New Pittsburgh Courier: The Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre is always trying to cultivate Black playwrights because there are so few of them.
“We have a treasure trove of Black playwrights in Pittsburgh and I’m trying to help develop more African-American playwrights,” said Mark Clayton Southers, Playwrights Theatre founder and producing artistic director.
1 comment:
How encouraging to read about a theater actively supporting the needs of its community. Especially in a city like Pittsburgh that experiences artistic "brain drain," as young people pour into the city to study the arts and then leave for bigger cities, PPT's commitment to cultivating local playwrights could help make Pittsburgh a more attractive place to establish a theater career. Furthermore, PPT's support of Pittsburgh playwrights becomes particularly vital in a national theater climate that favors New York- or LA-based artists. These productions can help Pittsburgh playwrights earn credits and experience that they might have trouble finding in other regional theaters and cities.
I'm so curious about the eventual demographic makeup of the One-Act Festival's playwrights. If the festival were only open to minority playwrights, the playing field would be relatively equal in terms of which playwrights deserve an opportunity to be produced. By allowing white playwrights to submit work to the festival as well, PPT may face some resentment if they ultimately produce (a) white playwright(s). White writers already are more widely-produced in American theater than minority playwrights, often for various socio-economic reasons within the structure of our industry, rather than outright racism (which would take much more than a short Internet comment to articulate). At the same time, the inclusion of white writers is vital to their philosophy of bridging divides between all ethnic groups through the festival. Will audiences and fellow artists accept a diverse festival of writers when "diverse" includes white writers, who could be seen as taking opportunities away from minority writers?
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