Robbie McCauley facts for kids

Robbie Doris McCauley (born July 14, 1942 – died May 20, 2021) was an American artist. She was a playwright, director, performer, and professor. McCauley is famous for her plays and other works. These works talked about racism in the United States. She also encouraged her audiences to join in discussions about her art.

McCauley performed in Ntozake Shange's 1976 Broadway play For Colored Girls Who Have Considered *** / When the Rainbow Is Enuf. She was a professor at Emerson College from 2001 until she retired in 2013.

Growing Up

Robbie McCauley was born in Norfolk, Virginia, on July 14, 1942. Her father, Robert, was in the military. Her mother, Alice (Borders) McCauley, worked for the government. Robbie spent her childhood living in both Washington, D.C. and Columbus, Georgia. She earned her first degree from Howard University in 1963. Later, she got a master's degree from New York University.

Her Career in Theater

In New York, McCauley became very interested in theater. She liked both new, experimental plays and plays by African-American artists. In the late 1960s, she trained at the Negro Ensemble Company in New York City. This company focused on Black theater.

From the 1970s, she worked as a playwright, director, and actress. She worked on many projects in New York and other places. She was part of the cast for Ntozake Shange's 1976 play For Colored Girls Who Have Considered *** / When the Rainbow Is Enuf on Broadway. This experience inspired her to create plays about her own life.

McCauley's most well-known work is Sally's ***. It won an Obie Award in 1991 for best new American play. She also won a Bessie Award in 1990 for her performance in it. Other important works include Sugar and a series of three plays. These plays were Mississippi Freedom, Turf, and The Other Weapon.

McCauley's work often explored racism in the United States. She wanted her plays to help people from different backgrounds talk about race. She hoped that people could "have a good time with material that's charged and uncomfortable."

Besides her theater work, McCauley taught at several colleges. These included City College of New York and Hunter College. She joined Emerson College in 2001. She was the first Black faculty member there to get tenure without a discrimination lawsuit. She taught at Emerson until 2013, when she became a professor emerita.

Important Plays

The Trilogy of Plays

Mississippi Freedom is the first of three plays McCauley created in the 1990s. These plays looked at race relations in the U.S. during the 1960s and 1970s. Mississippi Freedom focused on the fight for voting rights.

McCauley worked with a group called Arts Company and local artists. These artists had personal connections to the voting rights movement. The plays used different art forms, like music. They also invited the audience to stay after the show and talk with the actors. Mississippi Freedom toured around Mississippi in 1992. It was also shown in New York in 1993 and Texas in 1996.

Turf: A Conversational Concert in Black and White was the second play. It was about the Boston school busing controversy. McCauley spent a year interviewing people in Boston for the play. Turf was performed in four different neighborhoods in Boston in 1993.

The last play in the series was The Other Weapon. It told stories about the Black Panther Party. It also explored community power and law enforcement in Los Angeles. This play was shown in four locations in LA in 1994.

Sugar

Sugar first came out in 2012. It was based on McCauley's own life with diabetes. She was diagnosed with it in her twenties. In the play, McCauley talked about and showed the challenges of living with diabetes. She even drew her own blood or injected insulin on stage. She connected the topic to slavery, using the image of sugar cane.

The first performance of Sugar was put on by ArtsEmerson. This is an organization at Emerson College. A reviewer from The Boston Globe said McCauley was a "skilled performer." He noted that she knew how to talk with her audience, not just to them.

Other Creative Works

Indian Blood used McCauley's family history. It used video to let her play many different characters. This play was first performed in 1987. It was inspired by her grandfather. He was part of the 10th Cavalry Regiment. These soldiers were known as buffalo soldiers. They fought in the Spanish–American War.

Persimmon Peel was a play she created with Laurie Carlos. Carlos was also in For Colored Girls. This play was performed in Minneapolis in 1990. The two performers shared short stories and memories. They created a picture of Black life in the United States.

McCauley performed Love and Race in the United States Revisited in 1999. This was a work-in-progress shown in Hartford. She had just joined the faculty at Trinity College.

In 2015, McCauley performed Jazz'n Class. This was part of an evening of new works at Boston Playwrights' Theatre. It won an IRNE (Independent Reviewers of New England) Award for Solo Performance.

Awards and Recognition

• For Sugar: IRNE (Independent Reviewers of New England) Award for Solo Performance (2013)
• For Jazz'n Class: IRNE Award for Solo Performance (2016)
• For Sally's ***: Obie Award, Best New American Play (1991); Bessie Award for Outstanding Achievement in Performance (1990)
• USA Ford Fellow for Theater Arts (2012)

Personal Life

In 1979, Robbie McCauley married Ed Montgomery, a musician. They had a daughter named Jessie Montgomery, who is now a composer. Ed Montgomery wrote music for some of McCauley’s plays. They divorced in 1996.

Robbie McCauley passed away on May 20, 2021. She was living with her sister in Silver Spring, Maryland. She was 78 years old. The cause of her death was congestive heart failure.