Tag Archive | Race
Is this ok?
Brenna and Molly, a young couple living in Bushwick host an “all-female, politically minded meet-up” with their closest friends, which are mostly cis, white, lesbians. At the meet-up party, there were women decorating protest signs, making giant vaginas that have multiple vulvas out of fabric in “52 shades of magenta,” and drinking wine and beer. […]
A Love Letter To Caryl Churchill
Dear Caryl, I know, I know, it’s been far too long. I think I was sixteen last time we saw each other, and then briefly two years ago in a dramatic literature class. And each time, young people aren’t quite sure what to do with you, but they’re fascinated. After having explored the world of […]
Excavating Whiteness 1
As an artist, I have come to learn that my moral compass drives most of my creative decisions. Coming from a hill town community in Western Massachusetts and attending a performing arts charter school that offered ELA electives focused on race informed my perspective in ways I’m grateful for to this day. To embody my […]
Hello Shylocks
The Venetian Ghetto. Five synagogues: German, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese, Levantine (Eastern Mediterranean) and the Scuola Canton, built for the Ashkenazi community (descendants of Eastern European countries). The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare. Five scenes with Shylock the Jew. A recent production of this play, workshopped on the streets of the ghetto established roughly […]
Topdog/Underdog Audience Response
It’s a Wednesday matinee of Topdog/Underdog by Suzan Lori-Parks at the Huntington theatre. A play about two black men in American society, struggling with many systems (societal, economical, fate) that have been rigged against them. The story has Greek elements of fate written into it, what with the characters being named Lincoln and Booth, it is […]
The Middle Ground of Resistance
Last night, I saw I Am Not Your Negro at the Coolidge Corner Theatre. It was my Valentine’s Day date with myself. I Am Not Your Negro tells the story of James Baldwin, from the perspective of the writer himself. The film was narrated by the powerful Samuel L. Jackson, who managed to embody both Baldwin’s relentlessness […]
How Being Brown is Inherently Political
Recently, I have spent a lot of time questioning what my role is as an actor who cares about equality. How can I be a blank slate that propels a casting director or manager to look at me and see a world of possible roles to play? Can I do that while refusing to be silent […]
The Other Color
This week I saw a production of Uncommon Women & Others, which is about the experiences of growing up as a woman, specifically in a college setting. The play addresses issues of sexism, gender roles, and sexual expression. And yet, in the midst of liberal-leaning talk of menstrual blood, clitoral orgasm, and penis envy, something stuck out […]
Baltimore; Having The Tough Conversations
Last night, I got the opportunity to see Baltimore, written by BU’s very own Kirsten Greenidge. The play, directed by Adrienne Boris, revolves around the racist drawing on Alyssa’s door, drawn by Fiona, one of the residents of the dorm. While she continues to insist that it was “a joke,” and her floor-mates are too sensitive, the others grapple with the […]
Being an “Ally” in the Arts
This might get bumpy. Bear with me. I want to talk about what it means to be to be an “ally” in the arts. I should rephrase… I guess I have some questions? What does it mean to be an ally? How can I use my voice to raise up the voices and experiences of […]
Theatre Review: “The Debate” brings the heat, but lacks coherence
There was no telling what Monday night’s performance of The Debate would behold; even days later, processing exactly what this piece means for its audience of more than 84 million, I find it hard to reduce to any key phrase or unifying idea. Perhaps that was what resonated the most profoundly: there is no unity, or […]
Choose: Joy
I haven’t stopped recommending this play since I saw it on Sunday. I completely loved George C. Wolfe’s The Colored Museum at the Huntington Theatre Company. The production was beautiful, the cast immensely, immensely talented, and the script is just so – SMART. The Huntington in particular has a reputation for producing work by African-American playwrights. Not only are […]
“It feels like it happened…”
Suzan-Lori Parks is awesome. Well, duh. I mean, have you seen her hair? But in all seriousness, if you’re not already familiar with this brilliant, clever, down to earth playwright, you should be. Yesterday, I went with three other women in my Contemporary Drama class at BU to see Father Comes Home from the Wars […]
The Privilege of Silence
I was having a conversation with a friend recently who was telling me that she’d heard that a theatre of renown in New York was specifically seeking black stage managers. At first I was a bit thrown off by this idea. “It sounds like casting,” I thought aloud. As backstage theatre-makers, we are generally not […]
The Art of Listening During the Revolution
We live in a world filled with disaster, strife, injustice, hate, and greed. I decided to pursue a career in the arts because I want to illuminate the other side of the coin; the side that glistens with hope, love, miracles, kindness, and novelty. I have conceded that one cannot exist without the other. The moments […]
Young Jean Lee’s The Shipment
To be frank, I was very confused during quite a few moments in the production of Young Jean Lee’s The Shipment. But, I loved it. I loved that the show challenged me and I loved that it brought me outside of my comfort zone. The show starts off […]
A quick update
This is an update to a post from last month One Step Forward, and…. In that post I noted my excitement about the Olivier nominations for best director. Three of the four nominees were women, a watershed moment in the history of the award. The ceremony happened earlier today, Sunday, April 13. I am happy […]
Start talking, so we can start doing
This semester has been quite a journey for me, in terms of expanding my thinking about diversity and inclusion in theatre. Working towards greater diversity in the performers we see on stage–and in Boston in particular–has long been a drive for me. My wife and I frequently talk about this very topic. As an artist […]
Rounding Up #TheSummit
On Feb 17, 2014, Peter Marks of The Washington Post hosted an event called The Summit — it was a public conversation with several of D.C.’s leading artistic directors. As Peter noted in an article for The Washington Post, “Several months ago, Molly Smith, artistic director of Arena Stage, approached me with an intriguing offer: organizing and moderating a series […]
Stop fighting! Make something!
Recently, I’ve been reading a number of articles circulating on Howlround on the topic of the right of the storyteller/artist. I’ve read all the articles in the Howlround series, Race and Representation in American Theater. I invite anyone reading this to click on one of the articles in the link. Any one of them. They […]
Drama Lit Blog 2.0: BU School of Theatre 