We are united in our belief that, from its very inception, Marin Theatre Company’s (MTC) current production of Thomas Bradshaw’s Thomas and Sally is an irresponsible, deeply harmful project with no accountability to black women and girls. As black artists, and as black women, we are all too familiar with our histories and our narratives being imagined through the gaze of white supremacist patriarchy. We take issue with producing organizations whose choices perpetuate the notion that we are a voiceless, powerless group, incapable of understanding how we are being represented. We take issue with the dismissal of our concerns and the erasure of our country’s violent history.
1 comment:
Though I have a strong belief in maintaining first amendment rights and not censoring work, but this letter makes an excellent argument as to how Thomas and Sally is simply a problematic play. The article states it perfectly, "When we put anything on stage we amplify it, we preserve its legacy", and this show preserves a legacy of ignorance. Marin Theatre Company is in a part of California that is highly progressive and very caucasian, and playing a show that concerns race relations while paying no attention of the ramifications of said relation of Master and Slave and how that might be construed to be something that it really isn't, its highly destructive and deceiving to the standard audience in that region. The article highlights the absence of any attention to rape culture within the play, which is something that Marin should learn from when choosing the plays, its a love story of epic proportions that is so unbelievable that its offensive, they can do better.
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