Louis S. Peterson

Louis S. Peterson (June 17, 1922 – April 27, 1998) was an American playwright, actor,[1] screenwriter, and professor.[2] He was an American playwright and the first African-American playwright to have a dramatic play produced on Broadway. He was also one of the first African-American writers to be nominated for an Emmy Award.

Louis S. Peterson
BornLouis Stamford Peterson
(1922-06-17)17 June 1922
Hartford, Connecticut, USA
DiedApril 27, 1998(1998-04-27) (aged 75)
New York, New York, USA
OccupationPlaywright, screenwriter
NationalityUnited States
Period1953–1961

Biography

Louis Stamford Peterson was born in Hartford, Connecticut on June 17, 1922. His father was Louis Peterson Sr., and his mother was Ruth Conover Peterson, who both worked in the banking business. Peterson first planned to get a degree in music. In 1944 he graduated from Morehouse College earning a B.A. in English.[3] In college he became involved in the Little Theatre and performed onstage. He attended Yale University (1944 to 1945), and then earned an M.A. in drama from New York University in 1947.[4][5] In New York Peterson performed in Off-Broadway plays, and studied acting with noted teacher, Sanford Meisner, at the Neighborhood Playhouse, and he also studied at the Actors Studio. He studied playwriting, and worked closely with Clifford Odets.[6][7] His first play, Take a Giant Step, was written while he was touring as an actor and stage manager in Carson McCullers' play, The Member of the Wedding. On July 21, 1952 he married Peggy Feury. The marriage ended after nine years in 1961.[4][8]

Take a Giant Step

It was a significant step in Peterson's career when his first full-length play, Take a Giant Step, opened on Broadway in 1953. The play was welcomed with critical acclaim.[9][10][11] The story focuses on the challenges of a black youth growing up in a white neighborhood. It starred Louis Gossett Jr., who was a high school student at the time. It ran for eight weeks at the Lyceum Theater. In 1954, it was revived off-Broadway for 246 performances.[12]

An article in the May 1991 issue of the magazine, Jump Cut, considers in detail Peterson's play and screenplay, Take a Giant Step. The journal describes what Peterson's work means culturally, how it broke down barriers, and surmounted obstacles. The article also describes those who were involved in making it a success and a pioneering work.[13]

In the film of Take a Giant Step, the part of Spencer Scott was played by Johnny Nash, a popular rock-and-roll performer. Spencer Scott's father was played by Frederick O'Neal, who co-founded the American Negro Theatre. O'Neal also played the part on Broadway.

The story is about a black teen, Spencer, living in white community. His white teacher claims that black slaves were "too lazy" to fight for their freedom. Spencer refutes this, and he is then expelled from school. When hIs father upholds the teacher's right, the teenage is thus thrust into a painful and difficult position.[13]

Plays, screenplays, and teaching

Peterson went on to write scripts for TV and film. He wrote an episode of the TV series Danger, entitled "Padlocks" that starred James Dean; it aired on November 2, 1954.[14] In 1956, he wrote Joey, which starred Anthony Perkins and Kim Stanley. He received an Emmy Award nomination for the "Joey" episode of the Goodyear Playhouse in 1957.

In addition, Peterson wrote film screenplays, and was the first African-American screenwriter in Hollywood.[15] In the 1960s, Peterson left Hollywood for New York. Peterson’s plays in the 1960s and 1970s tend to employ complex plots. His play Entertain a Ghost opened off-Broadway in 1962 at the Actors Playhouse.[16] This was a semi-autobiographical play with a double-plot; it deals with issues of interracial relationships, focussing on a character who is a playwright and his wife, a "self-absorbed young woman determined to become an actress".[17][18][19] In 1972, he began teaching in the theatre arts department at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. While teaching, he wrote a screenplay The Confessions of Nat Turner, and a play Crazy Horse, which was produced at the Henry Street Settlement's New Federal Theatre (1979).

Peterson received the Benjamin Brawley Award for Excellence in English at Morehouse College (1944). Take a Giant Step was named one of the best plays of 1953–54 by the Burns Mantle Yearbook. He was nominated for an Emmy for his script, Joey (1956). He was inducted into the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame in 1975.[20][21] Peterson retired from teaching at Stony Brook in 1993, but continued writing. He died due to lung cancer in New York City on April 27, 1998.[2][4][5][14][22]

References
  1. Morse, Leon. "Play Review: These Tender Mercies". The Billboard. June 19, 1948.
  2. Roberts, Jerry. The Great American Playwrights on the Screen: A Critical Guide to Film, Video, and DVD. Hal Leonard Corporation (2003). ISBN 9781557835123
  3. Bennett, Lerone, jr. Ebony Magazine. May 1961
  4. Nelson, Emmanuel S. African American Dramatists: An A-to-Z Guide. ABC-CLIO (2004) ISBN 978-0-313-05289-7
  5. Gussow, Mel. "Louis Peterson, 76, Playwright Who Opened Doors for Blacks". New York Times. May 1, 1998.
  6. Smith, Judith E. Visions of Belonging: Family Stories, Popular Culture, and Postwar Democracy, 1940-1960. Columbia University Press, 2004. ISBN 9780231121705
  7. Ave Maria. volume 110
  8. Robinson, Major. "New York Beat". Jet Magazine. Johnson Publications. Vol 5, number 4. 3 December 1953. page 65.
  9. Miller, Henry. Theorizing Black Theatre; Art versus Critical Writings 1898-1965. McFarland (2010). ISBN 9780786460144
  10. Feldstein, Ruth (2013). Do What You Gotta do: Black Women Entertainers and Civil Rights Activism in the 1960s. ISBN 9780195314038.
  11. Krasner, David. A Companion to Twentieth-Century American Drama. John Wiley & Sons (2008). ISBN 9781405137348
  12. Luce, Henry R., ed. (November 30, 1953). "So you want to be a producer: team loses $150,000 but will try again". Life. New York, New York. 35 (22): 157–158, 160, 162.
  13. Reid, Mark A. "Take a Giant Step. A Raisin in the Sun; The U.S. Black Family Film". Jump Cut; A Review of Contemporary Media. No. 36. May 1991. Pages 81-88.
  14. Johnson, John H., ed. (November 11, 1954). "Playwright Louis Peterson completes new play". Jet. Chicago, Illinois: Johnson Publishing Company, Inc.: 59.
  15. IMBd
  16. Broadway World. Entertain a Ghost off-Broadway cast list.
  17. Andrews, William L., Foster, Frances Smith, and Harris, Trudier, editors. Article: "Peterson, Louis". The Concise Oxford Companion to African American Literature. Oxford University Press (2001). ISBN 9780195138832
  18. Tallmer, Jerry. "Theatre: Entertain a Ghost." The Village Voice. 19 April 1962
  19. Jet magazine April 19, 1962. p. 62.
  20. Berry, Torriano S., Berry, Venise T. The A to Z of African American Cinema. Scarecrow Press (2009). Page 379 ISBN 9780810870345
  21. Andrew Hill, Cultural and Ethnic Affairs Guild of the Oakland Museum Association. Black filmmakers hall of fame, 1975: the second Oscar Micheaux awards ceremony, February 16, 1975, Paramount Theatre of the Arts, Oakland, California. Cultural and Ethnic Affairs Guild of the Oakland Museum Association, 1975
  22. Jet Magazine. May 18, 1998
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