“The Open Door” at Brooklyn Academy of Music

The fifth 1922 post for our annual celebration of Black History Month.

One hundred years ago today … “The Open Door,” a pageant with an all-Black cast and a mixed black and white production team, played at Brooklyn Academy of Music. The Eagle described it as depicting “the history of the negro race from jungle dance and savage ritual through slavery, emancipation and finally the open door of education to opportunity.” (“The Open Door.” Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 5 February 1922, p. 44.)

“The Open Door” had played at Carnegie Hall the previous November, and was being revived for one night as a benefit for Atlanta University, under the direction of Gertrude Ware Bunce, activist, philanthropist, and daughter of the former University president Edmund Asa Ware. The cast and crew from the Carnegie Hall show, listed below, returned for this performance. 

The production featured numerous stars of the Black music world. The music was arranged and the orchestra conducted by Clarence Cameron White, composer, violinist, and current president of the National Association of Negro Musicians, with the assistance of composer and popular songwriter William Tyers. 

The musicians included members of the renowned Clef Club, which we have featured before. Among the cast was 24-year-old singer and law student Paul Robeson.

– Jonathan Goldman, Feb 10, 2022

TAGS: Black history, African American music, theater, HBU, historically black college, BAM, race