Ernie McClintock and the Jazz Actors Family

In Ernie McClintock and the Jazz Actors Family: Reviving the Legacy Cizmar excavates the practices of Black Arts Movement activist and acting teacher Ernie McClintock's ground breaking acting techniques which de-centered Stanislavski based approaches to actor training to combine African and African American experiential aesthetics with voice work centered in jazz music, yoga, karate, and African movement. Cizmar deftly explores McClintock's common sense or jazz acting methods to illuminate his powerful social justice agenda used in many regional black theatres across the country during the Black Arts Movement and beyond. Cizmar's beautiful book makes McClintock's archive feel urgent and resonant in the 21st century as Black theater artists around the world ask for accountability and legibility within the mainstream theater landscape. Cizmar's descriptive prose and archival research are coupled in a fascinating account of 20th century Black acting methods that challenged the American actor training repertoire. Cizmar's thoughtful analysis leaves the reader asking how McClintock's work could be erased from the history of American actor training. The book is a must read for any artist, scholar, or theater enthusiast interested in the early practices of anti-racist theater and the struggles for equity and representation of Black artists in the American theater. Nicole Hodges Persley, Associate Professor of American Studies and African and African American Studies, University of Kansas