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An Oral History with Margaret B. Wilkerson

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An Oral History with Margaret B. Wilkerson Regional Oral History Office University of California The Bancroft Library Berkeley, California Margaret Wilkerson A LIFE IN THEATER AND HIGHER EDUCATION Interviews conducted by Nadine Wilmot in 2003-2004 Copyright © 2013 by The Regents of the University of California Since 1954 the Regional Oral History Office has been interviewing leading participants in or well-placed witnesses to major events in the development of Northern California, the West, and the nation. Oral History is a method of collecting historical information through tape-recorded interviews between a narrator with firsthand knowledge of historically significant events and a well-informed interviewer, with the goal of preserving substantive additions to the historical record. The tape recording is transcribed, lightly edited for continuity and clarity, and reviewed by the interviewee. The corrected manuscript is bound with photographs and illustrative materials and placed in The Bancroft Library at the University of California, Berkeley, and in other research collections for scholarly use. Because it is primary material, oral history is not intended to present the final, verified, or complete narrative of events. It is a spoken account, offered by the interviewee in response to questioning, and as such it is reflective, partisan, deeply involved, and irreplaceable. ********************************* All uses of this manuscript are covered by a legal agreement between The Regents of the University of California and Margaret Wilkerson, dated January 17, 2013. The manuscript is thereby made available for research purposes. All literary rights in the manuscript, including the right to publish, are reserved to The Bancroft Library of the University of California, Berkeley. Excerpts up to 1000 words from this interview may be quoted for publication without seeking permission as long as the use is non-commercial and properly cited. Requests for permission to quote for publication should be addressed to The Bancroft Library, Head of Public Services, Mail Code 6000, University of California, Berkeley, 94720-6000, and should follow instructions available online at http://bancroft.berkeley.edu/ROHO/collections/cite.html It is recommended that this oral history be cited as follows: Margaret Wilkerson, “A LIFE IN THEATER AND HIGHER EDUCATION” conducted by Nadine Wilmot 2003-2004. Regional Oral History Office, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley, 2013. Margaret Wilkerson Table of Contents—Margaret Wilkerson Interview History by Nadine Wilmot xii Interview 1: October 28, 2003 [Audio File 1] 1 Family background and history—Early childhood and education—Richmond production of The Funeral. [Audio File 2] 15 Support for education in narrator’s family—Memories of World War II—Church affiliations. Interview 2: March 15, 2004 [Audio File 3] 23 Family: culture, values, gender, training, sewing, importance of voting—What she learned from her mother about being a woman: love, working outside the home, poetry—Family trips through the desert to Oklahoma—High school at Thomas Jefferson in Los Angeles: social life, sports, afterschool program, teachers: John and Rubeline Long, the principal Mc Farnham, choosing to stay at Jefferson, a decisive moment—Father’s affinity with science/physics—Being knights and knightettes—Educational/occupational horizon for girls v. boys in high school— Encountering racial discrimination in college—College at Redlands, working at the library, challenging her reassignment—Being black on campus, one of five— Redlands culture of “no one falls through the cracks”—Wesley Methodist Church group—Oration, Solitude, and Anne Morrow Lindbergh’s Gifts From The Sea, professor’s expectations opening a door to reflecting on race, Brown v. Board of Education—Oral interpretation, Langston Hughes and W.H. Auden. [Audio File 4] 38 Theatre in college, directing J.B.—Social life and dating. [Audio File 5] 52 Working for the YWCA in Youngstown Ohio—Trip to new York to go to the theatre and seeing Raisin In The Sun, Sweet Bird Of Youth, Touch Of The Sun— Directing J.B. the story of Job, a theme of dramas that raise fundamental moral issues— Bible as history and literature, class from Redlands—Bible stories— Choices as director of J.B—More on social life and dynamics in Youngstown— Getting engaged, returning to Los Angeles, teaching theatre at Jordan High School—Watts. Interview 3: March 17, 2004 [Audio File 6] 68 Watts—Social movements, political awareness, sensibility vis a vis the times, Civil Rights era—starting a family—Stanley’s experience at Cal State, Los Angeles—Dreams of starting an interracial theater, applying to UC Berkeley’s PhD program—Living on Sonoma Mountain, having a family and being in graduate school—Partnership with her husband, Stanley sues Solano Community College over discrimination—“No on Proposition 14” in Los Angeles— Reflections on their engagement in politics of the times—Visiting Stanley’s family in Shreveport, Louisiana—Malcolm X in the 1960s. [Audio File 7] 82 Reflections on Malcolm X, violence, and self-defense, and Martin Luther King’s nonviolence—Missing the Third World Strike at UC Berkeley, job interview for Ethnic Studies program—Seeing A Raisin in the Sun on Broadway—Production of A Raisin in the Sun at Jordan High School in Los Angeles—Los Angeles meets Négritude and Pan-Africanism—Ford dissertation fellowship—Naming her children. Interview 4: March 18, 2004 [Audio File 8] 91 Graduate school, observing political turmoil on campus from a vantage point of Petaluma—academic work, fulfilling early requirements, “Who walked with God?”—Why drama resonated for her—Working as a researcher for the rhetoric department—Turning down the role of Cleopatra while Director of the Women’s Center—Participating in a production of the Oresteia, liaisons between students and professors—Key faculty and lay of land in the department while she was a graduate student—“Experimental” teaching in the theatre department—Instances of subtle racial discrimination/cultural divides while in graduate school—Social networks, colleagues and advisors in graduate school, connections with other graduate students while in graduate school, initial involvement in American Theatre Association and Black Theatre Association—External networks, internal support, internal networks—“Learning” UC Berkeley, scheduling of oral exam, Women’s Center, serving on Committee on Committees, importance of being known and involved outside of your department. [Audio File 9] 105 Serving on committees, importance of representation and communication— Faculty attitudes around diversity and affirmative action—Exploring formation of racial attitudes in Lilly Endowment workshops, participating in role play in psychodrama workshops—Teaching Dutchman, directing Dutchman—Suzan-Lori Parks, Don Cheadle, Mos Def, Jeffrey Wright—What graduate students should know about graduate school—Building relationships to others outside of one’s department, drama department disarray—Expectations from faculty placed on her work—Dissertation. [Audio File 10] 121 Working on the dissertation while raising children, losing dissertation on the freeway—sharing dissertation with the theatre groups that were profiled—Sorting and archiving original source materials—How black theater reflects changing race ideology, changing times, changing language—Interviewing Alice Childress. Interview 5: March 19, 2004 [Audio File 11] 128 As doctoral student, department’s expectations, faculty lack of awareness of the field of black theatre—Connections and interactions with department faculty— Director/scholar program in drama department—Performance facilities on campus—Meeting Henrietta Harris—1995, Director of Center for Theatre Arts— Chair of the Drama Department—“Saving” the drama department, its decline and resurrection, rebuilding it—Racism at the box office on campus—trends in drama practice while Margaret was a doctoral student at Berkeley, avant-garde theatre, experimental/confrontational “happenings”—Connections to civil rights era, African American traditions of theatre—Connections between audience and performance—UC Berkeley Lonne Elder production of Ceremonies in Dark Old Men, reactions from the black audience unanticipated by white Berkeley faculty—Theatre as revolutionary tool—One of the guiding principles in the dissertation: “Black theatre means different things to different people…no one way to explore black experience”—LeRoi Jones versus Aldridge Players West production of Trojan Women—LeRoi Jones’ condemnation and recantation around Raisin in the Sun, an evolution—North Richmond Community Theatre, Neighborhood House, working with Jim Linnell and Phil Larson, funding, caution from University administration about personal safety in post-Watts era. [Audio File 12] 142 North Richmond Community theatre—Working to build a community theatre, encountering resistance, community encounters that illuminate the political environment—Jimmy Scott—ideology and philosophy of North Richmond Community Theatre, potential for theatre more generally as a tool for transformation—Challenges in mounting successful community based theatre— Communicating the form to community—Campus production of El-Hajj Malik— Working without resources and access—Kumoja Players production of The Funeral, Juneteenth in Richmond—Writing The Funeral, exploring how black people respond to death absent white people, funeral of Aunt Matt in Tulare— Influence of Bernard Jackson’s vision of community theatre, colorblind casting, race as a plot device,
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