Post Gazette: The versatile Chicago and Washington actress E. Faye Butler recounted a call she received to audition in New York for a British stage version of "Gone With the Wind." "Faye, there's a famous director and he really wants to see you for it," she recalls her agent telling her. Intrigued, she asked to be sent the "sides," the portions of the script with which she'd have to audition.
Monday, October 24, 2011
'Trouble in Mind' from 1955 still resonates
Post Gazette: The versatile Chicago and Washington actress E. Faye Butler recounted a call she received to audition in New York for a British stage version of "Gone With the Wind." "Faye, there's a famous director and he really wants to see you for it," she recalls her agent telling her. Intrigued, she asked to be sent the "sides," the portions of the script with which she'd have to audition.
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2 comments:
It is important that theatre such as this is still being produced - not necessarily because all of the issues presented are still relevant (although I am not denying that racism directed toward African Americans still exists on a smaller scale in the United States) but because it helps us to remember. Pieces from a historical time allow current members of society to experience the results of certain actions. Thus, we prevent history from repeating itself. It is the human condition to look for what can be improved, and it is only by seeing what has happened in the past that we can move forward and replace actions with negative results with those with positive ones.
While I agree that producing this kind of play is important, I think the article brings up a good point about works by African-Americans in entertainment. I mean, yes, other pieces are being produced, but how much of that is "let's be diverse and do a play by a (blank) person" or "let's do a play about a (blank) person"? This is not to say that the plays hold less merit than any other play, in fact they may be far superior pieces of drama, but still people are not putting them on for that reason. Otherwise more people would be doing "Trouble in Mind" and not just works by current writers "at a time of seemingly unprecedented exposure for black female playwrights on Broadway." Which is why the issues presented are still relevant. Now it may not be racism as we think of in 1955, but producing a work commercially because someone thinks we should do a piece by a black writer means the play was not chosen because it seemed most fitting for the time.
That being said, many theatre companies pick a good show that happens to be written by an African-American or it is in their mission statement to do work by African-American playwrights which are a different case. The above references highly to commercial work (such as the Broadway that "Trouble in Mind" has never seen).
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