A debate about race in theater continues to build in the national media because Cleveland director Michael Oatman chose to cast a white actor to play civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. in Kent State University’s production of Katori Hall’s The Mountaintop.
The KSU play, produced by the African Community Theatre under the Department of Pan-African Studies, ended Oct. 4. But outrage about the controversial directing decision erupted this week in response to a column black playwright Hall wrote in the Root online magazine Monday responding to Oatman’s choice.
“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,” she railed Monday in the Root. “The casting of a white King is committing yet another erasure of the black body. Sure, 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.”
The Mountaintop, which premiered in London in 2009 and opened on Broadway in 2011 starring Samuel L. Jackson and Angela Bassett, is a fictional story about King’s interactions with Camae, a mysterious young woman, in Room 306 of the Lorraine Motel the night before he was assassinated in Memphis.
At Kent State, Oatman originally double cast the King role, with white actor Robert Branch for three performances and a black actor for five shows. When more than one black actor dropped out due to family and other personal issues, Branch, whom Oatman described as one of the best actors he’s ever seen, assumed all eight performances. The role of Camae was played by Cristal Christian, who is black, in the two-person show at KSU.
Exploring issues
Oatman, a black director and playwright himself, said by phone Friday that “I wanted to really explore issues of ownership and authenticity. Can a prominent American be performed by another American or does it have to be an African-American who portrays him?”
“Can a fellow American also have the same level of ownership or some ownership with his [King’s] legend?” Oatman asked about choosing a white actor to play the role.
“I wasn’t sure of the answer but I wanted to ask that question,” said Oatman, who focuses primarily in black theater and actively mentors young black actors and directors in the Cleveland area. “Robert Branch is as much a child of Martin Luther King as I am because he’s an American.”
On Twitter, Hall called that a “tone deaf” directorial decision.
But the actor was really invested in the role.
“I tried to play every single second as honestly and as truthfully as I could …,” Branch said. “Every night during my Mountaintop speech at the end of the show … I had to say, ‘Can I get an amen?’ and every night without fail … I heard a tiny sniffly amen.
“It was not supposed to be an audience participation moment, but it always was. Those who stayed to watch the show … were with me 100 percent.”
Stepping outside box
Actress Christian had this to say on Facebook: “Sometimes you have to step outside the box and judge people based on character and not the color of their skin. That’s what Martin Luther King cared most about right?! I take my hat off to anybody who would step up and do a role like Robert played in Mountaintop whether that person be black or white. Commitment doesn't have a color.”
Since Monday, the story has been picked up by the Washington Post and the Huffington Post, and Oatman has done two phone interviews with CNN.
“The controversial production, and Hall’s angry reaction, have opened a debate about the limits of non-traditional casting at a time when race is under a microscope in America,” the Washington Post said Wednesday.
At a time when America’s founding fathers are being portrayed by people of color on Broadway in Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton, Oatman wanted to explore whether King’s words rang differently or not with actors of different race.
Friends are supportive of Oatman’s directorial license on his Facebook page, referring to him as “a thoughtful rebel,” but handling the flood of media requests has been difficult, he said.
“It kind of sweeps you off your feet. It’s a little overwhelming. But as an educator I am glad that there are certain conversations that are taking off and that are happening and that people way smarter than me are discussing how race works in the American theater, and that’s a very fascinating conversation,” Oatman said.
Known as a provocative playwright, Oatman, 41, is the second playwright in residence at Cleveland's Karamu House since Langston Hughes. He grew up in East Cleveland, is a member of the Playwrights Unit at Cleveland Play House, and was commissioned to create the play Crazy Man, which explores fragile racial bonds, by Weathervane Playhouse last year.
As a director, he stands by his nontraditional casting in The Mountaintop.
“I stand by the choice. Certainly I think it was a fair choice in theater. Now would I do it again? No,” he said. “Of all the things I wanted to explore and all the things that I wanted to do, angering Katori Hall was not one of them.”
Chat with playwright
Oatman, who talked to Hall by phone about a month after the play closed, said the conference call ran about an hour with his assistant director Darryl Lewis and Amoaba Gooden, chair of the Department of Pan-African Studies, also onboard.
“She asked about the performance and how things went and why I made the choices I made,” Oatman said. “I found it to be very intelligent, very inquisitive, passionate.”
Does Oatman feel the playwright is trying to silence or shame him now in the press?
“I think artists get too touchy about this kind of stuff,” he said. “I think whenever you make a controversial decision like this you have to allow the audience their space to react as they’re going to react. That’s what theater is about.”
“So I’ve got no problem with Katori Hall. Whether I agree with her or not is another question. … Her response is as valid as people who stood up and applauded” at the show, he said. Oatman said a total of six people walked out over the production’s eight-performance run.
In her column, Hall said that neither Oatman nor KSU contacted her or Dramatists Play Service to ask about experimenting with race in her play. Nothing in the licensing agreement prohibited Oatman’s choice but that has now changed.
“In the wake of the Kent State production, the following clause has been added to my licensing agreement: “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,” Hall wrote.
Arts writer Kerry Clawson may be reached at 330-996-3527 or kclawson@thebeaconjournal.com. Like her on Facebook at www.facebook.com/kclawsonabj or follow her on Twitter @KerryClawsonABJ.