An examination of plays in the canon that we all deserve to see with an all-Black cast.
“The landscape of theatre is an interesting one to me, as a place that has been open to white male queer bodies, rarely do we look it as a place that needs to be critiqued in its handling of individuals that don’t fall into the white cis male parameters.” I think it’s that caution to critique that has theatre in a stagnant state, though. People see theatre as this thing that’s for the underdogs or the outcasts to come and find a home, but look at the stage. The way that it’s functioning right now, it seems unlikely that a Black person, let alone a Black queer person, could go to the theatre and see a community that they’d assume would openly embrace themselves. The thing about being ahead of the game is that you have to stay ahead of the game for it to matter. So what if the theatre accepted white cis gay men in the 70s if Black queer women don’t feel like they have a place in 2015? The past is only useful to us as a catalyst for better theatre in the future; right now it feels like we’re stuck in the past."
