The LA Times has an interesting and slightly disturbing (to me, at least) article that wonders if white directors should direct "black plays" (meaning, plays written by black playwrights). The article specifically refers to August Wilson, who only allowed black directors to do his work. With the Broadway revival of Joe Turner's Come and Gone, Bartlet Sher became the first and only non-black director to have worked on an August Wilson piece--setting a precedent that worries some people.
The article contains quotations in defense of racially matching directors with writers. The main point--that directors who aren't white are almost never on the radar when the piece is by somebody who is--is definitely valid, and it's an issue that really bothers me. But playwright/director Charles Randolph-Wright remarking that "Now I won't even get the black project" worries me. The idea that there are "black plays" and "white plays" really makes me uneasy; it implies that your race determines who is going to connect to your work, and that is not my experience at all. I also think that entrenches the ghettoization of minorities in theatre, and that just makes the problem worse.
Sheldon Epps, the artistic director of Pasadena Playhouse, sums up his position--and mine--perfectly: "I don't have a problem with it aesthetically. I have a problem with it in actuality. When there is a free flow in both directions, then it is no issue at all to me." I'm not sure what the best way to achieve that free flow in both directions, but I don't think eliminating any flow at all is the solution.
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