Ernie McClintock papers

This collection contains the papers of Ernie McClintock (1937-2003), an American director, producer, actor, writer, teacher, and theatre artist who was a major force in the Black Arts Movement. He taught acting to hundreds of students across the country and directed award-winning plays in Harlem, New York (1960-1989), and Richmond, Virginia (1989-2003). The McClintock papers are a living archive for future drama students and communities interested in Black theatre. They represent the works and dreams of a Black and Gay theatre director who persisted in giving voice to the Black and multicultural communities where he lived. His work spanned beyond one dimensional categories, and he was well-known behind the scenes with famous actors, directors, and playwrights, and was the recipient of seven prestigious Audelco awards for excellence in Black theater. He worked with Tupac Shakur, Ossie Davis, James Earl Jones, Felicia Rashad, Morgan Freeman, Lou Gossett, Jr., Dr. Walter Turnbull, Woody King, Jr. and others. McClintock was committed to world class excellence in theatre and to introducing more Black theatre productions to the community. He directed over two hundred performances from classics like A Raisin in the Sun to Tupac Shakur's Rose Grew Out of Cement, and new plays written by young playwrights and actors like Derome Scott Smith in R.I.O.T. or Jerome Hairston. His personal papers and theatre papers are combined because his life and family were inseparable from the theatre. He also won the Billy Graham artistic excellence award in 2002. (There are two scripts in the collection written by Billy Graham about Martin Luther King, Jr. in Memphis). Too expansive to put in one category, anyone studying Black Theatre Arts will repeatedly come across the exemplary work of Ernie McClintock.

One of the highlights of the collection are McClintock’s personal notebooks (over a hundred journals) that lay out his driving passion to create a world-class, first-rate theatre and his commitment to live in a world of honesty, pure intention, and love. The journals also contain many personal peptalks that he wrote to inspire himself to keep working toward his goals. He developed his own "Jazz Style Acting Technique" where actors imagine the character beyond the script to become the person in the play. His lesson plans include a series of questions and exercises that require the actor to discover himself as an actor and in character. He taught Black actors how to express themselves using their own Black experiences instead of the general acting techniques that were based on white experiences. His colleagues remarked that once an actor had worked with Ernie McClintock, their life and acting was transformed. He was a taskmaster that demanded commitment and excellence and his legacy was the improvement of individual actors and the promotion of Black theatre in communities. The reward was love for each other, and the investment of full emotional expression, and dynamic physical movement in theatre which could be healing to a community that has been so greatly ignored and mistreated.

The collection also includes personal and professional correspondence, financial documents, contracts, and manuscript notes which represent a significant piece of Ernie McClintock's creative output. There are also scripts and typescripts of plays McClintock produced and collected. The collection also contains newspaper clippings, reviews, articles, awards, promotional materials, playbills, programs, photographs, and audiovisual materials documenting his life and work.

McClintock started the Afro-American Actors Studio for Acting and Speech in New York City, and the Jazz Actors Theatre in Richmond, Virginia and he also worked with the community to create outstanding theatre productions, including the National Black Theatre Festival. His time was consumed with directing, teaching, fundraising, and writing drafts of promotional literature for events and workshops to promote theatre and excellence.

Also included are casting files which include headshots, resumes, and other casting/booking documents from McClintock-affiliated productions, and production files which contain programs and contract agreements for McClintock's productions. Many of the actors from the Afro-American Acting Studio in New York, followed McClintock to his Jazz Actors Theatre in Richmond, Virginia. They include Thaddeus Daniels, Joan Green, Helen Butler, Valerie Drummond, Lee Cooper, Hazel Smith, d. l. Hopkins, Leonard Wilson, Janice Jenkins, Jessie Holmes, Ed Broaddus, Jerome Preston Bates, Antonio Charity, J. Ron Fleming, Lee Levy Simon and many more. Other actors and theatre directors mentioned are Derome Scott Smith, Randy Strawderman, Mary Hodges, Mary Sue Carroll, Zaria Griffin, Bolanye Edwards, and Dr. Cumber Dance.

Included in the collection is information about and from Ronald "Ronn" Tyrone Walker, McClintock's long-time partner and technical director. Walker, an artist in his own right, received three Audelco awards for his amazing work with free standing scene designs and lighting.

The photographic materials document performances, rehearsals, events, and McClintock's personal life, and the life of Ronn Walker. The bulk of the photographs are in color, taken in Richmond circa 1991-2003. There are photographs of Ernie McClintock with Tupac Shakur. There is also a photograph of Sammy Davis, Jr. with the Boys Choir of Harlem, a contact sheet with James (J. J.) Walker (Dyn-O-mite from Good Times television show), and many photographs of playwrights, directors, and actors of note.

The A-V materials include audiocassette tapes where one can hear the voice of Ernie McClintock, and mostly mixtapes of music, and the reel-to-reel audiotapes including interviews and audio for performances and lesson plans from the Afro-American Actors Studio for Acting and Speech. There is one CD-R containing a Microsoft Publisher file (of an artist wanting to share her work with Ernie McClintock.)