Playbill for Topdog/Underdog: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

Playbill, volume 118, number 3, featuring the play, "Topdog/Underdog," written by Suzan-Lori Parks, directed by George C. Wolfe, starring Mos Def and Jeffrey Wright, and performed at the Ambassador Theatre, New York, 2002. The top third of the cover is the masthead, a yellow rectangular field with black type with the magazine's title, [PLAYBILL ®] above the text [AMBASSADOR THEATRE]. Below the masthead is a white field outlined in black, with a black-and-white illustration depicting a frontal view of a bulldog’s head above the same image upside-down. Dividing the two illustrations is the title of the play, which is also the main coverline, is written in two black-outlined boxes in black-and-white text, [TOP DOG / UNDERDOG]. The word “Underdog” is written upside-down. The playbill website is printed at the bottom of the front cover. The back cover features an ad for Target Stores. All of the pages are glossy and bound together with staples. Most of the interior pages are off-white with black type with black-and-white images and color images. The magazine has fifty (50) pages.

Materials, dates and provenance

• Date: March 2002
• Published by: Playbill, American, founded 1884
• Edited by: Judy Samuelson
• Subject of: Suzan-Lori Parks, American, born 1963
• Subject of: George Costello Wolfe, American, born 1954
• Subject of: Mos Def, American, born 1973
• Subject of: Jeffrey Wright, American, born 1965
• Subject of: Ambassador Theatre, American, founded 1928
• Type: theater programs
• Medium: ink on paper with metal
• Dimensions: H x W x D (Closed): 8 7/16 × 5 3/8 × 1/16 in. (21.5 × 13.6 × 0.2 cm)
• Dimensions: H x W x D (Open): 8 7/16 × 10 1/2 × 11/16 in. (21.5 × 26.7 × 1.8 cm)
• Place used: New York City, New York, United States, North and Central America
• Topic: African American
• Topic: Actors
• Topic: Broadway Theatre
• Topic: Families
• Topic: Poverty
• Topic: Race discrimination
• Topic: Theatre companies
• Object number: 2015.64.13
• Credit Line: Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gift of Kathleen M. Kendrick
• Data Source: National Museum of African American History and Culture

Sources and reuse

Catalogue descriptions and facts adapted from National Museum of African American History and Culture through the Smithsonian's official Open Access dataset. This record explicitly marks its metadata CC0 1.0; formatting and selection have been changed. The underlying object's rights statement is: Playbill used by permission. All rights reserved, Playbill Inc Permission required for use. Proper usage is the responsibility of the user.