Sonic Secrets: Zora Neale Hurston's Experiments in Black Dramaturgical Opacity

Abstract: Though one of the most well-researched figures in Black cultural studies, Zora Neale Hurston has yet to significantly puncture the field of musical theatre studies. Despite authoring approximately fourteen theatrical works (and many of them featuring music prominently), rarely is she situated as a librettist and composer. This essay seeks to reconcile that dearth by examining her 1944 work, Polk County and the way Hurston stages the complexities of Black Southern community. This essay uses the approach of performative writing to engage Hurston's sonic archive, courtesy of her work with the Works Progress Administration, to demonstrate how she utilizes the form of music theatre to keep Black secrets. I call this method Black dramaturgy, an artistic practice of worldbuilding and form, where Hurston uses the reality of Black life to create and envision a Black world. Employing Black feminist thought, Black performance theory, and sound studies, I argue that Black dramaturgy through sound and embodiment cultivates a theatrical structure that both reveals and conceals Black secrets.