Melodramatic Tradition vs Colorblind Casting for Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ Plays

Abstract

The article concerns with the plays An Octoroon and Gloria by contemporary American playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins. The dramaturgy of one of the most notable authors, writing for the US theatre at the present time, is thematically varied; besides, it includes both Jacobs-Jenkins’ original works (e.g., Gloria, 2015) and his adaptations of plays by other authors and/or other epochs. Among the adaptations there is the most famous of Jacobs-Jenkins' plays so far — An Octoroon (2014), which is the author's treatment of 19th century melodrama The Octoroon (1859) by Anglo-Irish dramatist Dion Boucicault. Working with the play of the 19th century, which reveals the problems of slavery in a simplified, melodramatic form, allows the contemporary playwright to actualize the consideration of racial conflicts and to reconstruct/deconstruct the generic model of melodrama. The author of the article draws attention to the reception of the minstrel tradition in the play An Octoroon, both at the level of interaction of D. Boucicault's work with American minstrel show coinciding with it in time, and in connection with the comprehension and overcoming of the “minstrel archetypes” by B. Jacobs-Jenkins. The question of casting is very important to Jacobs-Jenkins, the playwright puts forward his requirements for ethnic conformity between actors and roles in his plays, and this brings together An Octoroon and Gloria, though the works are diverse in genre and subject matter. The cultural context for the works of the American playwright is, first of all, the drama and theater of the United States throughout their development. For further studies it also seems interesting to consider B. Jacobs-Jenkins’ plays in connection with folklore traditions or, e.g., in the context of sacred genres.

Keywords

• branden jacobs-jenkins
• dion boucicault
• contemporary american drama
• melodrama
• racial conflict
• minstrel show
• colorblind casting