[WalterBlack]

Casting of white actor as Martin Luther King prompts outrage from playwright

Quote:

The casting of a white actor as Martin Luther King in an Ohio university production of Katori Hall’s acclaimed play The Mountaintop was “a disservice to not just Dr King but an entire community”, the playwright has said.

Hall wrote an essay for the African American cultural website the Root on Monday about Kent State University’s production of her play, which dramatizes the night before King was assassinated in 1968.

Hall told the Guardian that director Michael Oatman’s decision to double-cast the six-show production with a black actor and a white actor as King went “deeper than just casting a white man in the role of MLK”.

“I just really feel as though it echoes this pervasive erasure of the black body and the silencing of a black community – theatrically and also, literally, in the world,” she said.

Oatman, who like Hall is black, said in a statement in August promoting the play that he chose a white actor for the production “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,” Oatman said. “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.”

Oatman did not respond to a request for comment, but Hall said she had a respectful phone call with the director about a month after he staged the play at the university’s Department of Pan-African Studies’ African Community Theatre from late September to early October.

She said that Oatman did not discuss the decision to use a white actor with her before the play ran and called the decision “disrespectful”.

Hall said she thought that if a director was going to experiment like Oatman did, then they should include a discussion with the audience or create another forum to measure the success of such an exercise.

“With a playwright’s intention being dangerously distorted, Oatman’s experiment proved to be a self-serving and disrespectful directing exercise for a paying audience,” Hall wrote.

Hall learned about Oatman’s decision to use a white actor in the production after the show had closed. She immediately notified her agent, who contacted the theatre licensing service Dramatists Play Service, which then wrote to the university questioning its decision.

Since the Kent State University production ran, Hall has adjusted The Mountaintop’s licensing agreement to say: “Both characters are intended to be played by actors who are African-American or Black. Any other casting choice requires the prior approval of the author.”

She said that the issue of representation is a common discussion topic for theatremakers of color, but rarely gets attention beyond that community. The decision to cast a white man as one of the country’s best-known civil rights figures, however, changed that.

“I feel as though a lot of theatremakers were a bit appalled at the choice that the director made – and that it was supported so wholeheartedly by the institution,” Hall said. “So it was really a moment to talk about playwright intention, but to then, beyond that, talk about much bigger issues, about not only being a black artist but also being a black person in America.”

This had to occur sooner or later....

[GIMME BACK MY SON]

So hold on hold on.... female Ghostbusters are ok, female Ocean's 11 are nothing to scoff at, James Bond should be played by Idris Elba and a NORSE God in Thor was also black, but MLK can't be played by a white actor?

What's the deal here guys, I thought we are past race now?

[cascadecombo]

My first thought was how there was no issue with various super heroes becoming black. I personally don't care either way so long as the story is still good.

A buddy of mine, would rather see more original black super heroes, which I think would be awesome as well. Guys like black panther are badasses.


Dude can go toe to toe with the cap.

Back to the main point of the outrage, I'm curious if they'd be outraged by an asian, arab or latin american Dr. King.

[MMX2010]

There's a very hyped Broadway musical named Hamilton that was featured on 60 Minutes. It's about Alexander Hamilton, and it features Black and Latino actors who rap..

[jariel]

(11-10-2015 07:58 PM)GIMME BACK MY SON Wrote:  

So hold on hold on.... female Ghostbusters are ok, female Ocean's 11 are nothing to scoff at, James Bond should be played by Idris Elba and a NORSE God in Thor was also black, but MLK can't be played by a white actor?

What's the deal here guys, I thought we are past race now?

You're comparing fictional characters to a real-life martyr?

You should change your name to GIMME BACK MY COMMON SENSE.

[PrimeTime32]

(11-10-2015 07:58 PM)GIMME BACK MY SON Wrote:  

So hold on hold on.... female Ghostbusters are ok, female Ocean's 11 are nothing to scoff at, James Bond should be played by Idris Elba and a NORSE God in Thor was also black, but MLK can't be played by a white actor?

What's the deal here guys, I thought we are past race now?

You're a fag.

[TonySandos]

Julius Caesar already being portrayed by a black man in an Ohio play. I'm pretty sure he was real.

[Hades]

If this was a troll in response to how Hollywood makes male roles into female roles and basically any role can be played by minorities its pretty brilliant and cynical and would be more than a little petty.

I would never expect this stunt from an american university. Shark jumped.

[extracube]

(11-10-2015 09:59 PM)PrimeTime32 Wrote:  

You're a fag.

(11-10-2015 10:25 PM)Hades Wrote:  

If this was a troll in response to how Hollywood makes male roles into female roles and basically any role can be played by minorities its pretty brilliant and cynical and would be more than a little petty.

I would never expect this stunt from an american university. Shark jumped.

It's pretty interesting to see that even on a forum like this there are still a lot of guys still brain-washed and "blue pill" when it comes to race and culture -- guys who act all "red pill" when it comes to bitches but then get all PC defensive on race. If historically famous white men can be portrayed in films or on stage by actors of color, then your total typical white male can portray someone who wasn't -- tit-for-tat.

[TonySandos]

I'm still grinning in amusement at this.

The conclusion is obvious, there are those that will always see a right to take or use of whites and white culture but take it as a mortal offense when innocent action doesn't end in their undivided favor. This is because not all people are honest. People like this woman Katori Hall have malice in their hearts, but will never be forced to address it this current world that caters to her imagined injuries and perceived entitlements. Oatman at least had the intellectual bravery to carry King's philosophy possibly one step further. Bravo to him.

Quote:

Hall told the Guardian that director Michael Oatman’s decision to double-cast the six-show production with a black actor and a white actor as King went “deeper than just casting a white man in the role of MLK”.

“I just really feel as though it echoes this pervasive erasure of the black body and the silencing of a black community – theatrically and also, literally, in the world,” she said.

If anything silences the black community, it's black people who speak of themselves like objects when no one else in this era does. She continuously births the superstition of black animalism and savagery with her troglodyte perception of complex events. This woman is irate over perceived harm of "silencing" effortlessly and shamefully speaks for countless unnamed playwrights and an entire art community in a single interview. I guess she was ordained holy spokesperson of the sinless kind.

Quote:

Hall said she thought that if a director was going to experiment like Oatman did, then they should include a discussion with the audience or create another forum to measure the success of such an exercise.

“With a playwright’s intention being dangerously distorted, Oatman’s experiment proved to be a self-serving and disrespectful directing exercise for a paying audience,” Hall wrote.

Why, because Oatman invoked deeper thinking and harder reflection instead of the self-serving despair porn Hall and her kind love to relish in?

Black Americans have to hold the record for race/bigotry or insertion of black characters in a cloned theme being a central arc in their fiction and historical fiction. With it being such a popular and willing component, you'd think black people wouldn't mind such a thought experiment, but that neglects the true, underlying populairty of the genre. It's really often about sadistic and masochistic fantasy. It's an extension of victimhood philosophy that black people should always feel morally superior, yet helpless to do better themselves since their daily experiences consist of media messages showing them how helpless and enslaved they are. You get to have no accountability for poor ethics you may have yet keep all your moral purity!

The sudden absence of white people would be one of the harshest experiences the new, lazy black America ever witnessed. It would be forced to acknowledge its failures and weaknesses with nothing to latch onto for blame in sight. That's oddly a nightmare scenario for many grievance artists in todays nation.

[TonySandos]

Oh yea;

If this news is too much for some of our more melaninated members, I suggest all emotional outbursts at the perversion of MLKs likeness is treated just as it would be if the tables were turned. PrimeTime32, I'm sorry bro but we have to doxx you and harass your family with 3:00Am death threats telling them you're part of the new black panthers and racist like you need to be cleansed from the earth. By the way, you'll be jobless from this point on, but I'm sure you'll make it by fine since the social justice crowd assures us they aren't trying to commit proxy murder in their starvation campaigns on crime thinkers. Welcome to being white.

[Handsome Creepy Eel]

Of course this is retarded, but I've been looking forward to this ever since a black Nigerian actor had been cast in the role of Henry V. Equality is a bitch.

[Hades]

(11-11-2015 01:32 AM)extracube Wrote:  

It's pretty interesting to see that even on a forum like this there are still a lot of guys still brain-washed and "blue pill" when it comes to race and culture -- guys who act all "red pill" when it comes to bitches but then get all PC defensive on race. If historically famous white men can be portrayed in films or on stage by actors of color, then your total typical white male can portray someone who wasn't -- tit-for-tat.

I don't think you read my post correctly.

I don't support the idea of MLK being portrayed as a white guy in a play because it's stupid. What message are they trying to get across?

[frenchcorporation]

Amusing.

I don't think black actors should play historically white characters like james bond etc, I don't know any black people that do.

For those people on this forum and off it, who have " looking forward to this ever since blah blah blah", way more tv/film characters have been whitewashed than the reverse.
It even has its own wikipedia page https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fi...shed_roles




Both sides are retarded, that's some kind of equality I guess.

[Fast Eddie]

Is the white guy playing MLK Jewish? If so, that would be damn deep.

[The Beast1]

While I agree with the premise MLK should be played by a black guy, in this multicultural PC world the playwright should shut the f*ck up.

Here's your cake, eat it too.

[H1N1]

It is pretty ironic that MLK demanded judgment based on 'the content of our characters, not the colour of our skin', and yet here we are with 'The Black Community' saying that by playing him as a white guy, you are misappropriating black culture because of the colour of the guys skin, when the actual content of the portrayal and MLK's ideas have not been altered. Clearly a hypocrisy so delicious has been completely lost in the fog of self-pity. The championing of MLK and the relative sidelining of Malcom X has done more to keep the black man a victim than almost anything else. Case in point: https://www.facebook.com/PanAfrikanEduca...6/?fref=nf


As an aside, this sort of thing has been going on for years - the lovies are at the forefront of agenda pushing. Patrick Stewart played Othello in The Royal Shakespeare Company's production of the play, which otherwise featured an all black cast.

[Dan Woolf]

----------------------------------------

[brick tamland]

Hall is entitled to express her opinion. 'Whitewashing' (in films) is relatively mainstream anyway, according to the Wikipedia article. I don't know yet about its prevalence in theatre.
Here goes, for those who think everyone should just look the other away:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fi...shed_roles

>>The BBC said in 2015, "The practice of casting white actors in non-white roles is still prevalent in Hollywood – despite widespread condemnation and protest." A report in 2013 showed that 94% of film executives were white and that nonwhite people were under-represented as filmmakers and actors. The BBC explored two reasons for the casting practice: institutional racism and producers believing that white actors attract more audiences and maximize profits.

>>Assistant professor of telecommunications Andrew J. Weaver said, "There is an assumption in Hollywood that whites would avoid movies with majority black casts, or any minority cast for that matter. You see this whitewashing of films – even films that have minority characters written into them are being cast with whites."[5] Film professor Mitchell W. Block said studios adhered to casting norms as a matter of practicing business to appeal to investors and producers. Director Ridley Scott said he cast white actors as the stars in his 2014 Biblical epic film Exodus: Gods and Kings to be able to secure financing

[SunW]

(11-11-2015 01:32 AM)extracube Wrote:  

It's pretty interesting to see that even on a forum like this there are still a lot of guys still brain-washed and "blue pill" when it comes to ... culture.

This forum has quite a few SJWs in hiding on it and also attracts quite a few who want to manipulate and influence the men here and they generally do these things subtly, though not in the OP's case. I warn about that here. Notice how even a thread discussing solutions gets derailed by members. Some of this is just the retard level of some people here, while some of it is intentional.

SJWs are very aggressive and will go after anyone they deem as an enemy, and Roosh is their enemy. They also despise any place where men can meet, discuss and grow without any women influencing them. This forum will always be a target. They won't stay off this forum, which is why we have to be aware. Freedom from oppression requires work; it is not free.

[realologist]

I'm on the side that the actor/actress playing the role in the movie should be as close to a representation of history and/or what was originally written. No need to change anything or pander to anybody.

[Marmite]

I thought race was a social construct...

[Paracelsus]

(11-11-2015 04:51 AM)H1N1 Wrote:  

It is pretty ironic that MLK demanded judgment based on 'the content of our characters, not the colour of our skin', and yet here we are with 'The Black Community' saying that by playing him as a white guy, you are misappropriating black culture because of the colour of the guys skin, when the actual content of the portrayal and MLK's ideas have not been altered. Clearly a hypocrisy so delicious has been completely lost in the fog of self-pity. The championing of MLK and the relative sidelining of Malcom X has done more to keep the black man a victim than almost anything else. Case in point: https://www.facebook.com/PanAfrikanEduca...6/?fref=nf

Yep, idiots who say that Obama was the "fulfilment" of MLK's pioneering work are missing that it's entirely the opposite. MLK wanted people to be judged on the content of their character, rather than the colour of their skin. Obama was elected to the Presidency due to the colour of his skin in preference to any other factor in his character or his past.

[Goldin Boy]

Colorblind casting is pretty common in theatre/film.

If the White guy auditioned and was deemed was good enough to earn the role I don't see any problem. Just like making the Human Torch a Black guy, I'm sure the director was looking to create a buzz to generate curiosity and it works every time. The outrage is from both side is so predictable.

(11-11-2015 08:30 AM)Paracelsus Wrote:  

Yep, idiots who say that Obama was the "fulfilment" of MLK's pioneering work are missing that it's entirely the opposite. MLK wanted people to be judged on the content of their character, rather than the colour of their skin. Obama was elected to the Presidency due to the colour of his skin in preference to any other factor in his character or his past.

Re: the bolded that sounds like an assumption you're asserting as a fact. What makes you think that?

[Libertas]

The play that's all the rage in NYC currently is a hip hop story about Alexander Hamilton.

Hamilton, George Washington, etc. are all portrayed by non-white actors.

If that's fine, then this is fine also.

You SJW's made your bed, now lie in it.