Aduke Aremu’s Harlem Children’s Theatre Company

ABSTRACT

This article explores the history of Aduke Aremu’s Harlem Children’s Theatre Company during the time of Black Arts Movement in the United States, as well as the significance to the field of Black Theatre for Youth. It is adapted from a chapter of the author's dissertation, “Overturning Topsy’s Legacy: Black Theatre for Youth and the Black Arts Movement,” which was awarded the Distinguished Dissertation Award in 2013 by the American Alliance for Theatre in Education. Source materials include interviews with Aduke Aremu, the theatre company’s founder, as well as numerous reviews of Harlem Children’s Theatre Company plays in the black newspaper, New York Amsterdam News.

Acknowledgments

The author dedicates this article to Dawn, her spouse, and Mom, her Mom.

Notes

¹ While directing Liberation at the Apollo festival, Aremu convinced a child member of her cast to jump from the theater’s balcony to the stage during a dance, which the child did for the show’s two-week run (Aremu interview January 22, 2012).

² Of these numerous invitations, the only two that did not occur were Italy “because of [political] unrest” and Switzerland “because we ran out of time” (Aremu interview January 22, 2012).

³ One of Gilbert Moses’s daughters was a member of the resident company.

⁴ Two former HCTC company members have successful careers in the entertainment industry: Zorikh Lequidre became a swordsman in television and movies and James Bond, III became an actor and CEO and founder of two companies: Solid Rock Pictures and Underground Railroad Company, a music and video company (Aremu interview January 22, 2012).