Symposium Plenary Lecture, Katie Johnson (Miami University), author of RACING THE GREAT WHITE WAY: BLACK PERFORMANCE, EUGENE O'NEILL, AND THE TRANSFORMATION OF BROADWAY 

"Following the Archive"

How can an archive influence how we think about theatre and performance? What is the relationship between the archive and performance (or, what Diana Taylor calls ‘the repertoire’)? What does it mean to follow the archive when writing about theatre and cultural production? And what can archival errors reveal to us? This presentation discusses how research in archives like the Hammerman Collection reshaped the contours of Katie Johnson's most recent book, RACING THE GREAT WHITE WAY. In following the archive, Johnson reveals lost histories, fresh stories, and a different way of thinking about O’Neill’s contributions in breaking color lines on the Great White Way.