A Guide to the Sterling Houston Papers, 1926-2006

Biographical Note

Sterling Houston was born in San Antonio in 1943. Houston attended Los Angeles City College before dropping out in 1964 to study acting in New York. He worked as an actor Off-Broadway and was involved with the Playhouse of Ridiculous theater. In 1968 Houston moved to San Francisco with Larry Neal, his partner and collaborator. For the next seven years they performed as the rock and roll band, Fleshtones. In 1978, Houston returned to theater and began working at the Magic Theatre as a stage technician, staff technician, actor and advisor on issues of African-American and gay sensitivity. In 1981, panicked by health issues, Houston returned to San Antonio to join the family real estate business.

After returning to San Antonio, Houston became involved with the local community and professional theater companies as an actor, director and producer. In 1983, encouraged by a residency with George C. Wolfe, Houston began to write plays. In 1985 he was commissioned by the San Antonio Museum of Art to create a work about the Harlem Renaissance, which became the musical, A'Lelia. Houston joined Jump-Start Performance Company, a not-for-profit presenting and producing theater company, dedicated to the exploration of alternative viewpoints in performance, in 1988 and worked as performer, writer-in-residence, administrative director and artistic director over the next 18 years, premiering 30 plays in that time. His theatrical works in that time include: Relationships: Good and Not So Good, a collaboration with dancer Blondell Cummings, which toured nationally; La Frontera, about a Latino family moving into San Antonio's historically black East Side; High Yello' Rose, an all-female musical retelling of the myths of traditional Texas history toured to Austin, after a successful run in San Antonio; Isis in Nubia , an epic re-telling of the myths of ancient Egypt; Santo Negro, a mixed-media musical around events in the life of 16th century African saint, Martin de Porres; On the Pulse of the Morning , a collaboration with poet Maya Angelou for a cast of nine speakers and four singers; Black Lily, White Lily a domestic farce chosen to open Cleveland Public Theatre’s Festival of New Plays; The Alien Show/Kool Jams ‘99 , a play with music dealing with aliens, alienation, and the coming millennium; Message Sent , a short play commissioned by the Actor's Theater of Louisville’s Humana Fest; Cameoland , a musical history of San Antonio's African American community before integration; Miranda Rites, a surrealistic tragicomedy. His plays are known for their biting social commentary, burlesque humor, and intensive musical ideas.

Houston did not limit himself to theater and published several works of prose including "Moan Your Mourners," a semi-autobiographical novella published in 1994 by La Voz De Esperanza in San Antonio. His first novel, Le Griffon, was a re-telling of the Frankenstein myth set in ante-bellum New Orleans and published by Pecan Grove Press in 1999. A volume of Houston’s selected plays titled Four Plays by Sterling Houston was published in 1998 by Urban Communications, Inc. and rereleased in 2005 by University of North Texas Press as Myth, Magic, and Farce: Four Multicultural Plays Houston's was working on The Secret Oral Teachings of the Sacred Walking Blues, a fictionalized family history based on family stories, and his own experiences in New York, San Francisco and San Antonio, at the time of his death.

Sterling Houston received numerous honors and accolades throughout his theatrical career. He earned the Individual Artist Grant from the Department of Arts and Cultural Affairs, City of San Antonio three times, and was one of only a few Texans to receive a commissioning grant from the Mid-America Arts Alliance. He was chosen “Artist of the Year” in 1991 by the San Antonio Business Committee for the Arts and in 1992 by the San Antonio Light. In 1997, Houston was the recipient of the prestigious Arts and Letters Award from the San Antonio Public Library, given for outstanding contributions to the arts and cultural life of San Antonio. High Yello' Rose was nominated for seven Alamo Theater Arts Council Globe awards in 1993, winning two, for Best Original Score, and Best New Script. Houston was one of two local recipients of a New Forms Regional Initiative Grant (NFRIG) funded by the Rockefeller Foundation, the Andy Warhol Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts, for the commissioning of Santo Negro, which also received a grant from Art Matters, Inc., and was selected by The Art Institute of Chicago to be a part of The Americas: Zones of Contact series in spring of 1995. In 1997 the State of Texas Legislature recognized Sterling Houston with a citation for his outstanding contributions to the cultural life of the state. Houston received a Rockefeller MAP (Multi-Arts Production fund) grant for research and development of Cameoland, which was presented in collaboration with the Carver Community Cultural Center in 2003 and was cited by the San Antonio Express News as one of the ten best plays of that year.

Houston lectured and presented on his work in theater at colleges and institutions in Chicago, New York, London, Boston, Cleveland, New Orleans, Dallas, Austin and San Antonio. He served as a peer review panelist for the states of Nevada, Georgia and Texas, and presented on panels for the National Endowment for the Arts, Grantmakers in the Arts, Outwrite, College Art Association, and The Art Institute of Chicago, and the Association of Theater in Higher Education. Houston was also involved in community projects, including the clean-up of Ellis Alley in east San Antonio and the Founding Mothers Mural and the McCreless Library Project. He died in November 2006.

_{Sources: Sterling Houston Biography 1945-2006. Jump-Start Blog, http://jump-start.org/?p=191; Hennessy, Keith. "Jump-Start Performance Co.: Interview with Sterling Houston." Community Arts Network; and Paddie, Dennis. Sterling Houston Walkin’ His Blues. The Gay and Lesbian Review, vol. 14, no. 2.}

Return to the Table of Contents

Scope and Content Note

The Sterling Houston Papers primarily document Houston's involvement in the San Antonio theater community through scripts, screenplays, programs, and press materials of his theatrical works. Also present are materials related to the many projects Houston was involved with. The collection has been arranged into six series: Correspondence, Works, Projects, Other Materials, Personal and Family, and Other Media.

Correspondence provides limited coverage, primarily documenting the last few years of Houston's life including e-mail print-outs.

Works are grouped by genre and arranged by title. Cover of works varies, ranging from a sole script to the inclusion of supporting documentation, such as: programs, press releases, photographs, and research materials. All materials related to an individual work are arranged together, except Le Griffon which was a work of prose adapted into a theatrical production. The original prose manuscript can be found in Prose subseries of the Works series while the stage adaptation and related documentation are in Theatrical subseries of the Works series. Coverage of Houston's theaterical career in San Antonio is fairly thorough, including a few unproduced scripts. It is assumed that all artwork in the Artwork subseries was created by Houston.

Projects contains documentation relating to Houston's many community and theatrical projects. Most heavily documented is his involvement with Fleshtones and Jump-Start Production Company. Fleshtones materials span the existence of the band and include lyrics, press materials and photographs. Jump-Start materials document projects with company-wide participation and include a few stage productions. Absent are administrative materials concerning Jump-Start.

Other Materials consists of assorted materials, including biographical information, press about Houston and his work, contracts, assorted event programs, certificates and awards as well as research materials, notes and works by others. Files in the Research subseries primarily consist of collected articles and clippings on a subject. The bulk of the Notes subseries are unidentified and undated notebooks. A few loose notes were present.

Personal and family consists of assorted documents related related to Houston's personal life, including childhood memorabilia and ephemera, his wedding certificate, and family funeral programs and obituaries. Also present are photographs, including portraits of Houston and family.

Other media consists of a small collection of phonograph records, floppy disk, which are primarily unreadable, and audiovisual materials, which include recorded stage productions and interviews.

Return to the Table of Contents

Return to the Table of Contents

Restrictions

Access Restrictions

Researchers are required to wear gloves provided by the Archives when reviewing photographic materials.

Original audiovisual and electronic materials are closed to patron use. Four photographs are closed pending conservation work.

Usage Restrictions

Permission to publish material from the Sterling Houston Papers must be obtained from the University of Texas at San Antonio Archives.

Return to the Table of Contents

Return to the Table of Contents

Administrative Information

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], Sterling Houston Papers, 1926-2006 (bulk 1976-2006), MS 218, Archives and Special Collections, University of Texas at San Antonio Library.

Acquisition Information

Received as a purchase from Sterling Houston in 2006 (Acc. 2006-048).

Processing Information

Collection was processed in May 2008 by Nikki Lynn Thomas, Manuscripts Archivist.

Return to the Table of Contents

Detailed Description of the Collection

Return to the Table of Contents

Return to the Table of Contents

Return to the Table of Contents

Return to the Table of Contents

Return to the Table of Contents

Return to the Table of Contents