"Eulalie Spence" [June 11,1894-March 7,1981]

Was an African American female writer,actress, and playwright from the British West Indies.She was an influential member of the Harlem Renaissance.W.E.B. Du Bois,founder of  The Crisis,the monthly journal of the NAACP.,surmised that Black Drama must be built from scratch,by Blacks for a Black theatre.Through the Crisis,he founded Krigwa he founded Krigwa (Crisis Guild of Writers and Artists),originally Crigwa.Krigwa sponsored a yearly literary contest which included a playwrighting completion and fostered a theatre company,the Krigwa Players which rehearsed and performed at the 135th St.branch of the New Work Public Library.Frequent contest winners in the drama area included Eulalie Spence...In 1927,Fool's Errand competed in the Fifth Annual International Little Theatre Tournament,a first for Blacks since the finalists competed in a Broadway theatre...The Krigwa Players won one of four $ 200.00 prizes and the play was published by Samuel French.Eulalie and W.E.B. didn't see eye to eye,artistically or politically.W.E.B. took the $200.00 prize money and used it to reimburse production expenses and paid neither the actors nor Eulalie.The Krigwa Players disbanded as a result.Politically,W.E.B. felt that theatre should be used as a vehicle for propaganda to advance the cause of American Negro.She on the other hand,always very aware of the fact that she was not African American but rather from the West Indies,had a different outlook regarding theatre.Eulalie felt that theatre was a place to be entertained and not antagonized by the problems of society."The white man is cold an unresponive  to this subject and the Negro,himself,is hurt and humilated by it.We go to the theatre for entainment,not to have old fires and hates rekindled.The plays of Eulalie helped to make a name for the Krigwa Players amongst both Black and white critics.Eulalie her opened Krigwa Player's second season.Her sister Olga Spence was an actress with the Krigwa Players.Critic William E. Clarke wrote in the NewYork Age,"Her...was by far the best of the bill.It was a ghost story and was written with such skill that it rose to the heights of a three-act tragedy that might have been written by a Eugene [O'Neil].She died in Gettysburg,Pennsylvania.