Black Excellence
History is more than a record of events – even a record of important events, since what is “important” depends on the opinion of the the person making the record. As we in hip hop put it, “who lives, who dies, who tells your story.”
The second blog for black theater history month is not, “this event in black theater history happened,” like those we are posting about daily on our social media. Rather it is about those things that are rare and spectacular. Events of black theater history excellence. Achievements that will never be surpassed.
I’ll point out one here, and in next weeks blog I’ll mention another – so stay tuned.
An Actor of Unsurpassed Excellence
The event of excellence in today’s blog are the accomplishments of the actor Audra McDonald.
At the moment, no other actor has won more Tony awards. She has won six, and four wins is the next closest. (So in this generation her record is probably safe, unless someone wins more than six.)
There are, however, only four categories of acting awards: lead actor in a play, supporting actor in a play, lead actor in a musical and supporting actor in a musical. She is the only actor to win in all four categories. No other actor can beat that, they can only tie it – and she was the first.
Let us know if you have any suggestions for this, and check back next week for who or what our second event of excellence is.