Does that also mean that a black actor shouldn’t play a white character? Think of Denzel Washington as the Prince of Aragon in Kenneth Branagh’s film version of Much Ado About Nothing. What about that terrific bit in Richard Pryor’s concert film where he imitated an Italian-American mafioso?
When I was in 8th grade, I persuaded my English teacher, Mrs. Woodward, to allow a few of us to absent ourselves from class for a few weeks while we rehearsed a play, which we then performed for the entire student body of Horace Mann Junior High. The play was Lorraine Hansberry’s “A Raisin in the Sun,” in which I played Walter Lee Younger. That was the Sidney Poitier part (for those of you who saw the film). Not a single one of the student actors was black. As I recall, there were only two black students in the entire school – Sonny and Nick – neither of whom was in my English class.
Putting on that play was a wonderful experience. I don’t recall anyone ever saying a word about the skin color of the actors or questioning the appropriateness of our having chosen to produce and perform that particular play. It was very well received by the students, the teachers, and the parents who came to the performance. Indeed, our production took the school’s awards that year over the competition from the drama department! That was the high point of my short-lived acting career. . .
So what’s my point? Anybody can play the part of anybody, regardless of color, gender, age, or other defining feature. That’s part of the magic of the theatre. An audience can suspend disbelief while watching actors transform themselves into the people they play on stage. All the talk condemning “cultural appropriation” is claptrap, at least with regard to the arts. ALL OF US own the world’s music, art, and literature. That’s one reason why role-playing games and exercises are so useful – so that we can step into others’ shoes, rather than assume that we can never understand another's experience, and certainly never try it on for size.
Years ago, when I led workshops in Jerusalem for Israelis and Palestinians, we always did a role-reversal exercise, in which Palestinians would sit opposite Israelis, one-to-one, and have political conversations. The Palestinians played the part of Israeli Zionists, expressing those viewpoints, and the Israelis played the part of Palestinian nationalists, expressing those views. It was a powerful exercise, one which seemed to increase the participants' empathy for and understanding of those on the other side.
When I lived in L.A., I enjoyed attending performances of the Los Angeles Women’s Shakespeare Company, then led by Lisa Wolpe. All the roles were played by women. In Shakespeare’s day, men played the male roles and boys played the female roles. Why not mix it up? Does the new orthodoxy require that only blacks play blacks and only women play women?
I would love to lead a workshop in which Trump supporters and Trump haters engage in a role-reversal exercise, or where open-borders advocates and immigration restrictionists swap political positions and argue the other side of the issue. That’s one way in which true education can occur.
“Do I contradict myself?
Very well then I contradict myself,
(I am large, I contain multitudes.)”
Very well thought out and reasoned article - much appreciated.
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