Vinnette Justine Carroll (March 11, 1922 – November 5, 2002) was an American playwright, actress, and theatre director. She was the first African-American woman to direct on Broadway, with her 1972 production of the musical Don't Bother Me, I Can't Cope. Until Liesl Tommy's 2016 nomination for Eclipsed, Carroll was the only African-American woman to have received a Tony Award nomination for direction.
Life and work
Carroll was born in New York City to Edgar Edgerton, a dentist, and Florence (Morris) Carroll. She moved to Jamaica with her family at the age of three, and spent much of her childhood there. Brought back to New York at the age of 10, she and her two sisters were the only black students at their New York public school. Her mother was a strong presence who played Arturo Toscanini in the home and disciplined her three daughters wisely. Her father encouraged his daughters to become physicians. Carroll compromised by studying psychology.
She left the field of psychology to study theater, and in 1948 accepted a scholarship to attend Erwin Piscator’s Dramatic Workshop at the New School for Social Research. There, she studied with Lee Strasberg, Stella Adler, Margaret Barker, and Susan Steele.
Carroll later founded the Urban Arts Corps, a nonprofit, interracial community theater where, as artistic director, she was able to provide a professional workshop for aspiring young actors in underserved communities. She produced over 100 plays through the Urban Arts Corps from her loft theatre on West 20th Street in Manhattan. The theater was a member of the Black Theater Alliance and the Off-Off Broadway Alliance, and was supported by the New York State Council on the Arts, the National Endowment of the Arts, the Edward Noble Foundation, and CBS. Urban Arts Corps productions included Don't Bother Me, I Can't Cope, Jean-Paul Sartre'sThe Flies, and William Hanley's Slow Dance on a Killing Ground, among many others. The theater provided a space to "nurture emerging playwrights and showcase their works."
In 1968, Carroll joined the New York State Council on the Arts upon the request of executive director John B. Hightower. She had previously been appointed director of the Ghetto Arts Program for the State of New York.
Education
Carroll attended Wadleigh High School, an integrated high school in Harlem, Manhattan. She then received her Bachelor of Arts degree from Long Island University in 1944. In 1946, she received her Master of Arts degree from New York University. She was a Ph.D. candidate at Columbia University, but decided not to finish the psychology degree and instead to pursue a career in acting. Psychology, while not her chosen profession, was a tool she found invaluable in working with people. She began studying theatre at the New School for Social Research in 1946, where she aspired to become an actress. She also studied in the fields of clinical and industrial psychology, and was awarded a scholarship to do postgraduate work at the New School for Social Research in 1948.
Her philosophy of directing and her technique for creating her folk plays reflect similar theories, ideas, and aesthetic principles to those of Bertolt Brecht. She also promoted the principles of Erwin Piscator's "objective style of performance". After working with Piscator, she studied at Strasberg's studio between 1948 and 1950. The juxtaposition of these opposing styles led to Carroll's own technique in creating her new style of folk drama.
Acting career
Carroll's first stage appearance was at the New School for Social Research in 1948. She performed in many of the school's productions, including roles as Clytemnestra in Agamemnon, the Nurse in Romeo and Juliet, and the Duchess in Alice in Wonderland. Carroll made her professional stage debut as a Christian in a summer stock production of George Bernard Shaw's Androcles and the Lion at the Southold Playhouse on Long Island. She played Addie in Lillian Hellman's The Little Foxes and then, in 1949, Bella in Arnaud d'Ussaeu and James Gow's Deep Are the Roots.
In 1955, Carroll joined the faculty of the Performing Arts High School in New York City. She taught theater arts and directed productions as a faculty member at the high school for 11 years. Later, due to a shortage of faculty positions, Carroll created a one-woman show and toured the United States and the West Indies until 1957.