1st Edition
Ernie McClintock and the Jazz Actors Family Reviving the Legacy
Ernie McClintock and the Jazz Actors Family is a critical biography examining the life and work of Ernie McClintock, the founder of the Jazz Acting Method and 1997 recipient of the Living Legend Award from the National Black Theatre Festival, whose inclusive contributions to acting and actor training have largely remained on the fringes of scholarship and practice.
Based on original archival research and interviews with McClintock’s students and peers, this book traces his life from his childhood in Chicago to Harlem in the 1960s at the height of the Black Arts Movement, to Richmond, Virginia in 2003, paying particular attention to his Black Power–influenced, culturally specific acting theory and versatile Black theatrical productions. As a biographical study, this book establishes McClintock as a leading figure of the Black Theatre Movement, proven by the Jazz Acting technique, his critically acclaimed productions, and his leadership positions in organizations such as the Black Theatre Alliance. Ernie McClintock and the Jazz Actors Family explores how the Jazz Acting technique was applied in productions such as N.R. Davidson’s El Hajj Malik, Derek Walcott’s Dream on Monkey Mountain, Cheryl West’s Before It Hits Home, Endesha Mae Holland’s From the Mississippi Delta, and many collectively-authored pieces. The book also investigates why he has been excluded from dominant theatre histories, especially considering how, as a gay Black man, he persistently defied the status quo, questioning practices of administrators of theatres and mainstream theatrical standards.
Ernie McClintock and the Jazz Actors Family is situated at the intersection of Black acting theory, Black Arts Movement history, and Black queer studies, and is an illuminating study of an important figure for actors, acting teachers, acting students, and cultural historians. This is an essential resource for readers who are seeking histories and approaches outside of a white, straight, Eurocentric framework.
1. Afrocentric Roots in Chicago’s Blackbelt (1937-1964) 2. Shaking Up Harlem (1965-1972) 3. Canonizing the Contemporary Black Classics (1973-1981) 4. Quaring the Black Theatre Movement (1981-1986) 5. Rebel in Richmond (1987-1993) 6. The Persistence of a Living Legend (1994-1997) 7. To See Another Day (1998-2003)
Biography
Elizabeth M. Cizmar is an assistant professor of acting and directing and Affiliate Faculty of African American and Diaspora Studies at Vanderbilt University. She holds an M.F.A from the Actors Studio Drama School/The New School and a Ph.D. in Drama from Tufts University.
"In Ernie McClintock and the Jazz Actors Family: Reviving the Legacy Cizmar excavates the practices of Black Arts Movement activist and acting teacher Ernie McClintock’s ground breaking acting techniques which de-centered Stanislavski based approaches to actor training to combine African and African American experiential aesthetics with voice work centered in jazz music, yoga, karate, and African movement. Cizmar deftly explores McClintock’s "common sense" or "jazz acting" methods to illuminate his powerful social justice agenda used in many regional black theatres across the country during the Black Arts Movement and beyond. Cizmar’s beautiful book makes McClintock’s archive feel urgent and resonant in the 21st century as Black theater artists around the world ask for accountability and legibility within the mainstream theater landscape. Cizmar’s descriptive prose and archival research are coupled in a fascinating account of 20th century Black acting methods that challenged the American actor training repertoire. Cizmar’s thoughtful analysis leaves the reader asking how McClintock’s work could be erased from the history of American actor training. The book is a must read for any artist, scholar, or theater enthusiast interested in the early practices of anti-racist theater and the struggles for equity and representation of Black artists in the American theater."
Nicole Hodges Persley, Associate Professor of American Studies and African and African American Studies, University of Kansas
"Ernie McClintock may not be well-known to the masses of people, but he was both a larger-than-life pioneer and a living legend of the American and African American theater scene. With Ernie McClintock and the Jazz Actors Family, Dr. Elizabeth Cizmar has given us an awe-inspiring exploration not only of his life and work, but of the community Mr. McClintock built, bricks in bare hands, across generations, which would include a young Tupac Shakur. This hugely engaging book is a necessary addition to our understanding not just of theater and the arts, but of America itself during the course of Ernie McClintock’s life."
Kevin Powell, author of Grocery Shopping with My Mother: Poems
