{"id":14280,"date":"2015-11-11T07:20:14","date_gmt":"2015-11-11T07:20:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mytrendybuzz.com\/blog\/?p=14280"},"modified":"2015-11-11T07:20:14","modified_gmt":"2015-11-11T07:20:14","slug":"playwright-katori-hall-calls-out-director-for-casting-white-actor-as-martin-luther-king-jr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/mytrendybuzz.com\/blog\/2015\/11\/11\/playwright-katori-hall-calls-out-director-for-casting-white-actor-as-martin-luther-king-jr\/","title":{"rendered":"Playwright Katori Hall Calls Out Director for Casting White Actor as Martin Luther King Jr."},"content":{"rendered":"

As the saying goes \u2013 \u201cwonders will never cease\u201d. As the nation continues to battle racial discord and blatantly disarming bigotry, Kent State University in Ohio, is now being called to task for staging The Mountaintop<\/em> an award-winning play from Katori Hall in a fashion that has left her perplexed and quite frankly outraged.<\/p>\n

\"CTfj_6EWwAAnM0U\"<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The play focuses on how the civil rights leader spends what is to be his last night alive as he finds himself aligned with a maid.<\/p>\n

Sounds captivating enough but Hall never anticipated that her classified gem would be interpreted to accommodate a white actor playing the lead role.<\/p>\n

Yep! It seems that the director Michael Oatman who erected the production of The Mountaintop<\/em> for the university\u2019s Department of Pan-African Studies African Community Theater felt that he was entitled to use his jurisdiction to propel his mission of the \u201cAll American\u201d play that doesn\u2019t rely on facts but rather the freedom of expression and unrestrained creativity.<\/p>\n

\"56033c8810a8f.image_-e1447204158461\"<\/a><\/p>\n

When broached about his decision to cast a white actor in a role that is historically meant for black actor, Oatman replied, \u201cI believe that the American theater is one of the last safe places we can experiment and explore\u201d.<\/p>\n

Hall for her part isn\u2019t on board with this defection from her script and calls Oatman\u2019s choice \u201ca self-serving and disrespectful directing exercise\u201d.<\/p>\n

She acknowledges <\/a>to TheRoot.com that even though she never went out of her way to announce that two of the main characters were to be portrayed by black actors \u2013 she assumed that the context would be clearly established based on common sense and intuition. \u201cWhile it is true that I never designated in the play text that King and Camae be played by black actors, reading comprehension and good-ole scene analysis would lead any director to cast black or darker-complexioned actors\u201d.<\/p>\n

Oatman for his part is unapologetic about his approach and maintains his right to break the boundaries of performance art by instituting his version of events in a way that is unorthodox regardless of the consequences. \u201cI wanted to see if a white actor, or light-skinned actor, had the same cultural buy-in and could portray Dr. King\u201d. \u201cDr. King is not just a prominent African American, he\u2019s a prominent American. Why can\u2019t an American play another prominent American?\u201d<\/p>\n

But Hall isn\u2019t sold on the idea of distorting her vision all in the name of artistic freedom is vocally denouncing this drastic revision to her offering \u201cThe casting of a white King is commuting yet another erasure of the black body\u201d. \u201cSure, it might be in the world of pretend, but it is disrespectful nonetheless, especially to a community that has rare moments of witnessing itself, both creatively and literally, in the world\u201d.<\/p>\n

Hall doesn\u2019t believe this avant garde approach translates when the subject happens to be a iconic figure that continues to be revered and finds Oatman\u2019s blatant ignorance appalling but also recognizes it as proof of why black actors are left panting for work \u2013 in an industry that still refuses to fully utilize their worth.<\/p>\n

\u201cBlack versions are a direct response to the persistent exclusion and lack of roles for black actors working in the dramatic arts, and only further highlight the historically racist programming practices of American theater\u201d. \u201cNontraditional casting puts forth a pervasive misconception: that plays with roles for black protagonists are a) not good enough, b) won\u2019t sell or, worse, c) don\u2019t even exist\u201d.<\/p>\n

We have to side with Hall on this one. Having a white actor embody a role that conquers a man that led a movement that initiated the forced acceptance and respectability of the black America is ludicrous not to mention insultingly misleading. But then again that happens to be the crux of why racial insensitivity is a thriving disposition. White America has a hard time comprehending when and how they\u2019ve crossed the line and until they can grasp the basics \u2013 the problem will persists.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As the saying goes \u2013 \u201cwonders will never cease\u201d. As the nation continues to battle racial discord and blatantly disarming […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1,38,6],"tags":[2495,1981,2494,2496],"yoast_head":"\nPlaywright Katori Hall Calls Out Director for Casting White Actor as Martin Luther King Jr. - MyTrendyBuzz<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/mytrendybuzz.com\/blog\/2015\/11\/11\/playwright-katori-hall-calls-out-director-for-casting-white-actor-as-martin-luther-king-jr\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Playwright Katori Hall Calls Out Director for Casting White Actor as Martin Luther King Jr. - MyTrendyBuzz\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"As the saying goes \u2013 \u201cwonders will never cease\u201d. 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