Editing The Emperor Jones (section)

==Productions==

===1920 premiere===
''The Emperor Jones'' was first staged on November 1, 1920, by the [[Provincetown Players]] at the [[Provincetown Playhouse]] in New York City.<ref>[http://www.eoneill.com/reviews/jones_frank.htm "'The Emperor Jones' by Eugene O’Neill]. Reviewed by Glenda Frank, Eoneill.com.</ref> [[Charles Sidney Gilpin]], a respected leading man from the all-black [[Harlem Renaissance theater companies|Lafayette Players]] of [[Lafayette Theatre (Harlem)|Harlem]], was the first actor to play the role of Brutus Jones on stage. There was some conflict over Gilpin's tendency to change O'Neill's use of the word "nigger" to Negro and colored during the play. This production was O'Neill's first real smash hit. The Players' small theater was too small to cope with audience demand for tickets, and the play was transferred to another theater. It ran for 204 performances and was hugely popular, touring in the States with this cast for the next two years.
<gallery mode="packed" heights="160px">
File:Gilpin-The-Emperor-Jones-1920-5.jpg|Brutus Jones (Charles S. Gilpin, left) at a slave auction (Scene 5)
File:Gilpin-The-Emperor-Jones-1920-3.jpg|Under the spell of hallucination, Jones fires at the wraiths of an auctioneer and a Southern planter (Scene 5)
File:Gilpin-The-Emperor-Jones-1920-4.jpg|Jones (right) wastes one of his precious bullets on the apparition of a witch doctor (Scene 7)
</gallery>

===1925 revival===
Although Gilpin continued to perform the role of Brutus Jones in the US tour that followed the Broadway closing of the play, he eventually had a falling out with O'Neill. Gilpin wanted O'Neill to remove the word "nigger," which occurred frequently in the play, but the playwright felt its use was consistent with his dramatic intentions. Further, O'Neill defended the language as consistent with the behavior and speech of Adam Scott, the character's inspiration.<ref>Gelb, ''O'Neill, Life with Monte Cristo'' (2000), pp. 349–350.</ref> When they could not come to a reconciliation, O'Neill replaced Gilpin with the young and then unknown [[Paul Robeson]], who previously had only performed on the concert stage. Robeson starred in the title role in the 1925 New York revival (28 performances) and later in the London production.

Robeson starred in the summer production in 1941 at the Ivoryton Playhouse, Ivoryton, Ct.

===1926 revival===
The show was again revived in 1926 at the Mayfair Theatre in Manhattan, with Gilpin again starring as Jones and also co-directing the show with [[James Light (director)|James Light]]. The production, which ran for 61 performances, is noted for the acting debut of a young [[Moss Hart]] as Smithers.

===Federal Theatre Project===
[[File:Poster-The-Emperor-Jones-Marionettes-1937.jpg|thumb|Poster for a 1937 [[Federal Theater Project]] production of ''The Emperor Jones'']]
The [[Federal Theatre Project]] of the [[Works Progress Administration]] launched several productions of the play in cities across the United States, including a production with marionettes in [[Los Angeles]] in 1938.<ref>{{cite web | title=Federal Theatre (Memory) | work=American Treasures of the Library of Congress | url=https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/treasures/trm017.html | publisher=Library of Congress | year=2008 | access-date=February 16, 2009}}</ref>

===Recent productions===
In 1980 [[Richard Negri]] directed a production at the [[Royal Exchange, Manchester]] with [[Pete Postlethwaite]] and Albie Woodington.

[[The Wooster Group]] started to develop a production of the play in 1992 through a series of [[Work in process|work in progress]] showings. The finished piece opened in 1993 at [[Performing Garage|The Performing Garage]].<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1997/03/30/theater/a-quiet-soho-troupe-makes-a-raid-uptown.html|title=A Quiet SoHo Troupe Makes a Raid Uptown|last=Shewey|first=Don|date=1997-03-30|work=The New York Times|access-date=2019-10-28|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331}}</ref> As part of its [[Postdramatic theatre|postdramatic]] aesthetics, this staging was notable for having an actor play the part of Jones who was female, white, and performed in blackface ([[Kate Valk]]). Blackface had been a suggestion for the original production, which O'Neill vetoed.

In 2005 [[Thea Sharrock]] directed the play, with [[Paterson Joseph]] in the title role, for the [[Bush Theatre]] in London.  The audience looked down into a sand-filled pit.  The claustrophic effect was admired by [[Michael Billington (critic)|Michael Billington]]<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2007/aug/29/theatre1|title=The Emperor Jones|last=Billington|first=Michael|date=29 August 2007|website=The Guardian}}</ref> among others.  The production transferred to the Olivier auditorium at [[Royal National Theatre|The National Theatre]], London, in 2007.

New York's [[Irish Repertory Theatre]] staged a 2009 revival, which received positive reviews. [[John Douglas Thompson]] portrayed Jones.