Eugene O'Neill's "The Emperor Jones" opened the 1920-21 season and was an overnight hit. The cast was led by Charles Gilpin, who was the first African-American professional actor to perform with a primarily white company in the United States. Alexander Woollcott in "The New York Times" said that "The Emperor Jones" was an "extraordinarily striking and dramatic study of panic fear.” O’Neill's play “reinforces the impression that for strength and originality he has no rival among American writers for the stage.”