When I first enrolled in this course, I had no idea what to expect in terms of my personal growth as a writer and in my enjoyment. What I discovered was a course that I thoroughly enjoyed and that nourished my analysis, research, and evaluation skills through a combination of unique projects, essays, and class time discussion. This class was a major first step in developing my college-level reading, writing, and study skills. The discussions section of the course, where Mr. Lobell continuously provided necessary feedback, as well as the peer reviews we conducted during class time, helped me hone my writing to a higher level. The major assignments we did in this course were an analysis essay, a genre translation project, and a research paper, with us doing oral presentations of the former two. The combination of these projects, the oral presentations, and the peer reviews helped foster a learning community where I got to collaborate with my peers and teacher.
The first project we did in this class was the artifact essay, where we analyzed a specific artifact of a musical. For my essay, I analyzed the lyrics of “Snow” and how they contributed to the work as a whole. I feel like this essay improved my analysis abilities and my ability to use evidence to make an argument. I also gained a new sense of appreciation for musical theater and how so much nuance can be packed into lyrics that the audience may not even think about. I accomplished what I wanted to with this essay, and I feel like I produced a very strong work that flowed well and demonstrated how the lyrics built up the theme that while circumstances may be the same, how one perceives them shapes how they experience them and connect with others.
The second project we did in class was the genre translation project, and I feel like overall that was my strongest work in this class and the one I was the most passionate about. For this project, I wrote a backstory for one of the main characters in “Snow.” This was definitely the project I enjoyed the most, as it was creative writing, which I enjoy more than research papers and evidence-based essays. This project gave me a sense of appreciation for short stories and showed me it may be something I have a passion for in the future. It also improved my writing skills when it comes to writing dialogue. We also presented this project orally, which taught me to take pride in my work and not be afraid to show it off. I accomplished everything I wanted to with this project, and I’m very proud of the work I produced.
The final project we worked on was the research essay, and that’s definitely the one I have the most mixed feelings on. By the end of the process, I enjoyed it, and I feel like I produced satisfactory work, but there are some things I still feel like I could have done better. The essay greatly improved my research skills and taught me new sources I can use in the future. It also taught me how to synthesize evidence better. However, I feel like the 5-7 page limit made it so I couldn’t go in-depth into some things I would’ve liked to, which was frustrating for the final assignment in the class. I also wish we had gotten the library lesson at the start of the project rather than in the middle so I could’ve used what I learned there throughout the whole duration of the project. Overall, it still helped me improve as a writer, but there are some things I took issue with.
All in all, this was an interesting course that mixed musical theater with writing that I do not regret taking. The projects were a good blend of unique, fun, and challenging without being too difficult, and I felt like I had a safe and supportive learning environment. FIQWS 10113 is a class I’ll carry with me throughout the rest of my academic career.
The African Grove Theater and the Fight for Narrative Authority
When William Alexander Brown opened the African Grove Theater in 1821 in a country that still enslaved his people, it was unsurprising that white critics arrived not to appreciate art but to mock the attempt. However, what they saw was what they feared most: that theater is not bounded by race but by a desire to control one’s own narrative, a desire that many African-Americans strongly held. The opening of the African Grove Theater in New York City on September 17, 1821, was the starter fluid that set ablaze a new era of minority creatives taking the lead in theater. William Alexander Brown dared to create an all-Black theater at a time when slavery was still rampant in the United States and wouldn’t end for multiple decades. He created a place for Black creatives to pursue the arts, a place where they were previously told they didn’t belong. The African Grove’s impact at the time of its creation and on future generations demonstrates how it’s impactful not only for being the first Black theater but also for paving a path for minorities to have a place in predominantly white fields. Although the African Grove only operated for two years before shutting its doors for good, it suggests that authentic minority representation in musical theater isn’t accomplished just by having minorities on stage, but by allowing minorities to have the authority to control the narrative.
The state of Black representation in theater before the African Grove was bleak. In the article, “Breaking Boundaries: Black Musical Theater and Artistic Individualism,” the way Black people used to be represented in theater is explained: “The ‘inclusion’ of people of color in productions first began with actors dressing up and using makeup to change their appearance to mimic those of non-European descent in stereotypical ways” (“Breaking Boundaries”). Black people’s first representation in theater was used as a chance to mock and belittle them. When other people could control how they were represented, it was through stereotypes. This form of representation acted as social control, affecting the ways in which white people understood and related to Black people. Not only was this despicable representation common in theater, but it also became ingrained into the American psyche. The article goes on to explain, “While Jim Crow laws dehumanized Black people through legal procedures, the Jim Crow minstrel character dehumanized them through societal pressure. Minstrel shows were so normalized that Mark Twain, ‘the father of American literature,’ seemed to not understand their negative effects. Reminiscing about the ‘death’ of minstrel shows, he stated that ‘[the show] was a thoroughly delightful thing and a most competent laughter-compeller, and I am sorry it is gone” (“Breaking Boundaries”). Minstrel shows only served to dehumanize Black people in the minds of the American people. When every representation had Black people represented in the same manner, it became normalized to just view African-Americans that way, showing the dangers of not being able to represent oneself. Minstrel shows demonstrated that “representation” without narrative control only serves to reinforce negative stereotypes.
Minstrelsy’s dehumanizing nature extended past the 19th century, into the college campus life of the twentieth century. In the image below, a photograph from the University of Maryland campus shows a poster advertising the “38th Annual Kappa Alpha Minstrel Review” for ninety cents, featuring a caricatured blackface figure (“Breaking Boundaries”). The fact that such a racist event could be widely advertised, and awaited by Marylanders shows the dangers of racist representation. Although the African Grove fought to establish Black narrative authority in 1821, white institutions continued appropriating and stereotyping Black culture for more than a century. This demonstrates that although Black representation is good, real change can’t be accomplished without broader structural transformation. The African Grove was a monumental first step, as it allowed Black actors to shift the narrative away from these racist caricatures.
In contrast to the minstrel shows, the African Grove Theater was a site for Black creatives to flourish. The gallery, “Transformation! : African American Theater 1821-1921 and Beyond,” discusses how the African Grove allowed for new avenues for Black people in theater: “Through the incorporation of Shakespearean performances, popular songs, original texts, and folk favorites, it demonstrated the range of Black subjectivities and creative expression while offering the possibility of a truly populist and popular national theater” (“TRANSFORMATION”). Additionally, in the news story “The Transformative History of African American Theater: From the African Grove Theater to ‘Shuffle Along’,” Sarah Binney had the chance to interview those who worked on the gallery. They said, “The first play written and produced by Black actors was staged in the African Grove Theater. It wasn’t common for women to be a part of productions and the African Grove Theater also gave women that space” (Gabriela). These two texts illuminate the opportunities the African Grove provided. They performed Shakespearean plays, which challenged the preconceived notion by white artists that it’d be too “complicated” for Black people to handle. However, the choice to perform Shakespeare also reveals a complex contradiction. By mastering prestigious European drama, they simultaneously challenged the preconceived notions of their capacity while also using the same system they were trying to revolutionize. Both resisting and accommodating white cultural standards characterizes much of the theater’s earlier work. Additionally, they allowed Black people to write their own plays, which gave them full control of how they were represented, and even gave women a more prominent role as well, showing how influential the theater was in giving voices to the voiceless. The power to write was the highest form of narrative control.
The African Grove demonstrated Black agency and the right to belonging. As explained in the article “The African Grove Theatres, Then and Now: Performance as Activism,” by Jenna Gibbs, the African Grove was a site for Black individuals to portray powerful narratives related to their strife at the time.“To do so, they performed plays that featured black protagonists with powerful agency, coupled with insistence on cultural belonging in the United States: Jack Mansong, in Obi; or Three Finger’d Jack, a maroon rebel who stages regular attacks on slave plantations in Jamaica; black dandies in Tom and Jerry; or Life in London, who claim for themselves equal access to fashion and middle-class life; and Richard III, asserting the cultural right to share supposed ‘white’ literature and culture,” (Gibbs 102). Comparing this to the roles African Americans were given in the past is a stark contrast. The African Grove allowed for Black creatives to create art that was pertinent to their struggles and make it for anyone to see. They made plays that showed their right to rights that were assumed only for whites. The maroon rebel who staged regular attacks on slave plantations is particularly striking because it was at a time when slavery was still going on! The African Grove didn’t just let Black people and women onto the stage; it put them behind the pen as well and allowed them to perform their struggle.
The African Grove wasn’t only groundbreaking at the time but has left a lasting impact. Gibbs also explains, “Remarkably, despite its short life, the African Grove Theatre not only had a transatlantic reach in its time, launching the successful careers of two black Shakespearean actors, James Hewlett and Ira Aldridge (whose work is examined by Sede Makonnen in this issue), but also imprinting a lasting resonance in contemporary black theatre,” (Gibbs 94). It is particularly the works of Ira Aldridge that will be looked into. Bernth Lindfors discusses the exploits of Aldridge in his article, “”Mislike Me Not for My Complexion…”: Ira Aldridge in Whiteface,” where he explains, “It is clear that in many parts of Britain Aldridge did win the respect of his audiences when he appeared on stage in whiteface. One palpable sign of this is that these audiences evidently found nothing unusual about a black actor playing a white part. Only in London was this remarked upon as “a manifest incongruity.” In provincial reviews there was seldom any reference made to Aldridge’s race; he seems to have been accepted for what he was: a professional actor who could bring alive well-known Shakespearean characters. It didn’t matter that the characters were white and the actor black,” (Lindfors 353-54). Here a complete flip of the origins of Black people in theater is shown. Originally, white people would use blackface to mock Black people and belittle them. Then, Ira Aldridge uses whiteface, a complete reversal that shows how Black creatives could now fully control their narrative and do what was necessary creatively. However, the triumph of Ira Aldridge also carries within it complexity: Aldridge achieved success by literally partially covering his blackness. Was this artist fully liberated, allowed to try new processes that a Black actor could never imagine at the time, or was this acceptance that certain roles naturally suited a white complexion? The answer is likely a complicated mixture, but it was a mixture African-Americans hadn’t had the privilege to before. Ira Aldridge, who got his start in the African Grove, was able to take full control of his narrative and not just be on stage but do things never done before, and he was overall well received for it. His success demonstrates that the cultural impact left by the African Grove persisted even after the theater was destroyed.
The legacy of the African Grove theater is a reminder that true change doesn’t come from a seat at the table, but from being able to speak at the table as freely as everyone else. William Alexander’s groundbreaking idea to open an all Black theater was definitely a risk, and one that didn’t even immediately pay off, seeing as the theater was shut down after a short time. However, the impact that the theater has left on representation in theater is undeniable. The African Grove established a principle that continues to echo through generations of Black production in theater, the silver screen, and the big screen: authentic representation is about authority and control in how one will be represented to the world at large. It is not enough to have minority actors; there must also be minorities that have the power to produce, write, and direct to make sure their cultures and people are represented with dignity and accuracy.
Gibbs, Jenna M. “The African Grove Theatres, Then and Now: Performance as Activism.” Nineteenth Century Theatre and Film, vol. 52, no. 1, 21 Apr. 2025, pp. 94–115, https://doi.org/10.1177/17483727251324211. Accessed 9 Oct. 2025.
Lindfors, Bernth. “‘Mislike Me Not for My Complexion…’: Ira Aldridge in Whiteface.” African American Review, vol. 33, no. 2, 1999, pp. 347–54. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/2901283. Accessed 24 Nov. 2025.
Ti was back in the white room. She hated that room. To her, the color white was a void, sucking in all the warmth and color of the outside world. She remembered how, on her way to the hospital, she felt the warm tropical sun on her skin, and how the rushing wind blew her hair as motorbikes zipped by in the distance. Outside, there was laughter, there was life. In here, there was only the white void. Only one pop of color stood out in that place.
“There’s my girl!” Ti’s mother said with excitement. “You get bigger every time I see you!” She immediately started grabbing her daughter with matriarchal affection.
“Mom, stop, I’m too old for that!” she protested, trying to hide how happy she was that her mother still had the strength to annoy her.
“You turn 7 and suddenly you think you’re an adult,” her mother laughed, pretending to scold her. “You could be 100 years old, and I’ll still be your mom, Ti.”
“Yeah… I know,” Ti said, trying to hide the tears, not even knowing if her mom would see 100 more days.
“Oh, Ti, I didn’t mean…” She cut herself off, knowing no words could comfort a seven-year-old losing her mother. She looked at her daughter, bearing the pain of knowing she would never see her grow up. Her first date. Her first day of college. Her wedding. But she didn’t have the gift of self-pity. It was her job as a mother to reassure her daughter.
“Hey, look at what I got you,” she said excitedly while pulling out a picture book for her daughter. “It’s a book with places all around the world! There’s so much to see outside of Bangkok.”
Ti looked at the picture book in awe. She’d never thought of what all the countries outside of Bangkok looked like. She always assumed it would be just more of the same. She flipped through the pictures, seeing places she’d only heard of. New York City, with its soaring skyscrapers, and Paris, with the Eiffel Tower. She was filled with wonder as she pointed out all the places to her mom.
Her mom laughed, a tired but relieved noise. “I knew you’d like it; you don’t have to rush, it’s yours to keep.”
Ti kept flipping through the pages until she instinctively flinched at something she’d never seen before. A landscape completely white, the same white that she’d learned to fear. The color that meant beeping machines and coughing patients. But something about this was different.
Her mother noticed the flinch. She grabbed her little girl’s hand. “That’s snow, Ti. It’s not like this white,” she gestured around vaguely. “It’s sparking, and alive, and it falls down from the sky,” she said, seeing the wonder in her daughter’s eyes. “It’s white, and cold, and soft like something out of a dream,” she explained excitedly, like a little kid explaining their favorite toy. “And each snowflake is beautiful and unique… just like you.”
“WOAHHH! Something exists like that out there? Have you seen something that amazing in person, Mom? Have you felt it?”
Her mother smiled a sad smile. “No… no, I’ve never gotten the chance.” She noticed her daughter’s face grow sad. “But I was raising the cutest little girl on Earth!” she said as she attacked her daughter with tickles.
She heard Ti laugh, and that was more magical and unique than anything else in the world; even the snowflakes she’d never see.
“But you’re really interested in this snow, huh?” she asked her daughter.
“Yes! I bet it’s softer than even the softest blanket money can buy,” she squealed excitedly.
“Well then, you have to promise me! You’ll go out there and feel and see it for yourself. Form your own opinions about the world.”
“Well, I don’t know… everywhere that snows is kind of far away, Mom…”
“Then you’ll just have to see the world! One day you’ll go somewhere far, far away, somewhere where snow is so common you’ll look back at the days when it seemed like a myth and laugh.” Her mother spoke with so much conviction that Ti felt goosebumps rise on her skin.
“I want you to see everything this world has to offer, Ti. So it could be America, Canada, or hell, even Antarctica! Just promise me.”
“Okay, I promise!” Ti’s mom had reinvigorated the childlike wonder in her. The type that made her believe in miracles. “Someday we will see the snow,” Ti said proudly.
Her mother smiled and replied in a trembling voice. “Yeah… someday we will…”
Musical theater is a uniquely captivating art form in the way it tells its stories. The use of song for characterization, plot progression, and developing themes is distinctive to musical theater, setting it apart as a means of artistic expression. One example of such a song in a theatrical production is “Snow” by Ty Defoe and Tidtaya Sinutoke. The song tells the story of two girls with different upbringings—one from Thailand and one from a general Western northern country—and how these different upbringings have impacted their feelings about snow. Analyzing the lyrics of the song and the contrasting ways in which the characters describe the snow, the audience can characterize the two, see their development, and understand the broader themes the play introduces about perception.
An analysis of the lyrics in the song “Snow” gives greater insight into the two main characters of the production. The first main character is the girl from Thailand, and through the song, the audience gets the sense that she’s an optimist and a dreamer who sees the best in situations. When she sings, “So I bring up my umbrella, and pretend I’m Cinderella waiting for a blizzard to come by,” the audience is able to get a sense of her idealism. Her recollection of dreaming of being a Disney princess specifically characterizes her as someone with childlike wonder. Additionally, her repetition of the word “awesome” when the other character, Ella, explains the reality of snow, like how it’s sometimes yellow, demonstrates how fascinated she is by the seemingly mundane. The second protagonist, named Ella, is the girl from the north who is used to snow, as she has grown up with it. The audience is able to get the sense that she is a more pessimistic person based on her responses to the girl from Thailand when she says, “Why this place? It’s for sh*t,” or, “No, it’s dirty and sometimes yellow.” Ella is evidently seen as a realist who uses the reality of situations to bring down dreamers like the girl from Thailand. While the first main character repeats the word “awesome,” Ella repeats the word “no,” as if she’s telling her, “No, don’t be excited over this stuff.” However, as the song progresses, Ella’s pessimistic nature begins to shift.
Through the lyrics of the song, the development of the characters and their relationship is displayed. While the girl from Thailand is a mostly static character, Ella’s change is a dramatic one. The audience is able to see the beginning of the shift in her when she sings the line, “One time my meemaw and I poured maple syrup on the snow. It was the best time I ever had.” From this point on, Ella’s manner of communication with the girl from Thailand is less hostile. Her fond childhood memory is able to soften her and bring her back to more innocent times. When she accepts this childlike wonder that the girl from Thailand has by going back to her own childhood, the two are able to find common ground. By the end of the song, the two are singing in tandem, “We will play the snow oh oh oh, dance the snow oh oh oh, sing the snow oh oh.” The repetition of earlier lyrics with “we” instead of “I” is the perfect encapsulation of how the two’s relationship has changed from two strangers experiencing life separately to two friends with shared experiences.
This characterization and development illuminates the broader theme that how one perceives the world greatly impacts how they experience it. The Thai girl’s perception of not just snow, but life as a whole, allows her to experience it with much more joy and wonder. In contrast, Ella’s glass-half-empty perception of life makes her take experiences more negatively. However, when she shifts her perception to remember the positive times, she’s much more open and even makes a new friend. The ending line of the song is “Together,” which exhibits how, when one is willing to change their perception, they can experience a brighter and more unified world with others. It’s also important to note that while the Thai girl used to dream of being Cinderella, the other main character’s name is actually Ella! This is a brilliant writing move that demonstrates how they were more alike than they thought due to their perceptions.
All in all, the lyrics in Ty Defoe and Tidtaya Sinotuke’s “Snow” are masterful in their contribution to the work as a whole. They are able to characterize the two main characters: one as optimistic and one as pessimistic. Additionally, they take these characters through a journey that allows the pessimist to drop her walls and let the two become friends. Ultimately, the song reveals that while circumstances may be the same, how one perceives them shapes how they experience them and connect with others.
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