somewhat eerie. Close on the heels of the daguerreotype were ambrotypes (1855-1865) which were printed on glass, and tintypes (1855-1900), which were printed on tin and widely introduced less bulky, more portable photos.

A daguerreotype of Daguerre himself (1844), note the tarnish from air exposure

Glass collodion positives (more commonly known as ambrotypes) in a protective case (1860)

Here are two detailed demonstrations of the daguerreotype and tintype photograhic processes:

For the photographer, taking a photograph was half art, half chemistry. For the subject of the portrait, it was generally full-parts uncomfortable. Daguerreotype photography could not capture motion, so the subject had to sit very still for the length of the exposure (which could be as long as 20 seconds). This explains why many early photographs (like Dora’s in OCTOROON) are…awkward.

Mammy

ZOE: So I came here to you; to you, my own dear Mammy, who so often hushed me to sleep when I was a child.
[…]
DIDO: …I just don’t like when people be treating me like I’m some old woman. I am not Mammy! I’m not!

“Mammy is the most well known and enduring racial caricature of African American women … From slavery through the Jim Crow era, the mammy image served the political, social, and economic interests of mainstream white America. During slavery, the mammy caricature was posited as proof that blacks–in this case, black women–were contented, even happy, as slaves. Her wide grin, hearty laugher, and loyal servitude were offered as evidence of the supposed humanity of the institution of slavery” [Jim Crow museum].

Mammy in Pop Culture:

One of the most famous actresses known playing a mammy is Hattie McDaniel. She was the first black actor to win an Oscar. Though she faced criticism from some African-Americans for perpetuating stereotypes, her credo was “I’d rather play a maid than be one.”

The most well-known commercial mammy is probably Aunt Jemima. The logo was developed in 1889 by Chris L. Rutt and Charles G. Underwood for their ready-made pancake flour mix. Their inspiration was Billy Kersands’ minstrel song “Old Aunt Jemima. ” The Quaker Oats Company purchased and trademarked the image in 1925. Check out these iterations:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This video touches on the history of the image:

A NYT editorial in June, 2015, called for the Quaker Oats Company to retire the image and change the name, saying the products are “very much linked to Southern racism.”

This Aunt Jemima logo was an outgrowth of Old South plantation nostalgia and romance grounded in an idea about the “mammy,” a devoted and submissive servant who eagerly nurtured the children of her white master and mistress while neglecting her own. Visually, the plantation myth portrayed her as an asexual, plump black woman wearing a headscarf.

Few moments have underscored the continuing influence of the plantation myth, and its impact on Confederate scripts of slavery, more profoundly than the nearly successful effort of the United Daughters of the Confederacy to erect a monument in honor of the “faithful slave mammies of the South” in the nation’s capital in 1923.

It is about time for there to be some honest conversation about what is at stake in continuing to market products even nowadays under names such as “Aunt Jemima.”

Little Rascals

As some inspiration for the character Paul, here is a playlist of moments  from everyone’s favorite whipper-snappers, Our Gang or The Little Rascals. (1922-1944)

Some Stymie-specific clips are below (speaking of racial stereotypes…):

Actor Training in the Romantic Era

         

Melodramatic acting was taught through apprenticeships. Prospective actors began in non-speaking roles, watching more experienced actors and trying to copy them. Once a actor entered a “line of business” (hero, villain, low comic), they would stay in that type of role for their whole career. They would also have had instruction from a local dance master in dancing as well as “polite carriage, entering and leaving a room, proper bows and courtesies, and forms of introduction”. They may also have had elocutionary training. A few general rules of melodramatic acting:

1. All motions and gestures were dramatic and exaggerated. There was no neutral stance, one foot would always be weighted, arms moving from the shoulder and not the elbow, and the head held at an angle. Dramatic moments were underscored with big movements like windmill arms, foot stamping, eye rolling and sudden starts.
2. Actors worked to hit “points”, specific high points of speeches (comedic or dramatic) which actors worked to achieve applause at. If a speech elicited a lot of applause, it might be encored three or four more times. Applause, whistling, foot stomping and throwing flowers were all possible audience responses.
3. Entrances and exits were geared towards attracting attention. The actor entered confidently and stood directly in front of the footlight before speaking. Generally actors would not move and speak at the same time.
4. Gestures were categorized by character type. Good characters showed curve, grace and beauty in their motions. Bad characters were sharp and angular. Serious moments merited slow movements, comic ones fast.

Take a look at some early photographs of melodramatic poses!

   

    

Stock Characters

      

Stock characters in melodrama, like their earlier Greek, Roman and Italian counterparts, are types rather than fully-fleshed characters and appear over and over again in different stories. These characters serve the primary plot of nearly every melodrama – a villain schemes to commit evil on the hero, heroine or other good characters and the hero must stop him, revealing the truth and ending the story in a moral. Most melodramas include:

• A hero, who is moral, handsome and manly. He acts on his intuition and is in-tune to nature. And, while he believes in justice, he does not always follow the less-important rules of society.
• A heroine, who is also moral in that she is innocent. She is also beautiful and courageous, but likely in need of saving.
• A villain, who is evil. These characters are often dishonest, greedy, vengeful and corrupt.
• A villain’s accomplice, who is usually rather idiotic and serves as comic relief.
• A faithful servant, who helps the hero uncover needed information on the villain. This character also serves a comic relief.
• A maidservant, who is flirty (often a romantic interest of the male servant), fun and loyal to the heroine.

Aside from the principle characters, melodramas are usually set in exotic locations, either particularly lush and beautiful or ugly and decrepit, never ordinary. To that end, there may be a groups of characters who serve more to establish environment than anything else (sailors, foresters, islanders) and are used for the big sensation scenes and group tableaus.

     

Stock characters are still very much a part of our storytelling today, with a few modern adjustments, for better or for worse. Because of their reliance on stereotype, stock characters can reinforce assumptions about a group of people especially if that group of people has few fully-fleshed, three-dimensional characters representing it. Check out this flowchart of stock female characters from film and television, and this New York Times article evaluating the dimensionality of black characters from the 2013 Oscar season.

Evoking the Mulatto project

Evoking the Mulatto is a multiplatform narrative and visual art project examining black mixed identity in the 21st century, through the lens of the history of racial classification in the United States. The project’s creator and lead artist  is Lindsay C.
Harris.

One particularly fascinating aspect of the project is the timeline, which maps racial classification and representation through cinema, law, and census.

 

 

Check out more beautiful and varied portraits in the photo gallery.

There’s also a video series, though only episode one, Evoking the Mulatto: It’s Not a Cool Word, is available so far.

Many thanks to cast member Obehi for bringing this awesome project to our attention!

John Bell’s The Octoroon

This sculpture, titled The Octoroon, was made by British artist John Bell. The young woman is depicted standing in a classic pose, not unlike many representations of Venus, but she is in chains.

Bell was at the height of his popularity when the piece was first exhibited at the Royal Academy of Arts in 1868. Critics and patrons responded positively to the way much of his work combined classic forms and the pathos of contemporary romanticism.

This article on The Root notes:

Through artfully constructed layers of sentimentality and aesthetic contrivance emerges one of the primary justifications for the enslavement of a whole group of human beings: the notion of one drop of black blood, the “drop sinister,” by which a light-skinned person could be consigned to a life of bondage.

There’s no proof that Bell was responding specifically to Boucicault’s play, but since The Octoroon premiered in London in 1861, it seems likely that he was inspired by the work. The London Art Journal reported that he was working on the piece in 1863, though its debut wasn’t for a few years after.

The source article is part of a weekly series that The Root is presenting in conjunction with the Image of the Black Archive & Library at Harvard University’s Hutchins Center for African and African American Research.

Women’s Fashion and Postures in the 1850s

The 1850s in Southern American fashion history is known as the “Age of the Crinoline,” and for good reason! Hoop skirts, multiple petticoats, and corsets were the hallmarks of Southern aristocratic society during this time.

      

This era of fashion was all about shape: the tiniest waist possible accompanied by a giant bell skirt. And achieving this shape took work. Before the advent of the cage or hoop skirt structure in 1846, a lady would have been expected to wear as many as a dozen starched muslin petticoats, all in the 90 degree Louisiana summer weather! Even with her hoop skirt, underwear would include chemise, drawers, and corset, before the dress and accessories are even on.

Check out this clip of Gone with the Wind, featuring Scarlett getting ready. Scarlett’s nurse is also an example of something we’ve been talking about in rehearsal, “Mammy” stereotypes and imagery. (for more on Mammy imagery, click here)

The overall effect of this outfit on women is fairly well documented.

“Contemporary photographs give some idea of how uncomfortable these long corsets must have been to wear…the woman’s body is held in stiff, unnaturally tilted position by a narrow-waisted corset which emphasises the precise seaming of the bodice and low waist line. The skirts of these dresses presented problems of their own. They increased in size and had to be supported by layers of heavy petticoats which were very hot and unhygienic – particularly in the summer. Bustle-like structures made of down-filled pads or whalebone and stiffened petticoats helped give added support…It is therefore not difficult to see where the archetypal image of the meek, servile Victorian woman comes from”

“Corsets and Crinolines in Victorian Fashion”, V&A Museum

An 1889 Guide to Acting Eleven Tragic Emotions

SILENT SORROW
This attitude is made by raising the folded arms to the forehead.
“I must e’en submit.”
The Honeymoon, Act III, Scene IV

 

MENTAL PAIN
This attitude is made by the weight on the right foot, placing the left hand upon the heart, the right upon the forehead, and inclining the head backward, the eyes looking upward.
“Why, how is this? What sudden change has come upon the world?”
Ingomar, Act IV, Scene I

HOPELESSNESS
This attitude is made by inclining the head right oblique downward, allowing the right arm to rest over the top of the head, and the left arm to hang down.
“Farewell, sweet dreams.”
Parthenia, Act I, Scene I

 DISCONSOLATION
This attitude is made by inclining the head slightly forward; the eyes looking off; the shoulders elevated a little; the hands clasped, palms downward.
“Well death’s the end of all.”
Romeo and Juliet, Act III, Scene IV

ANGUISH
This attitude is made by placing the palms of both hands to the temple. The face looks up.
“Oh, now forever farewell to the tranquil mind!”
Othello, Act III, Scene II

 

 AGONY
This attitude is made by retiring the weight upon the left foot; placing the tips of the fingers of both hands back of the neck, the head falling back upon the left shoulders.
“O Antony! Antony! Antony!”
Antony and Cleopatra, Act IV, Scene I

UNPLEASANT SOUNDS
This attitude is made by placing the crooked fingers to the ears and showing facial disgust.
“There is a passing shrillness in her voice.”
The Honeymoon, Act I, Scene I

 

 SULKINESS
This attitude is made by folding the arms, and looking down, the face being nearly concealed, and the body turned obliquely.
“And dogs bark at me as I halt by them.”
Richard III, Scene I

HATRED
This attitude is made by standing with the weight on the left foot retired; the hands down and clinched; the face looking right oblique.“Thou rascal, thou art worst in blood to urn.”Coriolanus, Act I, Scene I

 HORROR
This attitude is made by standing with the head thrown back, the face looking right oblique, both hands up and vertical in the right side, the left hand protecting the face, the weight on the left foot and the shoulders raised.
“Hence, horrible shadow: unreal mockery, hence.”
Macbeth, Act III, Scene IV

HATRED IN HORROR
This attitude is made by standing with the weight on the left foot retired, the shoulders raised; chin forward; crooked fingers raised to the mouth.
“An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth!”
Leah the Forsaken, Act IV, Scene I

I’m a big fan of the subtle difference between “anguish” and “agony.” What’s your favorite melodramatic pose?

Find the whole article here.

Key & Peele – Auction Block

This sketch came up in rehearsal as we worked through the end of Act 3.

EDIT to add this great comment from cast member Amelia:
Given An Octoroon’s emphasis on hue and lineage regarding race, I think it is worthwhile to note that Key and Peele are both Black biracial men with one white parent and one Black parent. Much of their humor deals with code switching and moving between racial worlds. They frequently reference being biracial in their comedy.