THE JUBA PROJECT
Featured Performers and Documents
Juba and the Ethiopian Serenaders in the UK
Where and What Did They Play?

Blackface minstrelsy quickly became a phenomenon in the United Kingdom after the arrival of the first major troupe in 1843.  Specialist blackface performers arrived regularly from the United States, other American performers began performing minstrel songs and dances (with or without the actual make-up), and British entertainers 'blacked up' in imitation, to cash in on the popularity.  In the same way American rhythm and blues and then rock and roll found its way to the UK in the 1950s and 1960s, profoundly influencing local culture and performance, minstrelsy exported a black American idiom to a British white audience.  It had been corrupted and capitalized on the journey, but it still had something left of its origins. 

Minstrels played everywhere and to anyone:  to the aristocracy in their palaces (at Arundel Castle), to the upwardly mobile working classes in pleasure gardens and early music halls (at Vauxhall Gardens), in the back rooms of saloons (in Bermondsey), and to the upper middle classes in theatres and concert halls (see the theatre links below).  They played for all-male audiences, mixed-gender audiences, and private parties.  They even gave specially advertised children's concerts. 

Diverse audiences required versatile performances.  The lyrics, dances and humour of the saloon had to be far different from a polite concert hall.  One of the goals of this project is to look at the range of activity, and how performances changed with the venues.  The early minstrels were the licensed wild men of the stage, mocking the culture around them, while mocking the 'source' of their 'imitation,' the culture of American slavery.  But at this time, and in Britain, the performances were overwhelmingly musical, introducing the banjo to a broad public, singing revised versions of folk-based American tunes and lyrics.  The database will show the range--parodies of opera and Shakespeare, comic routines particularly relying on the pun, audience participation and contests, and the 'wench' or drag act.

The Ethiopian Serenaders at the St James Theatre
ReCreates a program performed during this troupe's unprecedented year-long run at a legitimate concert hall in London in 1846.

The Ethiopian Serenaders at the Theatre Royal, Birmingham
ReCreates a program performed during this troupe's second tour around Britain, playing to primarily middle-class audiences as a 'polite' exhibition of American slave culture.