An Octoroon by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins

A Study Guide

Complied by Quincee Mundy

 Table of Contents

What is An Octoroon? 1
About the Playwright 2
Dion Boucicault 3
The Original Play: The Octoroon 4
Victorian Melodrama 5
Miscegenation History 6
Glossary of Terms from the Play 7
Questions and Activities for the Classroom 8
 What is An Octoroon?

An Octoroon by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins is a postmodern adaptation of Dion

Boucicault’s play The Octoroon. The playwright deconstructed the 150-year-old
anti-slavery melodrama play in order to figure out: what would happen if you tried
to stage a play like today and all the white actors quit because they’re
uncomfortable? What if the ghost of Irish playwright Dion Boucicault shows up
drunk to help you put on the show?

While the piece is meta-theatrical, switching deftly between the present day
theatre and the antebellum South, the primary action takes place at the Terrebonne
plantation in Louisiana. The plot surrounds the plantation being up for sale and the
troubling relationship between the new slave owner George and a young woman
named Zoe who is one-eighth black, or “an octoroon.”

The play has won numerous awards such as the 2014 Obie award for Best
New American Play. The New York Times’ Ben Brantley called the play “this
decade’s most eloquent theatrical statement on race in America today.” Chicago
Tribune’s Chris Jones said, “Jacobs-Jenkins writes brilliantly about race in
America, and the cultural legacy employed in the service of tyranny since the
earliest days of this nation. He knows how to curse through stereotypes and rip
apart the fault lines of representation.”
 About the Playwright
Branden Jacobs-Jenkins

Branden Jacobs-Jenkins or “BJJ” is native to

Washington, D.C. He grew up with an unusual ease
when it came to uncomfortable realities of
American racial history. His household was full of
what he refers to as “black memorabilia,” such
“Colored Only” signs, pickaninny dolls, and Jim
Crow posters and postcards which feature rather
offensive images of black caricatures. It was
actually an auction of these items where his parents
first met. Early in his playwright career, he used
this to his advantage when writing plays addressing
themes of race, family, class, and identity. His
earlier plays are characterized by the same images
that filled his childhood home, especially of slavery
and blackface.

Jacobs-Jenkins says, “I think we can’t deny that we are human beings who
feel fear, who feel disgust, and I think the theatre is supposed to be the space where
we rehearse those feelings and feel yourself feel those feelings, make peace with
them, and understand what they’re about.” He is a graduate from Princeton, NYU’s
Tisch School of the Arts, and The Juilliard School’s Playwrights Program. His
awards include the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, Yale University’s Windham-
Campbell Literature Prize in Drama, and a 2016 MacArthur Fellowship. He
currently is a Master Artist-in-Residence for the MFA Playwriting program at
Hunter College.
 Dion Boucicault

Dionysius Lardner Boucicault was born, most likely

the illegitimate son of an encyclopedist and wine merchant,
in December 1820 in Dublin, although the specific date is
unknown. He grew up rather poor, but received a great deal
of schooling, making him a great scholar. But by his early
20s, he had already produced about eighteen plays produced
under his own name. In the fall of 1853, his theatrical career
went international as he debuted in New York and spread
rapidly throughout the nation through tours to different
cities.

Through fifty successful years in theatre, his roles ranged from actor, writer,
manager, and director. His contributions as a playwright included writing more
than 200 plays. Many of his Victorian melodramatic works addressed various
social issues of his day, mainly in the United States, France, Britain, and Ireland. In
America, his most popular plays include The Octoroon (1859), where right before
the start of the American Civil War, Boucicault addressed the sensitive topic of
slavery and interracial relationships. Even with such a hot-button issue, his play
was praised by audiences in both the North and South.
 The Original Play: The Octoroon

The Octoroon, Boucicault’s most controversial and successful play,

premiered at the Winter Garden Theatre, New York in 1859 and transferred to
London at the Adelphi Theatre in 1861. Dion was inspired to create the work after
visiting the American South and reading The Quadroon (1856), a novel by Thomas
Mayne Reid. The play was incredibly popular and kept running continuously for
years by several touring companies. It is considered second only in popularity to
George Aiken’s adaptation of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852).
Both include attempts to create sympathy from white audiences for slaves,
melodramatic spectacle, white actors in blackface, and plots centered around a
female octoroon in the Antebellum period.

A few days before the production’s premiere, the execution of abolitionist

John Brown for his raid on Harper’s Ferry took place. Because of this inciting
event both The Octoroon (and Uncle Tom’s Cabin) are often seen as a helping to
inflame abolitionist settlement. Some major themes include seeing beyond skin
color and the difficulties of the skin color barrier and prejudice. Boucicault’s
sympathy towards the plight of the enslaved differed from most of his American
contemporaries, making the play rather progressive for its day. It even helped
spark debate regarding the role of theatre in politics.
 Victorian Melodrama

Melodrama was the theatrical style that of original play The Octoroon. The
definition of melodrama is a play where the spoken voice is used against or over a
musical background. It is commonly referred to as a “song drama” or “music
drama.” The general plot characteristics can be put into four different categories:
external, extreme, triumphant, and fast.

Melodramatic plays are famous for their extreme and external plots. These
performances were meant to be full of spectacle and accessible for anyone,
regardless of wealth or education. They portrayed strong emotions through
dramatic and outward acting. These emotions took priority over the story and
character development. Death and violence were commonly shown onstage. The
plot devices to stir conflict included mysteries, abductions, disguises, poisons, and
mistaken identity. Stock characters were common most melodramatic plays.
Examples include the funny sidekick to provide comic relief or a threatened
woman.

Another important element is that the action was fast-paced and episodic.
The pace was then sped up with music. Extreme conflict and emotions meant the
conclusions were even more extreme. Despite all the devices and conflict, the
ending nearly always has a heroic rescue right on time.
 History of “Miscegenation Laws” in America
● Anti-miscegenation laws have been incorporated in various states before the United
States was established.

● Miscegenation is defined as “the interbreeding of people considered to be of different

racial types”

● While full of racist and devise implications, these laws were particularly challenging for
people with multi-racial backgrounds. The “one-drop rule” meant that a single drop of
“black blood” made a person black, making it illegal for a person with any non-white
heritage to marry a white person.

Examples:
-The first laws regulating marriage between whites and blacks were in the 1660s in
Virginia and Maryland. It prohibited the marriages of whites with black (and “mulatto” or
biracial) slaves and indentured servants.
-In 1776, seven out of the Thirteen Colonies enforced laws against interracial marriage.
-In 1888, Florida prohibited marriage between “a white person and a person of negro
descent” (Article XVI, Section 24).

● Loving v. Virginia:

○ This Supreme Court case lifted all bans on

interracial marriage once it was ruled unconstitutional.
In 1958, Richard and Mildred Loving married in
Washington, D.C. to avoid Virginia’s anti-
miscegenation law. They were arrested in their
bedroom after returning to Virginia and began a legal
battle in 1963. The Lovings were supported by several
organizations such as the NAACP Legal Defense
Fund, the Japanese American Citizens League and a
coalition of Catholic bishops and won the legal battle.

● Miscegenation in The Octoroon

Due to strong negative feelings of miscegenation and interracial marriages, American audiences
were given a tragic ending for Zoe and George. In England, however, the play performed had a
happy ending with a mixed-race marriage. That an alternate ending had to be made for American
audiences indicate how deep rooted these beliefs are.
Glossary of Terms from the Play
In Order of Appearance in Script

Boucicault: pronounced “Boo-sic-co” (pg. 8)

asphyxiate : kill (someone) by depriving them of air. (pg. 11) (as-fix-ee-ate)

Inconsolable : (of a person or their grief) not able to be comforted or alleviated. (pg. 14)

Convulsing: (of a person) suffer violent involuntary contraction of the muscles,

producing contortion of the body or limbs. (pg. 16)

Regalia: the emblems or insignia of royalty, especially the crown, scepter, and other
ornaments used at a coronation. (pg. 16)

Verandah: a roofed platform along the outside of a house, level with the ground floor.
(pg. 17) like a front porch

Naiveté: lack of experience, wisdom, or judgment. Pronounced “nye-eve-ah-tay” (pg. 19)

Quaint: attractively unusual or old-fashioned. (pg. 20)

Grief-stricken: overcome with deep sorrow. (pg. 20)

Artiste: “artist” in French, pronounced “ar-tise” (pg. 20)

Ouais: “yeah” in French, pronounced “wey” (said quickly) (pg. 20)

Apparatus: the technical equipment or machinery needed for a particular activity or

purpose. (pg. 21) pronounced how it is spelled “app-pah-rah-tus”

Proprietor: the owner of a business, or a holder of property. (pg. 21)

Condescension: an attitude of patronizing superiority; disdain. (pg. 22)

Barroom (style): a room where alcoholic drinks are served over a counter. (pg. 23)
Reverie: a state of being pleasantly lost in one’s thoughts; a daydream. (pg. 23)

Picaninny: a small black child (pg. 23)

Redskin: an American Indian (pg. 23)

Nuisance: a person, thing, or circumstance causing inconvenience or annoyance. (pg. 23)

Ninemoosha: means “my sweetheart” in Alabama

Haughtily: (pg. 25) arrogant and full of pride

Émigré: a person who has left their own country in order to settle in another, usually for
political reasons. (pg. 25) (French origins)

Creole: a person of mixed European and black descent, especially in the Caribbean. (pg.
25)

Thibodeaux: Cajun (French) surname. (pg. 26) pronounced “theb-a-doe”

Tablaeu: a group of models or motionless figures representing a scene from a story or

from history; a tableau vivant. (pg. 27) pronounced “tab-blow”

Vagabond: a person who wanders from place to place without a home or job. (pg. 29)

Immolate: kill or offer as a sacrifice, especially by burning. (pg. 31)

Injun: an American Indian (pg. 32)

Carabine: French carabine, is a long arm firearm but with a shorter barrel than a rifle or
musket. Many carbines are shortened versions of full-length rifles, shooting the same
ammunition, while others fire lower-powered ammunition, including types designed for
pistols. (pg. 32)

Fieldhand: a person who is hired to work on a farm. (pg. 34)

Quadroon: a person who is one-quarter black by descent. (pg. 35)

Purloined: steal (something) (pg. 37)

Negligent: failing to take proper care in doing something. (pg. 38)

Slavish: relating to or characteristic of a slave, typically by behaving in a servile or

submissive way. (pg. 38)

Dilate: make or become wider, larger, or more open. (pg. 43)

Enumerate: mention (a number of things) one by one. (pg. 43)

Sile: a column, pillar, or beam (pg. 43)

Hitherto: until now or until the point in time under discussion. (pg. 45)

Turpentine: a volatile pungent oil distilled from gum turpentine or pine wood, used in
mixing paints and varnishes and in liniment. (pg. 53)
 Questions and Activities for the Classroom

Questions:
● An Octoroon modernizes many of the racial issues that occurred pre-Civil War.
Why do you think it’s important to connect the past with the present in the “post-
racial” world we live in?
●The playwright BJJ puts himself in the play and discusses how often black
writers are expected to write about race just because they are black. Why do you
think this is? Have you ever experienced someone making assumptions about you
or your work based on your race or identity?