Pam Trotter, left, Vanessa Claire Stewart and Matthew Hancock in the Fountain Theatres An Octoroon by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins. Witnesses offer conflicting accounts, Mars Voltas lead singer broke with Scientology and reunited with the band. Just getting the production up and running in this new outdoor playing area was miracle enough. The Octoroon was a controversial play when it debuted, given its focus on slavery when the pre-Civil War United States was engaged in a heated debate over the institution. [12], An Octoroon premiered Off-Broadway at Soho Rep on April 23, 2014 and closed on June 8. The group immediately calls for his lynching, but they agree to try him first. She is the so-called illegitimate (not produced by marriage) daughter of a plantation owner named Mr. Peyton and one of his slaves on this. Mrs. Peyton, for instance, refers to her slaves black ungainly faces (32) even as she extols her love for them, while Scudder speaks directly of the protection, forbearance, gentleness and other goods that show the critters the difference between the Christian and the savage (72). MClosky then enters and informs the group of Zoes free papers and that she is still a slave. Where: The Fountain Theatre, 5060 Fountain Ave., L.A.When: 7 p.m. Fridays-Mondays. If there is a The Octoroon SparkNotes, Shmoop guide, or Cliff Notes, you can find a link to each study guide below. The Octoroon by Dion Boucicault | Goodreads Eventually, Zoe takes the poison and runs off. Part of his agenda in helping Picquet was to gain support for the abolitionist and temperance movement. This page is not available in other languages. George Peyton returns to the United States from a trip to France to find that the plantation he has inherited is in dire financial straits as a result of his late uncle's beneficence. To settle his debts, the creditors made Cook sell his slaves, so at thirteen, Picquet was separated from her mother, who was sold to Colonel Albert Clinton Horton of Wharton, while Picquet went to New Orleans with Mr. John Williams. In Act III, the auction for the estate and its slaves is about to begin, and a group of plantation owners and auctioneers arrive at Terrebonne. McClosky has proved that Judge Peyton did not succeed in legally freeing her, as he had meant to do. During this time, he wrote to Methodists in England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales in an attempt to stamp out slavery from the Methodist Episcopal Church by circulating petitions to collect signatures. Act IV takes place by Captain Rattss Steamer Magnolia, where Wahnotee has been captured. This role is. The Octoroon who is hiding in some bushes nearby, sacrifices her chances of freedom by leaping into the water and rescuing the young girl. An Octoroon is a play written by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins. The evil McClosky desires her for himself, opposed by the sincere love for her by George, the heir to the family fortune. Then Playwright and Assistant put on redface and blackface paint. Set on the fictional Terrebonne Plantation in Louisiana, The Octoroon depicts life in the American South with honesty and empathy. Landmark court cases in the Southern states eventually erased the legal proscription against such unions, but the legacy of Zoes predicament still casts its long shadow over the affairs of the heart. [6], An Octoroon had a workshop production at Performance Space 122 from June 19 July 3, 2010, featuring Travis York, Karl Allen, Chris Manley, Ben Beckley, Gabe Levey, Jake Hart, Margaret Flanagan, Amber Gray, Mary Wiseman, LaToya Lewis, Kim Gainer, and Sasheer Zamata. The Octoroon (Play) Monologues | StageAgent This role is played by Matthew Hancock, who while delivering a sprawling monologue, applies whiteface in preparation of taking on the roles of both George and MClosky. The play was adapted by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins as An Octoroon in 2014. The Octoroon (1912) - Plot Summary - IMDb Sara Krulwich/The New York Times. The auctioneer arrives, along with prospective buyers, McClosky among them. Research Playwrights, Librettists, Composers and Lyricists. At the Plantation Terrebonne in Louisiana, Dido and Minnie chat about the arrival of George, and the passing of his uncle, their previous master. Picquet was born into a lineage of sexual victimization and strong maternal dedication. Minnie comforts Dido and they look forward to their new lives on Captain Ratts boat. The Octoroon - Wikipedia Mrs. Peyton informs her nephew George, who has just returned from Europe, that he is the heir to the Terrebonne estate. An Octoroon (Play) Plot & Characters | StageAgent This led Jacobs-Jenkins to see doubles and pairs in Boucicault's play, through relationships between characters e.g. The production ran from January 29 to February 27, 2016. Blackface is applied by Hazel Lozano, as she exaggeratedly morphs from the Playwrights assistant to two enslaved characters. BJJ is focused on a play, The Octoroon, but runs into issues staging it because the white actors quit, so he applies whiteface in order to play them himself. It is an adaptation of Dion Boucicault's The Octoroon, which premiered in 1859. During this time, she was "accused of being an imposter" and fraud because of her skin color (p. 43) On one particular occasion, some of the gentlemen Picquet inquired upon for donations sternly asked her, "You are a colored women? This is the origin story of the play were watching, but BJJ is an unreliable narrator. After a strong start, the production loses its way rhythmically as the plot of The Octoroon is jauntily sketched. One man, Jacob MClosky, is driven into such a frenzy by Zoe that he is willing to lie, cheat and kill in order to own her. For refusing to sleep with Cook, however, she was whipped constantly. Later, her husband Henry served in the Union Army until receiving a medical discharge, leaving Louisa as the household's sole provider. Picquet solicited for donations to reach the one thousand dollar price, and in her travels asking for donations, she made it all the way to New York City where she met the Reverend Hiram Mattison. Though it would hardly seem likely at first glance, this pallid image of slavery directly addresses the condition of black bondage. I wondered if I might be moved to tears at my return to the theater, but instead I felt grateful and relieved that human ingenuity wasnt thwarted by a virus. Though he wanted her to run off and escape with him, she was too afraid of getting caught so he left without her. Download the entire The Octoroon study guide as a printable PDF! 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. The narrative goes on to recount an exchange of letters between Picquet, her mother, and Ramsey's slave owner in Texas. Shakespeare in the Woods 2023 Season We may earn a commission from links on this page. mid 1800's, louisiana, plantation terrebonne, mississippi river. MClosky, meanwhile, is beginning to go crazy, believing he is being followed (which he is, by Wahnotee). Set in the pre-Civil War South, The Octoroon deals heavily with racial themes. Tragic mulatto - Wikipedia The Octoroon. Mary Elizabeth Braddon (4 October 1835 - 4 February 1915) was an English popular novelist of the Victorian era. She, however, gets her father to buy the plantation in order to save it, George, and Zoe, but Zoe is sold off separately to MClosky after a huge bidding war between him and the Sunnysides. The Oxford English Dictionary cites The Octoroon with the earliest record of the word "mashup" with the quote: "He don't understand; he speaks a mash up of Indian, French, and Mexican." George proposes to Dora, but Zoe confesses their love, which turns off Dora. Summary of Louisa Picquet, the Octoroon, or, Inside Views of Southern In an act of desperation she drinks a vial of poison, and Scudder enters to deliver the good news that McClosky was proven guilty of murdering Paul and that Terrebonne now belongs to George. [18], The play was presented at the Wilma Theater in Philadelphia from March 16, 2016 to April 10, 2016, directed by Joanna Settle. If there are three dates, the first date is the date of the original With Dora's wealth, he explains, Terrebonne will not be sold and the slaves will not have to be separated. A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality study guides that feature detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, quotes, and essay topics. 1 May 2023 . George does not care about her mixed racial ancestry and wishes to marry her, despite the illegality of a mixed-race marriage. mid 1800's, louisiana, plantation terrebonne, mississippi river. The conflict centers around Zoe, the Octoroon, a term used at the time to describe a person who was 1/8 African, 7/8 Caucasian. Scenes are presented on StageAgent for educational purposes only. As she dies, Zoe tells George that now no laws will stand between us. Text for each Image of the Week is written by Sheldon Cheek. Similar classifications were octoroon for one-eighth black (Latin root octo-, means "eight") and quintroon for one-sixteenth black. [13] The cast featured Chris Myers as BJJ, in triple roles: the black playwright, George Peyton and M'Closky; Danny Wolohan as Dion Boucicault, Zo Winters as Dora, and Amber Gray as Zoe. We don't currently have any monologues from The Octoroon . "The Octoroon - Characters" eNotes Publishing She faces the horrible prospect of being sold at auction, most likely to share the fate of her mother as the mistress of a rich white man. Paul is also regarded as a slave and referred to by other characters as a darkey (43), although he is only one-quarter black (then referred to as a quadroon). The buyers gather to take away the slaves they have purchased on a steamship. Note: When citing an online source, it is important to include all necessary dates. Narrative context is dispensed with to focus on the essential plight of the victim, a process often leavening compassion with a less chaste voyeurism. The Image of the Black Archive & Libraryresides at Harvard Universitys Hutchins Center for African and African American Research. The term octoroon is thankfully not in circulation anymore, and it is likely that the melodrama would have remained in historys dustbin were it not for Jacobs-Jenkins ambivalent curiosity. Those qualifications have much to offer, but what An Octoroon needs is an auteur whos alert to the way the tempo and visual composition of a scene can shape its meaning. He gives it a try but quickly realizes that getting white, male actors of today to play evil slave owners is not an easy task. This article uses the published version of An Octoroon, as well as the recording of a performance of the Sarah Benson-directed production, recorded June 6, 2014, and housed at the Theatre on Film and Tape Archive at the New York Public Library.I will also refer to instances from the Theatre for A New Audience production . Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. eNotes.com will help you with any book or any question. A photograph of a real murdered human contrasts with the original play's use of a photograph for justice.[4]. It is an adaptation of Dion Boucicault's The Octoroon, which premiered in 1859. caucasian southern mannered kind motherly genteel southern accent widow antibellum slave owner. This guide details the original Boucicault script and associated productions. A short time later, Cook was taken to jail because of his debts, and all of his slaves were sold. Lafouche comes to run the auction of the property and announces Zoe will be sold. FreeBookNotes found 4 sites with book summaries or analysis of The Octoroon. publication online or last modification online. Those who could move beyond Bells sentimental conception of the tragic mulatto might have contemplated the wider implications of this degree of miscegenation within the dominant social structures of the time. Mrs. Peyton hopes that the letter shes awaiting from Liverpool will save the estate, as it concerns a debt owed to her husband that may now be paid back. The Octoroon or The Lily of Louisiana is a dark tale of crime, race and slavery. After various slaves are auctioned off, George and the buyers are shocked to see Zoe up on the stand. The Octoroon Characters - eNotes.com Bells own distilled response to the theme of miscegenation in the play seems to have evolved rather quickly. By presenting characters in whiteface, blackface, and redface, Jacobs-Jenkins can look at "blackness and how to represent social constructs onstage that are so tied to a specific culture of nation. The Greek Slave depicted a white woman, however, not a person of mixed race. Take a look at our library of free monologues . Theres something too straightforward in the approach to the staging, too oriented to the basic elements of storytelling to handle the dynamic shifts among parody, commentary and appreciation. one-eighth African American), and how these . Works Consulted: Barthelemy, Anthony G., ed. Abolitionist John Brown was hanged just three days before the play's debut, which is seen as one of the catalyst events that started the Civil War. An octoroon is defined as somebody who is 1/8th black. Boucicault), transforms himself into the Native American character Wahnotee by smearing his face with red makeup. Dora then reappears and bids on Zoe she has sold her own plantation in order to rescue Terrebonne. Salem Scudder, a northerner who has been serving as the plantation's overseer, bears some responsibility for the poor state of affairs at Terrebonne. Paul was beloved and also valuable, and so the whites want to find what has happened to him. eNotes.com, Inc. To notify all her donors, in 1860, Louisa put a notice in the Daily Gazetter telling of her mother's safe arrival in Cincinnati. The second date is today's Solon from The Octoroon Summary & Breakdown | StageAgent The Octoroon Analysis - eNotes.com The Octoroon Summary. An Octoroon begins with a prologue, in which a surrogate for the author, BJJ, introduces himself to the audience as a Black playwright, a label he doesnt fully comprehend. Note: Dion Boucicaults original play was adapted by Branden Jacob-Jenkins in 2014 into a new play entitled An Octoroon which premiered at Soho Rep. The incongruous mix of modern idiom and antebellum narrative fuels the wit of Jacobs-Jenkins project. There are also the two Sunnysides: Mr. Sunnyside and his daughter, Dora. Following the act three climax: the plot lines must converge, the moral is made clear, and the audience has to be hit with a "theatre trick" which overwhelms the audience with technical elements. However, we have dozens of other monologues that you can read. He doesnt want audience members to feel too secure in what theyre seeing. Through the playful lens of theater, An Octoroon invites us to take a good long look at the cultural history of slavery. Charles McNulty is the theater critic of the Los Angeles Times. Bachelor. MClosky then enters and it is immediately clear the group does not like him.