Director Michael Oatman re-imagined the hit  play by double-casting the role with both a White and Black “Martin Luther King Jr.”  Yes, a White “Martin Luther King Jr.” During an interview with Kent State on the University’s website he talks about the motivation behind such a decision:

While Oatman understands that the piece may stir some controversy he also hopes that it stirs discussion about America’s original sin: race.  “I truly wanted to explore the issue of racial ownership and authenticity.  I didn’t want this to be a stunt, but a true exploration of King’s wish that we all be judged by the content of our character and not the color of our skin,” said Oatman about his non-traditional cast.  “I wanted the contrast . . . I wanted to see how the words rang differently or indeed the same, coming from two different actors, with two different racial backgrounds.”

Is this even allowed? Technically, yes. The script at the time never explicitly stated that the actor playing Martin Luther King Jr. has to be black (they have updated it since then), however implicitly it makes total sense. Everything Dr. King stood for was making America value the Black body because he was, too, a Black body. I don’t see how casting a White actor to play an historic figure such as Martin Luther King, Jr. was a good idea. The show was brought to Katori Hall via Twitter and she went on to say this;

@ThatBrantDude: neither I or @DramatistsPlayS were contacted about this tone deaf casting choice. I have spoken to the director (1/2)

— Katori Hall (@KatoriHall) October 27, 2015

@ThatBrantDude who “did not think there was prohibition agnst non-traditional casting” @DramatistsPlayS has now included a casting clause

— Katori Hall (@KatoriHall) October 27, 2015

Now I get we are at the point in time where Hamilton exists, that show in particular casting people of color in roles that would otherwise have been for traditionally White actors. As great of a move as that was, it does, unfortunately, open the floodgates for very narrow-minded people to think that roles meant for people of color can now be played by White actors if traditionally (and/or historically) White characters can be played by actors of color. This argument and reasoning however isn’t valid. The reason shows like Hamilton and The Mountaintop exist is to create those opportunities for actors of color that have been short sided by this business- to even the playing field. Not to give White actors even more opportunities. That literally defeats the purpose. It defeats what African-American and other playwrights of color have been trying to do for years.

There is a lesson to take away from the Kent State casting though, even though at times it’s obvious, playwrights should include explicitly the ethnicities of actors they want in their plays. This is something I expect to see a lot more as African-Americans are making their unstoppable reign on and off Broadway this season, and we want to keep it that way.

Sound off in the comments below on your thoughts!

The post A White Man Went To ‘The Mountaintop’ At Kent State appeared first on Broadway Black.

Kain, 51, first rose to prominence in his role as “Raheem” opposite Tupac in 1992’s “Juice.” But, he’s probably best know for his role as “Maya’s” husband “Darnell Wilkes” on the sitcom “Girlfriends” for seven years. Kain has also appeared in “Love Jones” (1997) and he played the lead in Showtime’s “The Tiger Woods Story” (1998). In a stark departure from his nice guy roles, Kain portrayed the rapist “Bill” in Tyler Perry’s “For Colored Girls” (2010).

Kain recently ventured into the theatre world, penning the stage drama Lambs to Slaughter which tells the story of a mourning single mother living alone in the city after the murder of her son “Emmett.” The play was read in December 2014 at the cell theatre in New York.

“Arkabutla” was inspired by an incident that Hall witnessed as a teenager and marks her first attempt at filmmaking. The film is scheduled to begin filming in Memphis on October 20.

Hall was the first African American playwright to win the Olivier Award for The Mountaintop. Since her rise on the Broadway scene, her work has been produced at acclaimed theatres across the nation, bringing her signature style to the forefront of the theatre scene.

Her most recent production was The Mixed Blood Theatre‘s Pussy Valley, which closed a successful run on May 10th. The play centered around the lives of four women working in a Mississippi strip club, a world that Hall describes as “the intersection of hip hop and strip club cultures.”

The post Katori Hall Finds Leading Man for Arkabutla in Khalil Kain appeared first on Broadway Black.

“Arkabutla,” a short film written and co-produced by Hall, follows “Chauncey,” a contemporary “cowboy,” who is reunited with his 10-year-old daughter (“an old soul with a fast mouth,” according to casting notes) and 7-year-old son (a “brat” with charm) after a long stretch away from home on the rodeo circuit.

To give his kids something of the elation he feels as a bull rider, he buys a jet ski for a family visit to DeSoto County’s Arkabutla Lake. When a white lake official sees Chauncey with the jet ski, he assumes the recreational watercraft is stolen, leading to a confrontation that causes anger and disillusionment — “the sense of hopelessness you take from a situation like that.”

The film was inspired by an incident that Hall witnessed as a teenager and marks her first attempt at filmmaking. The award-winning playwright plans to employ an entirely local cast and crew on the project with shooting scheduled for October 20-23 in Memphis-area locations.

She hopes to follow the short by directing a feature adaptation of her Memphis-set play Hurt Village, which debuted off-Broadway in 2011 and starred Tony Award winner Tonya Pinkins.

Hall’s most recent production was The Mixed Blood Theatre‘s Pussy Valley, which closed a successful run on May 10th. The play centered around the lives of four women working in a Mississippi strip club, a world that Hall describes as “the intersection of hip hop and strip club cultures.”

Katori Hall was the first African American playwright to win the Olivier Award, for The Mountaintop. Since her rise on the Broadway scene, her work has been produced at acclaimed theatres across the nation, bringing her signature style to the forefront of the theatre scene.

The post Katori Hall To Make Directorial Debut with “Arkabutla” appeared first on Broadway Black.

The saying, “art imitates life” is often thrown around callously. But when it comes to Black theatre artists, the phrase means a lot more than meets the eye (or the mouth, for that matter). In theatre history, there has been a tradition of productions staged to reflect the politics and restlessness of the times. Today’s theatre artists are similar to their predecessors.

Award-winning playwright Katori Hall is in touch with the Black Lives Matter movement and other political happenings, as often reflected on her Twitter page. Hall’s form of protest appears within her writing. Her play, The Mountaintop, fictionalizes the events leading up to the death of civil rights leader, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. In an April interview with The Root, Hall states, in regard to her decision to become a playwright,

Me and my scene partner, we’re, like, two young African-American women … we get to the library and we’re pulling out all kinds of plays and couldn’t find nothing—like, nothing … had any scenes with young black women in it . … So I went to the teacher and was like, ‘Do you have any suggestions, because we’re having a hard time,’ and 10 seconds went by, 20 seconds went by, 40 seconds went by, and our professor could not think of an answer, and so, in that moment I said to myself, ‘I’m going to write those plays, then.’

Theatres have also been involved with Black Lives Matter in inspirational ways. In early February, Washington D.C.’s Howard Theatre hosted a panel that discussed the Movement. Howard Theatre has an extensive history of featuring Black theatre artists and their many talents. In May, the cast from Marley the Musical took time out of rehearsal to perform a free concert for those protesting the senseless death of Freddie Gray in Baltimore. At the National Black Theatre Festival in early June, according to Ticket Sarasota, Jackie Taylor, founder of the Black Ensemble Theater, remarked, “This is a sick society, with Black men being killed, young boys being killed, churches being burned and those nine people being killed in that church in Charleston. Racism is embedded.” The Black Ensemble Theater’s mission is one that is clear-cut and powerful: “to eradicate racism and its damaging effects upon our society through the utilization of theater arts.”

This is merely a snapshot of the work being done in the Black theatre world in support of the Black Lives Matter Movement. So many Black artists have and continue to use their work not only to showcase the ever present Black excellence in theatre but also to shift the mindset of those who may perpetuate the systemic racism that holds them back. These artists prove, time and time again, that not only do Black lives matter, but so does Black art.

The post Stand For Justice: Black Theatre in the Fight for Black Lives Matter appeared first on Broadway Black.