Staging Blackface in Canada

Public Amusements, Variety Shows, and Racial Acts in an Age of Imitation, 1898–1919

Cheryl Thompson

• Publisher: Wilfrid Laurier University Press
• Year: 2026
• eBook ISBN:
  9781771127035
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: African American Studies

In the early twentieth century, as variety shows flooded Canadian stages, new forms of blackface, inspired by modern forms of amusements, changed the theatre. In this era marked by progressive social reforms, the stage embodied the modern ethos of imitation, mimicry, and change.

Staging Blackface in Canada covers a moment when Canadians did not produce professional theatre, but they built amusement parks, wrote songs, and produced records. As the stage (drama), and its variants (burlesque, light opera) adapted elements from the new stages (amusement parks, social dance, and film), the modern culture popularized forms of blackface that impacted white, Anglo-Protestant, and English-speaking audiences, and drew theatrical criticism.

This book explores a twenty-year period in Canada’s history when there was no media regulation, and no mandate to promote Canadian culture. Through an examination of theatrical reviews, images, and textual records, Staging Blackface in Canada locates how the Canadian stage became a playground for ethnic jokes, racial caricature, and women’s emancipation. It also locates some of the first Black musicals and operas to appear on Canadian stages.

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half-Title Page
• Also by Cheryl Thompson
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• About the Publisher
• Contents
• Preface
• Half-Title Page
• Introduction: Why Staging Blackface in Canada?
• 1. Variety Shows at the Industrial, Amusement Parks, and Oriental Operas Set the Stage, 1898–1907
• 2. Black Minstrels, Burlesques, and Coontowns in a Time of Racial Terror, 1898–1905
• 3. The Last Black Musicals Tour Canada, and Salome’s Racial-Gender Politics, 1906–10
• 4. Syndicate Wars, Jewish and Irish Comedians, and the Nation’s Identity Crisis, 1907–14
• 5. Ziegfeld Follies in Canada, Social Dancing On and Off Stage, and the New Stereotypes, 1907–19
• Conclusion
• Notes
• Selected Bibliography
• Index