Minorities on Stage

An African-American playwright, I’ve sent (dramatic) plays to theaters looking for black work, only to be rejected and later to find that that theater was doing a black musical. The pattern is clear. I usually get responses like “this isn’t the type of play for our audience.”

How can a producer gauge whether an audience will accept certain plays if they don’t produce those plays? I applaud Shabaka and the Los Angeles Theatre Center in their effort to move black plays to main stages. It’s about time.

ALI WADUD

Burbank