Pittsburgh Playhouse uses Shakespeare to examine racism with American Moor

Theater | Pittsburgh | Pittsburgh City Paper: The resume of Keith Hamilton Cobb includes a long list of stage, television, and writing credits, among others. Now Pittsburgh will get to see him in person during his latest production of American Moor. It's a work, which he wrote, as well as performs, that asks big questions about representation and racism in the theater industry.

Bao Nguyen Teamed Up With GoFundMe For #StopAsianHate Film

www.themarysue.com: Indie film director Bao Nguyen has teamed up with GoFundMe to produce a short film dedicated to the #StopAsianHate movement. “Knowing that it’s up to all of us to keep each other safe and shine a light together,” the film quotes, and it’s a harsh look at the history of anti-Asian attacks in this country and the typical brush aside that happens until we’re confronted with these horrific crimes once more.

6 AAPI Artists Reflect on the Spike in Anti-Asian Violence

Artsy: On March 16th, Robert Aaron Long targeted three massage parlors in the Atlanta, Georgia, area citing a need to eliminate the temptations they provoked. Eight people were shot to death, including six Asian women; their names were Daoyou Feng, Delaina Ashley Yaun Gonzalez, Hyun Jung Grant, Suncha Kim, Paul Andre Michels, Soon Chung Park, Xiaojie Tan, and Yong Ae Yue. While Long has insisted to police that the incident was not a hate crime, according to the Chosun Ilbo, a major Korean language newspaper, one witness recounted Long shouting, “I am going to kill all Asians” before firing in one location.

Proud Boys Threaten Colin Kaepernick's Miniseries Production

Consequence of Sound: The filming location for the Netflix miniseries about Colin Kaepernick is on high security alert after a reported threat from the right-wing Proud Boys organization. On Friday, as TMZ reports, the anti-Black Lives Matter group was allegedly planning to protest the production about the former NFL quarterback-turned-civil rights icon.

REVOLUTION GLOSSARY: What is Diversity?

rescripted.org: Earlier this year, a group of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color theatremakers drafted a public letter to the White American Theatre establishment about the harm they have suffered working in institutions that have failed to address the racism internal to their practices.

Theater will have to be less racist to survive: A Q&A with Soyica Colbert

DC Metro Theater Arts: Although Shakespeare Theatre Company’s acclaimed The Amen Corner had to shut down in March before its run was done, the production proved fortuitous for STC’s future: It brought Director Whitney White and Dramaturg Soyica Colbert into a working relationship that led in August to Artistic Director Simon Godwin’s announcement that White and Colbert would be associate directors of the company.

"Twelve Angry Men"; 1950's Courtroom Drama about Confronting Prejudice Still Rings True

The Theatre Times: Back in January, when English director Lindsay Posner visited Tokyo for preparatory meetings to stage the iconic courtroom drama Twelve Angry Men at Bunkamura Theatre Cocoon in Shibuya Ward, he was expecting to return in a few months to a city abuzz with excitement over the Summer Olympics. Instead, the pandemic has put both the Games and international travel on hold — resulting in Posner having to log into Zoom in the early hours of his day to conduct rehearsals from his home in London with an all-Japanese cast eight hours ahead and more than 9,500 kilometers away.

Equity reports an 'enormous' rise in complaints of racism

Theatre | The Guardian: Equity, the UK trade union for creative practitioners, has seen a massive upsurge in cases of racism reported across the stage and screen industries. Paul Fleming, the union’s incoming general secretary, said the complaints raised by members include “dignity issues” and racist language used in dressing rooms and auditions.

Erasing the Middle East

HowlRound Theatre Commons: Like many Americans, I recently filled out my questionnaire for the 2020 census. I had been putting the process off, knowing in advance what its contents would remind me about the world I inhabit every day. As I scoured the census page on racial identity for a checkbox that might make me feel seen, I was disappointed to find that, once again, there was no Middle Eastern racial category.

What Happens to "West Side Story" When You Remove Race?

Token Theatre Friends: Or at least, as white men, they tried. West Side Story has always had a fraught relationship with Latinx people. Said Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda in 2009, as he was working on that year’s West Side Story Broadway revival: “I think West Side Story for the Latino community has been our greatest blessing and our greatest curse…As a piece of art, I think it’s just about as good as it gets. It also represented our foot in the door as an artistic community on Broadway. At the same time, because it’s just about the only representation of Latinos on Broadway and it’s about gangs, that’s where it gets tricky.”

First Chinese-Language Production Of 'A Raisin In The Sun' Is Staged In Beijing

NPR: A visitor to the Beijing People's Art Theatre this past August would have been treated to an unexpected sight on its wooden stage: Chinese actors, rehearsing A Raisin in the Sun, a play that tells the story of an African American family's struggle against racism in 1950s Chicago.

Beijing actor and director Ying Da is mounting the first-ever Chinese-language production of Lorraine Hansberry's play. The thorniest issue at hand: how to convey to a mostly Chinese audience that an all-Chinese cast is portraying an African American family.

It's Time to Overhaul the Blackface (or Blueface) Puppet in Petrouchka

Dance Magazine: When Michel Fokine's ballet Petrouchka premiered in 1911, none of the (largely white) audience members in Paris objected to the big, dumb puppet being portrayed as a Moor in blackface. Stravinsky's music was stirring, Fokine's choreography was ground-breaking, and Alexandre Benois' sets and costumes were transporting. Nijinsky's portrayal of Petrouchka, the puppet with a human soul, tugged at the heart.

Resident Artists at The Flea Speak Out About Racism and Culture of Intimidation and Fear

Playbill: The leadership at Off-Off-Broadway institution The Flea has pledged to transform the theatre following two public letters, penned by its resident artists, pointing to a longstanding culture of intimidation and fear. The June 18 statement from The Flea, which accepts full responsibility, follows a June 16 letter signed by The Resident Artists of The Flea and circulated on social media, which pointed to collective experiences rooted in “racism, sexism, gaslighting, disrespect, and abuse.”