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the white characters, as well. Instead of falling into the trap of physical stereotypes, our sensitivity to how Black people have been represented without nuance in skin color prompted us to create a wide range of visual representations of “Black” characters without overlooking the fact that puppets are by definition caricatures of real people. The scenery in most of our productions also represented what was familiar to us—that is, an urban setting—with tenements, garbage cans, and fire escapes. For example, our production of Snow White was titled Snow White in Harlem, and the dwarfs, rather than being miners who trekked out of a forest singing “Hi Ho, Hi Ho,” were transit workers who climbed up from the subway stairs singing the music of Ladysmith Black Mambazo. Our music tends toward jazz, soul, and rhythm and blues. We think the music helps carry the message, and we hope it also serves as a universal language. Comedic elements like puppet pratfalls, sight gags, silly jokes, and puns have always kept our audiences entertained and engaged.


Race and Representation in the Lewis Latimer Production


In 1998, the Brewery Puppet Troupe was commissioned by the Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation of the Smithsonian National Museum of American History to produce a show featuring an African American scientist. We were invited to produce this story because of our prominence as an African American puppet company and because we had performed at the Puppeteers of America national festival. The Lemelson Center staffers were familiar with our work and anticipated a production that would be a humorous look at a Black inventor, prominently featuring the Crowtations. Also, they needed the show to appeal to a school-age audience. In the end, the show they got was not what they expected, but ultimately, it worked well and exceeded their expectations. Initially, the Lemelson Center staff asked us to choose a Black inventor to depict. I looked at the few Black inventors that I was familiar with, and though their achievements were noteworthy, I did not see how I could turn their biographies into an entertaining puppet show. The Smithsonian staff suggested we do a show about Lewis Latimer, a 19th century inventor instrumental in the creation of the electric light bulb, because they had an upcoming exhibit about him. I did not know much about Lewis Latimer at first. I soon realized that the story of Lewis Latimer incorporated many different aspects of Black history that I thought could be made even more engaging through puppetry. As I did additional research about him, I became even more intrigued with his life and accomplishments. He was one of Thomas Edison’s premier engineers, part of a group of prominent scientists known as the Edison Pioneers. I was further impressed that he had worked closely with Alexander Graham Bell. As much as I had seen movies about Thomas Edison, Latimer had


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never appeared in any of them, but Latimer had in fact achieved much success and distinction during his lifetime. He was a self- taught draftsman (in the era before computers), who improved Edison’s light bulb, allowing it to burn for days instead of minutes. He designed and oversaw the implementation of the electrical grid of London, Montreal, and parts of New York City. But more than those things, I was fascinated about how this little-known inventor and his family had played such an important role in American history.


From his parents’ escape from slavery, to their association with Frederick Douglass, to how he assisted Alexander Graham Bell secure the patent for the telephone, I decided that his story was very significant on many levels. But it wasn’t until the Smithsonian put me in contact with Lewis Latimer’s granddaughter, Winifred Latimer, who shared details about his personal life and his devotion to his wife and family, that I saw an opportunity to show the human side of this great scientist.


Brewery Troupe puppets (from left to right) Frederick Douglass, Lewis Latimer, Thomas Edison. Photo courtesy of Brad Brewer and the Smithsonian National Museum of American History


A New Brewery Troupe Production Lewis Latimer’s life was impacted by America’s tragic struggle with slavery and racial inequality. We had never seriously tackled these subjects before, and his was a hard-hitting story that told of the desperate and challenging times faced by African Americans. Indeed, Latimer’s life was affected by historical events, such as the Fugitive


Slave Law of 1850 and the Dred Scott decision (the Supreme Court decision that held that Black people had no citizenship rights), which were just as important to his story as his scientific achievements. Slavery and the struggle for freedom was the backstory of his life, and I was determined to tell it. At the outset of planning the project, I had assumed I would present Lewis Latimer in the way we usually did in a Brewery Puppet Troupe production, but here the challenge was how to incorporate the history of slavery and racial discrimination—which I saw as central to the story—into an entertaining Smithsonian- sponsored puppet show. My commitment to present the complex story of his life started to come through in my early drafts of scripts, and the Lemelson Center staff began to push back against showing the tragic experiences he and his family had lived through. In early production meetings, difficult discussions led to a compromise requiring that all the historical information I included was completely accurate, and to ensure that, staff historians were asked to read and comment on all the drafts of the script. The Brewery Troupe has staged many shows featuring prominent African American figures, but this was the first time the scripts were fact checked by professional historians. In deference to the restrictions of the Smithsonian staff, I could not expand the mythologic aspects of the character, like the Young Abe Lincoln type of characterizations we had done in past shows, but we were still able to bring out the essence of Latimer’s character as a man who worked hard, persevered, wrote poetry, and loved his wife and family.


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