Voodoo Macbeth

In 1936, 20-year-old Orson Welles staged a production of Macbeth in Harlem starring an all-black cast, composed largely of non-professional actors. Carried out under the auspices of the Federal Theater Project (one of the many bureaus of the WPA established by FDR to jumpstart the American economy during the Great Depression), the play kept the basic plot and dialogue of the original intact, but transposed the action to a fictitious Caribbean island modeled on Haiti and changed the witches to voodoo practitioners. The resulting "Voodoo Macbeth" was something of a historical milestone: against all odds, it was an enormous commercial success, and it marked one of the first instances in American theater of a serious production starring black actors that was respected and sustained by white audiences. The play would go on tour, and the publicity would be a major factor in Welles' rise to fame. (He would go on to direct and star in a more traditional - if typically idiosyncratic - film adaptation in 1948.)

Unfortunately, not much of Voodoo Macbeth remains. The bulk of the production is detailed only in Welles' annotated promptbook, which gives an outline of the structure of the play; contemporary reviews also preserve something of the character of the show. Luckily, the last 4 minutes of the play were preserved in a WPA film called We Work Again, which documented the bureau's efforts to provide black Americans with work during the 30s. It's a priceless glimpse into a small but sadly overlooked event in the history of American entertainment. You can see those four minutes below, or download We Work Again for free courtesy of the Internet Archive.