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Posted: |
Apr 24, 2009 - 7:46 AM
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By: |
neotrinity
(Member)
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Or - What Would Some Folks Say If There Were an NAAWP? Department:
His name is August Wilson and he accomplished something of stature in the annals of American theatre no other major playwright – not Tennessee Williams, Lorraine Hansberry, Arthur Miller, Edward Albee and, especially, Eugene O’Neill, who aspired to such within his own work - has accomplished ...
completing ten plays – one for each decade of the 20th century – focusing on the trials, tragedies and triumphs of the black experience in an astonishing assortment of eras and themes that’ve catapulted him into the rarified ranks of those we previously mentioned.
Now here’s where we come to the tricky part, and it’s a permanently polarizing pickle. Mr. Wilson (who died in 2005) always insisted that black directors were the only ones capable of helming his plays and this sticky stipulation was never altered when he was alive.
It’s also why Hollywood has never filmed any of them (which is why James Earl Jones’ most legendary Tony-winning performance since “The Great White Hope” -
wasn’t given the green light because of Mr. Wilson’s insistence the director had to have an ebony hue (Laurence Fishburne and Angela Bassett recently performed it in El Lay).
What’s revived this endlessly incendiary issue is last week’s Broadway production of “Joe Turner’s Come and Gone” with a director, Bartlett Sher, who obviously doesn’t comform to Mr. Wilson’s colorful casting preference.
It’s unleashed the expected firestorm of protest as the New York Times’ Patrick Healy observed in his “Race is the Issue” article. [ … “Straight up institutional racism” was how one black director of Wilson’s plays on Broadway, Marion McClinton,
described Lincoln Center Theater’s selection of Mr. Sher, to a Minnesota newspaper this winter. In an interview this week, Mr. McClinton said choosing white directors for Wilson plays not only denied opportunities for black directors, but also reflected a double standard because so few black directors were chosen for major productions of canonical works by white playwrights.
Kenny Leon,
the Broadway director of the last two works in the 10-play Wilson cycle — ‘Gem of the Ocean’ and ‘Radio Golf’ — said Broadway lacked “a level playing field” for black directors. “I have to work with my agent to remind people that, yes, I direct comedies, I do musicals, I do plays about all races of people just like other directors do,” said Mr. Leon, who earned a Drama Desk directing nomination for his one other outing on Broadway, ‘A Raisin in the Sun’ in 2004.
Still, the choice of Mr. Sher has set a precedent in the eyes of some veterans of Wilson’s plays — a precedent that they believe the playwright would not like.
“August told me himself that the reason he did not want white directors was because if one ever had a chance to do one of his plays on Broadway, it would be very unlikely that a black director would ever be chosen again to direct his plays on that level,” said Charles S. Dutton, who starred in the original Broadway production of ]
Pardon the clumsy pun, but there’s no righteous black and white view available in this profoundly gray situation. On the one hand, one can sympathize with his
single-handed (and minded) determination to provide specific opportunities generally denied black directors in all media as compared to their vanilla peers but this type of Affirmative Artistic Action can be just as blinding and barricading
as what it’s ostensibly designed to deter.
What’s heartening, according to the article, is that his widow, Costanza Romero
[ … said in an interview that she and her husband had talked about who should direct his work. Wilson was widely known as a passionate advocate for blacks in theater and film; in the 1990s, he and the director and writer Robert Brustein sparred at length in print and in person about the role of race in everything from a playwright’s vision to casting.
“While August had been this heavyweight champion of black culture and the African-American experience on stage, that was his work when he was alive,” Ms. Romero said.
“My work is to get these stories out there,” she said, “and to help ensure that audiences walk out of the plays with a deeper understanding for these American stories and for the ways our cultures intertwine.” ]
Tho it’s gonna take a Solomonic sage with wisdom not exactly overflowing at present, seems to us Mme. Romero is on the (um) write track.
Too bad just being supremely sensitive and saturated with empathetic Talent – to say nothing of having the ultimate compassionate calling card of being Human – are crucifying (canceling) vices rather than transcendent communicative virtues. 
Any takers on this? …
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But the idea that white or blacks tend to hang with their own kind isn't necessarily so since these people are naturally attracted to those of their same ilk (though we seem to be trying to say the reverse). In a way trying to reduce or eliminate the term "difference" is contrary to nature. If it were that easy, wouldn't we all look and behave alike?
I'm not happy with this 'people are naturally attracted to those of their same ilk' notion. I sincerely fear that in America inter-racial mixing is, in real terms, much less than in Europe and the UK, apart from some Islamic separatist tendencies here and there.
It's a shame you folk outside the UK can't use the online BBC iPlayer: tonight BBC4 showed an excellent documentary as part of their 'Blues' season on blues musicians in Britain. When the initial black blues artists were invited there in the early 1960s wave, some didn't return to what was still a segregated US.
This is not me America-bashing, but you need to know that despite the encouraging thing with Pres. Obama, the rest of the world isn't so uptight on these issues. Up there in Canada for example, racism is very much more a thing of the past between blacks and whites. It's everywhere, but it isn't inevitable.
'Can Blue Men Sing the Whites?' is visible here for 7 days from broadcast:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00kc752
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I'm not happy with this 'people are naturally attracted to those of their same ilk' notion. I sincerely fear that in America inter-racial mixing is, in real terms, much less than in Europe and the UK, apart from some Islamic separatist tendencies here and there.
Hi William,
Personally, I do not believe in the "people are naturally attracted to those of their same ilk" notion. I have always lived in a diverse environment where people from different backgrounds (culturally and/or ethnically) commit, marry, and have children; and my own family lineage (both maternal and paternal) is mixed, per se.
Just sharing my thoughts on the subject. I wish you could visit our area. Our community is divided at times, but often (not always, I assure you) love, friendship and commitment are NOT bound or dictated by racial ties. Just keep in mind that many people (in the States) find love and happiness beyond the initial 'blood and racial' ties...I will attest to that fact.
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Hi William,
Personally, I do not believe in the "people are naturally attracted to those of their same ilk" notion. I have always lived in a diverse environment where people from different backgrounds (culturally and/or ethnically) commit, marry, and have children; and my own family lineage (both maternal and paternal) is mixed, per se.
Just sharing my thoughts on the subject. I wish you could visit our area. Our community is divided at times, but often (not always, I assure you) love, friendship and commitment are NOT bound or dictated by racial ties. Just keep in mind that many people (in the States) find love and happiness beyond the initial 'blood and racial' ties...I will attest to that fact.
Of course you're right, Mrs. Nightmare ....
I reckon Americans take everything to bigger extremes ... so when they do racism, they do it BIG, but when they do inter-racial mixing and marriage etc., they do THAT big as well! Let's hope the right men (and women) win!
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The problem with the posts mentioned after my last one is the data isn't supporting it. Races are still pretty much hanging out with their own.
Perhaps this is so in your neighbourhood, but not the community I live in.
If someone has to consciously seek out friendships beyond their own race, that could be construed as racism because there's this extra effort to begin with.
Sorry, you lost me there. A person *consciously* seeking out friendships beyond their own race? In my experience, a friendship is formed based upon a bond and/or common interests between two people. I do not actively "seek out" people due to the colour of their skin or ethnic background.
Because I'm not actively participating in this supposed progressive thinking doesn't make me any worse than anyone else. If my town of 90+ percent white feels the need to consciously transplant however many to fulfill some quota, that strikes me as being more racist since it entertains the idea of race in the first place. (Anti-discrimination laws are inherently racist since they consciously go about telling you the business owner how many of said races you need to hire. If they weren't racist, would there be the need to view certain races as 'helpless' in the first place?)
The only comment I'll make is no comment.
But to pretend that there are not divisions currently on display is pardon the french -- asenine.
Of course there is division: who stated that there was not? But there is ALSO fusion. Come visit California...miscegenation is common and the numbers increase (vs. decrease) as the years roll on.
The faulty premise is that it is assumed humanity is racist on the basis that we are not pro-active in our integrating with one another.
I hold my own idea(s) in re: to humanity and racism. Keep in mind that assumptions are subjective.
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Posted: |
Sep 17, 2009 - 5:15 PM
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By: |
neotrinity
(Member)
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Bouquets for Carolyn Hax Department:
Dear Carolyn: Some friends of mine had been talking up this guy they thought would be perfect for me, so I finally went on a blind date with him. It turns out he's black, and while I am NOT racist and have no problem with inter-racial dating in general, it's not for me. I just prefer to date white guys.
I told my friends why I wouldn't be seeing him again, and they were, shockingly, horrified. Did I miss something here?
I know inter-racial dating is more prevalent now than it used to be, but I didn't realize it was SO common that you get in trouble if you don't want to do it. I figured if I'm the one who needs a kick in the pants, you're the perfect person to give it to me, but I'm hoping you'll tell me I'm right, that no one should have to date anyone they don't want to. –Sacramento.
Sacramento: You're right - no one should have to date anyone s/he doesn't want to. And your friends are right, too - they shouldn't have to pretend they're not horrified by something they find morally repugnant. And you're right, inter-racial dating is more prevalent now, but its prevalence here is the cart; the issue here is the horse.
More people date inter-racially because more people realize that the only alternative to being racist is to judge each person as a person.
Your decision not to date this man wasn't about his character or lack thereof, it wasn't about his sex appeal or lack thereof, it wasn't about his intellect or lack thereof, it wasn't about his sense of humor or lack thereof, it wasn't about his work ethic or lack thereof, it wasn't about shared history or lack thereof, it wasn't about his goals or lack thereof, it wasn't about his compatibility or lack thereof.
To your credit, you're owning your opinion; all you had to say was that you didn't find him attractive, and this conversation doesn't happen.
However: We're having this conversation because you didn't find his race attractive. That's what racism is.
There’s no rebuttal to this damn near nigh perfect description – absolutely NONE.
What IS it exactly that perpetuates this type of whatever-it-is?
Does it just fall under the umbrella of Staying with Your "Own" Kind?
Is it a type of behavioural/societal orientation that perpetuates this so that, in the end (of their obvious non-exposure) as at the beginning (of their guarded experience) personal preference is always The Way?
Thus Catholics can seek to only marry Catholics, Jews prefer Jews, Latinos are on the lookout specifically for their own Latino mirrors, dark-skinned blacks can choose other dark-skinned blacks (while looking down on lighter-skinned blacks who only wanna mate with their lighter-skinned mirrors while mothers with light-skinned daughters despise their progeny’s pick if their pigmentation isn’t light enuff …
Wotta world, wotta world …
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