No Strings: The Process of Rediscovery and Discovery Through a 1962 Musical

Abstract

For my Senior Project (performance concentration), I performed the role of Mike Robinson in the musical No Strings. Debuting on Broadway in 1962, No Strings was controversial because it featured a black female lead character living in Paris and her love affair with a white man. Along with a deep reflection into my process working on the production, I also include a research paper on the European fetishization of the black female body as a way to explore what the 1960s Paris that is depicted in No Strings might have been like for a real African American woman.