"Canadian Theatre Made for Black Women" in Theatre Research in Canada, 39 (1), 227-241
For close to two decades Trey Anthony has carved out a successful career as a published and produced playwright in Canada in a national theatre landscape where few playwrights enjoy sustained success. This is, in part, because Anthony is also an entrepreneur who identified Black women in Canada as a financially viable and lucrative target market and she has consistently self-produced content that is geared specifically to them. This article begins with the production history, critical response, and box office response to Anthony鈥檚 play How Black Mothers Say I Love You. It continues with an analysis of the play鈥檚 content and characters as representative of staging Black female life and it concludes with a contemplation of what Anthony鈥檚 successful cultivation of a Black female audience in Canada suggests about Canadian theatre.
Naila Keleta-Mae is an Associate Professor in Communication Arts at the University of Waterloo. She is also an award-winning poet, playwright and recording artist.
Other publications from this author include:
- "Black Lives Matter Toronto Sit-In at PRIDE" in Until We're Free: Black Lives Matter in Canada, 263-275. (2020)
- "relentless" in We Will Win: Blueprint for Black Liberation in Canada, 151-152 (2020)
- Fire Woman (2020)
- "Workshop Negative: Political Theatre in Zimbabwe in the 1980s" in Theatre Research International, 44 (3), 262-272 (2019)
- "Black girl thought in the work of Ntozake Shange" in Girlhood Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 12 (2), 32-47 (2018)
- "A Beyonc茅 Feminist" in Atlantis: Critical Studies in Gender, Culture & Social Justice, 38 (1), 236-246 (2017)