The most intense debate about race and theater in the country right
now is revolves around two Seattle icons, one living and one dead. Bart
Sher, the artistic director of Intiman and resident director at the
Lincoln Center, has been chosen to direct a Broadway revival of Joe
Turner’s Come and Gone by the late August Wilson. Some people
are pissed.
This will be the first Broadway production of a Wilson play that
hasn’t been directed by an African American. In an interview with the
St. Paul Pioneer Press, Marion McClinton (who has directed two
Wilson plays on Broadway) described the decision as “straight-up
institutional racism.”
“I am not saying a white director cannot direct a black play,” he
said. “What I am saying is, are they coming at it with the same respect
and diligence of study as they do O’Neill, Brecht, Chekhov?”
In this case, yes.
Sher dives into Chekhov and Molière with as much audacity as
he dives into opera or musicals. He is confident when working out of
his socio-cultural-historical context, a prerequisite for any good
director. And arguing that August Wilson plays only work when directed
by black Americans confines them—they should (and probably will)
be performed everywhere, from Tokyo to Nairobi, for decades to
come. Whey-faced Sher is just one baby step in Wilson’s long, universal
legacy.
Awkwardly, Wilson, who died in Seattle in 2005, probably would have
disagreed. His project was to build a repertory by and for black
Americans, apart from the double consciousness of making token black
plays for mostly white audiences. To that end, Wilson strenuously
opposed cross-
color casting and always preferred his plays to
have black directors. From his 2005 essay “The Ground on Which I
Stand”:
“I am what is known, at least among the followers and supporters of
the ideas of Marcus Garvey, as a ‘race man.’ That is simply that
I believe that race matters—that [it] is the largest, most
identifiable, and the most important part of our personality… because
it is the one that most influences your perception of yourself.”
Wilson’s achievement outstripped his own project. Race
matters, but the greatness of his 10-play cycle of African Americana
(one for each decade of the 20th century) does not rely on race
alone.
Later in the Pioneer Press article, St. Paul actor James
Williams said: “If this meant that everything was fair game—if it
meant that Marion [McClinton, the director] would get to direct
Cherry Orchard at the Guthrie, that would be one thing,” he
said. “But that’s not what this means.” Of course: Everything
should be fair game, but it isn’t, which is what makes the
argument I believe in (“Let Bart direct!”) feel uncomfortably
appropriationist.
That is the real problem—not Sher’s whiteness, but the
blinding whiteness that surrounds him. 
It makes it difficult to argue in favor in Sher directing ‘Joe Turner’s Come and Gone’ when there is very little room for the black (or any other racially underrepresented) theater professional in the theater community as is. There were few strides toward integration prior to Wilson’s 10-part series, and so he created black plays that would provide black theater professions a place in the theatrical community. Post-Wilson, few strides have been made to integrate racially underrepresented theater professionals, and so Wilson’s desire still has value; to give black theater professionals a place to work.
Giving the spot to Sher, though I do not doubt he’ll do a fantastic job, takes that spot away from a black director, one of few spots where giving the slot to a black director makes a lot of sense. It is choices like these that prevent theater from becoming the voice of the people, leaving it the voice of just the white people.
*FACEPALM*
Beans, I respectfully disagree: first, theatre isn’t a voice of the people, (that’s politics or media’s job); Theatre, as art, is a reflection of its society.
It’s not difficult at all to argue in favor of Sher directing this play, or any other other play not written by, say, a white urban metrosexual from SF. Affirmative action quotas in theatre? No thanks (Might as well encourage a MPAA rating system too, while you’re busy stabbing the art in the back).
Sher was ‘allowed’ to direct Goldoni’s Servant of Two Masters despite not being from the 18th century (nor particularly Venetian). He was also permitted to direct Bill Shaespeare’s Cymbeline despite not being British (in fact, his Cymbeline was the very first American production to be seen at the Royal Shakepeare Company, so he’s good at being the fish outta water). Does Sher need to be from Pittsburgh in order to direct something from the Pittsburgh Cycle?? Hell No.
Many if not most Americans, as Barack Obama put not too fine a point on it, are not of any particular race, we are mutts. We are in this particular dogpile together people, and further promotion of the idea that our color matters, and somehow dictates our skill, doesn’t advance humanity one inch.
I’d suggest that we theatre folk promote diversity and openmindedness by hiring regardless of race, and help, rather than hinder, break down ‘expectations’. Kennedy’s exec order 10925, was intended to ensure equitable hiring without regard to race, not in specific regard to promoting minorities: the intent is to be free of any racial bias. And yes, I believe that means a Korean can direct Wilson’s work, and a Black woman can direct Shakespeare, and a woman can even play Jim in Big River, if they are indeed qualified and it still rings true as art.
There was no black director ‘bumped’ to make way for Sher: and ‘gifting’ the spot to a black director merely because of skin tone would do a huge disservice to the art and society, even if it counter’s Wilson’s arguably racist intentions that only black people work in his shows (Playwrights who are producers can get their control-freak on, but otherwise, playwrights of all races let their babies fly free).
Besides, after 2 and a half decades of being produced with black directors, it’s about time ‘Joe Turner…’ goes to Broadway with someone directing who’s voice might have, god forbid, a different ethnic background, and might, just might, reflect society’s growing acceptance of a true melting pot.
smith, with all due respect – you are not considering the racial hierarchy at play in your comments. Your racist fantasies of melting pot, diversity, and Obama only help one group – white people. You also are not aware of what affirmative action is, there are no such things as quotas! In fact, it has been deemed by the court that it is unconstitutional to have quotas and there have NEVER BEEN ANY IN PLACE. I’m sure you are aware, being a white individual, about racism. Please do not perpetuate it like you are doing so. A lot of what you say sounds egalitarian and fair in theory, but sadly, in our RACIST society, it is not the case. To say we should ignore race when we have a racist society only makes it persist. To call into question what race really means, when there is a clear distinction in both physical qualities and material benefits that go alongside it along white and non-white lines (“white privileged” it’s been called) is to only confuse the matter and not deal with it. You’re rhetoric and logic all do not consider the existing conditions of race from which you’re privileged position does not call into question. Racism is alive and kickin, sadly to say, and for non-white people there seems to be no solution. For white people, there seems to be no problem.
also, to suggest that WIlson is racist is completely erroneous. He is a VICTIM of RACISM more than anything and that’s what his play, his life, his ethos reflect. To call a VICTIM OF RACISM a RACIST is completely illogical as he is perpetuating a system that is built against him making him even a greater VICTIM OF RACISM, more than anything. As long as you have white people dominating non-white people globally, you are not going to have justice. That’s what I believe in. Let’s practice some.
All people are racist. That includes minorities and those who are victims of racism. There is no purity in being victimized, no cloak for the less fortunate.
Racism is a biological constant born out of thousands of years of evolution – when humans benefited from forming clans and banding together with those who were similar to them.
So given my point of view, how do I feel we should deal with racism in today’s society?
We definitely need to admit that it exists – any attempt to sweep it under the rug denies our own genetic makeup. IMO, the big change we need to make is reject any notion that “fairness” is an inherent right of all humans. Life isn’t fair. Biology shows us that. Evolution, which produced all of us, is precisely an unfair process. Life is a battle from birth to death and the strength of the human species is only because of the constant struggle against the elements, other animals, and each other. Clearly we need rules of civilization that raise the bar in terms of how we structure our society, and we can push those rules as far as is pragmatically possible. However, there is no inherent fairness to be obtained: there are always winners and there are always losers, and the only way losers change place with winners is by tooth and nail. (That applies not only to racism but to many other aspects of human life.)
fj: we can ‘win’ (and yet keep things equal locally) by transcending race as a nation. And certainly as theatre artists in a nation.
The winners of your darwinian non-utopia could be the US, for example. The ideal version of the US that has liberties and rights, mind you, not that other version with waterboarding and tyranny…
If the goal of the black American theater community is to marginalize itself, then by all means, exclude members of any other race from becoming involved.
If, however, the goal of the black American theater is to invite any and all Americans into better understanding the perspective of black America, then I suggest that “outside” involvement be not only allowed, but encouraged. Some might see it as an acknowledgment of the significance of Wilson’s work that a non-black director wanted to be involved in the first place.
Agent Smith, how do you transcend race as a nation? Would this replace racism with justice?
Ok, so, why would racism need replacing? If we’re going to play “3wishes” why not just wish away racism, and have moral equality and reformed justice and, I don’t know, basic humanity, rule the day.