This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 4/26/2022
HUGHES, Langston (1901–1967). The Barrier: A New Musical Drama in a Prologue and Two Acts [inside cover title of playbill]. January 18–21, 23–28, 1950. 8vo. Original printed tri–fold playbill, laid in with a typed slip for a replacement cast member. With original ticket stub tipped in. INSCRIBED BY HUGHES ON FRONT COVER, along with inscriptions from other cast and production members (Muriel Rahn who played Cora Lewis and Jan Meyerowitz who wrote the music). In 1949, Hughes reworked his pet thesis of the "tragic mulatto" from his 1928 play "Mulatto" into an opera, "The Barrier," the music for which was written by the modern composer, Jan Meyerowitz. The opera was first produced in the Brander Matthews Hall at Columbia University in 1950 and directed by Milton Smith. The playbill reproduces Hughes’ thoughts on his libretto, "It concerns the bitter wall of color between the inhabitants of Albamar Plantation in contemporary Georgia, Colonel Thomas Norwood, his brown housekeeper, Cora Lewis, and their children…"