MOLETTE, CARLTON W.
Carlton W. and Barbara J. Molette papers, 1937-2015 (bulk 1970s-1990s)

Restrictions on Access

Special restrictions apply: Use copies have not been made for audiovisual material in this collection. Researchers must contact the Rose Library in advance for access to this material.

Terms Governing Use and Reproduction

All requests subject to limitations noted in departmental policies on reproduction.

Separated Material

Emory University also holds a number of play scripts, written by other playwrights and sent to the Molettes. These materials have been removed and placed in the Camille Billops and James V. Hatch archives at Emory University.

Some printed items from this collection have been cataloged individually. These materials may be located in the Emory University online catalog by searching for Molette, Carlton W. and Barbara J, former owners.

Source

Gift, 2008, with subsequent additions.

Citation

[after identification of item(s)], Carlton W. and Barbara J. Molette papers, Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library, Emory University.

Processing

Processed by Laura Starratt, Will Love, and Michael Camp, February 2014.

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Biographical Note

Carlton Woodard Molette (1939-) was born in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, to Carlton and Evelyn (Richardson) Molette. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia, a Master of Arts degree from the University of Iowa, and a Ph.D. from Florida State University. Barbara Jean Molette (1940-) was born in Los Angeles, California, to Baxter R. Roseburr and Nora L. Johnson. She received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Florida A & M University, a Master of Fine Arts degree from Florida State University, and a Ph.D from the University of Missouri. Carlton and Barbara were married in 1960 and have two children: Carla E. Molette-Ogden and Andrea R. Molette.

The Molettes are a husband-and-wife team of playwrights who have worked in partnership for most of their careers. Together they created a well-established corpus of Afrocentric Theatre including the musical Doctor B. S. Black in 1969 which was produced in Atlanta in collaboration with Charles Mann. Other works include Rosalee Pritchett (1970), a one-act play about a well-to-do African American woman critical of the black revolutionary movement; Booji (1971), a play about a lawyer who questions his purpose in life as the African American community becomes devastated by drugs; Fortunes of the Moor (1995), a sequel to Shakespeare's Othello; and Prudence (2007), a play based on the 1832 closing of a Connecticut school that admitted African American girls. Their plays have been produced by theatre companies including The Negro Ensemble Company and the Frank Silvera Writers’ Workshop in New York, ETA in Chicago, The Free Southern Theatre in New Orleans, Rites and Reason in Providence, Kuntu in Pittsburgh, Miami’s M Ensemble, and Abibigromma, the national theatre company of Ghana.

In addition to their writing careers, the Molettes have served as faculty in a number of university theatre departments. Carlton Molette served on the faculties of Spelman College and Atlanta University in Atlanta; Howard University in Washington, D.C.; and Florida A & M University in Tallahassee. He was also the founding dean of the School of Communications at Texas Southern University in Houston (1975-1984); the dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Lincoln University in Missouri; Professor of Dramatic Arts and Senior Fellow, Institute for African American Studies at the University of Connecticut; and vice president for Academic Affairs at Coppin State University in Baltimore, Maryland. Barbara Molette taught at Spelman College, Texas Southern University, and Baltimore City Community College. She is also the former chair of the English Department at Eastern Connecticut State University.

The Molettes are also involved in a number of professional organizations. They are founding members of the American Theatre Association’s Black Theatre Program and the Black Theatre Network, and both are past presidents of the National Conference on African American Theatre. Barbara was administrative fellow for the Mid-Missouri Associated Colleges and Universities and director of arts in education programs for the Mayor’s Advisory Committee on Art and Culture in Baltimore. Carlton served as guest director for University of Michigan performances and as seminar leader at the University of Iowa’s Afro-American Summer Drama Institute. The couple work as consultants for universities, colleges, theatre companies, government agencies, and businesses, and they have served on the boards of arts organizations in Atlanta, Baltimore, and Houston.

Scope and Content Note

The collection consists of audiovisual material, correspondence, photographs, printed material, professional papers, subject files, and writings of African American playwriting and theatre professionals, Carlton W. and Barbara J. Molette. Audiovisual material includes video recordings of performances of the Molettes' plays including Doctor B. S. Black, Booji, and Fortunes of the Moor as well as plays directed by Carlton Molette including August Wilson's Fences. Other video recordings include interviews, lectures, and award ceremonies honoring the Molettes.

Correspondence is both professional and personal. The majority of the correspondence is written by or to Carlton, including letters of recommendation written by Molette for former students and other colleagues. There are also invitations to government officials to attend performances of Molette's plays, letters from university presidents, and material related to Molette's prospective 1978 appointment as Panelist for the National Endowment for the Arts. Correspondence created in conjunction with performances is located along with the scripts for those performances. Correspondence originally filed with subject files or professional records is kept with those records.

Photographs include performance stills of the Molettes' plays, mainly Fortunes of the Moor, but there are also photographs of the Molettes themselves, including some of Barbara and her colleagues in 1994 and several photographs circa 1960s and 1970s that show the Molettes working together. Printed material includes magazines and journals, some student art publications, various playbills and handbills, and newspaper clippings of reviews of the Molettes' plays, articles by and about the Molettes, and annotated articles. Topics focus mainly on African American theatre, culture, and politics. Printed material also contains their research for a book on makeup methods for African American actors.

Other professional papers consist of costume and set designs created by the Molettes, materials relating to Carlton's consulting work for university theatre departments and government organizations, publication submissions and rejections, and the Molettes' professional development activities at conferences and workshops. There is also material relating to Carlton's work with other African American scholars to create university curricula in the field of African American studies in the 1970s. The subject files include a wide variety of background and research materials relating to the Molettes' professional activity. These materials contain documents from arts festivals attended by the Molettes, exchange programs between American universities and African universities, and various theatre publications in which the Molettes were involved. The Molettes also assembled subject files on playwrights, poets, directors, actors, and other artists that they had known personally or were otherwise interested in.

Writings consist primarily of scripts for plays the Molettes wrote along with production scripts of plays produced or directed by Carlton. There are also drafts of academic, professional, and public lectures given by Carlton, drafts of scholarly essays, files relating to productions of the Molettes' work, and the Molettes' graduate school dissertations and theses. Also included is a phone interview conducted with Barbara Molette in which she describes her family background and early professional life.

Arrangement Note

Arranged by record type.