Why White Playwrights Must Write About Black Characters

By W. F. Twyman, Jr.

My old friend Dan has provided me with yet another example of race in current life. Some of you may recall my earlier treatment of a Washington Post news story about Stephanie Gilbert and her desire to visit the old slave place of Richland Farm. One hundred and seventy-five (175) years have come and gone since Gilbert’s great great grandfather escaped from the plantation. And yet Gilbert asked the new owner of Richland Farm, a South Korean immigrant, if Gilbert could spend the night in the house…alone…when the place was empty…to connect with her ancestors…in the year 2023. Dan shared this tale of overindulgence in one’s slave ancestry which I wrote about.

I followed up this essay with my insights into a parallel story about a house of enslavement, the Randolph plantation along the James River in Warwick, Chesterfield County, Virginia.

Dan has now shared another interesting article about race in the modern era for my perspective.

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On August 13, 2023, writers Linnea Friberg-Price, Sharon Kyle and Dick Price reviewed a play. “A Moment of Freedom” is a good story about how a house slave in Massachusetts takes legal action to sue for her freedom under the state constitution. The year was 1781 and use of the law was put to the test. https://hollywoodprogressive.com/stage/moment-of-freedom?utm_source=LA+Progressive+NEW&utm_campaign=0969264576-LAP+News+--+%288%29+18+NOVEMBER+2022_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_61288e16ef-0969264576-286927705&ct=t(EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_11_17_2022_10_46_COPY_01)&mc_cid=0969264576&mc_eid=a75a2a3a60

I found the review of the play deficient for several reasons.

First, an important and vital character in the play is the lawyer who represented and advocated for Bet, a house slave. Bet was not walking to the law library and researching the case law and drafting arguments. Bet’s unsung lawyer was performing the heavy lifting. Why was the lawyer who broke significant legal ground not mentioned in the review of the play?

I suspect the writers ignored and dismissed the name of the unknown winning lawyer because he was white. A white lawyer was not deemed worthy of mention, even though there would have been no play but for the lawyer’s acumen and skill! To airbrush out of memory the name of the winning lawyer takes away from the credibility of the play review.

Try harder, guys.

Second, I get the impulse to “center blackness” but a review has to play it straight. Had there been no winning white lawyer (“savior” to use a stale term), there would have been no freedom for Bet. Come on people. Where’s the reality check here?

Third, this impulse to center blackness treats Bet as an infant, vulnerable. Bet’s story doesn’t need contrived centering. Bet’s full, and complete, story includes all of the characters in her life. Notice how I wrote about General Samuel Fessenden and Macon Bolling Allen out of respect for General Fessenden’s “black heart” and Allen’s epic faith in the coming of a better time. No one’s race needs to be centered to tell a full, nuanced and complex, human story.

Fourth, the writers then proceed to “center” the white race of the writer and director of the play…. Stop right there. At this point, the reviewers of the play lost me. The race of the writer and director are irrelevant to me. Do you want to know what I do care about? I care about how the play made me care about the characters. I care about whether I feel the dialogue, whether the songs are memorable, whether I see my inner turmoil with grief and loss on the stage, whether I remember the experience days and weeks later.

When my sister passed away and I had to drive my nephew and niece and dad to the morgue to view my sister’s lifeless body, I played Being Alive in the car to sustain me, to sustain us.

Fifth, more white playwrights must write about black characters. There is no one white experience. There is no one black experience. There is one human experience and white playwrights must have the courage of their convictions to ignore small minds who care only about race.

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Conclusion — I wrote this essay because Dan suggested white playwrights might be afraid to plunge into the depths of black characters. More important than the race of the playwright and the race of the character is a simple truth…the courage to be alive in one’s play.