Rap, Rep, Race: A Rhetoric
by Kelli Marino
for Remy Bumppo Theatre Company’s production of thinkTank: American Ethnic and
American Theater Company’s productions of True West and Topdog/Underdog
On a historic day in America, the day that an African American is sworn in as President of the
United States, people across the nation stood still, well…at least we did here at Remy Bumppo. Remy
Bumppo staff turned away from our computers and watched the television brought in by Executive
Director Kristin Larsen. President Obama spoke of America’s new direction, and new call to action:
What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility—a recognition, on the part of
every American, that we have duties to ourselves, our nation, and the world, duties that
we do not grudgingly accept but rather seize gladly, firm in the knowledge that there is
nothing so satisfying to the spirit, so defining of our character, than giving our all to a
difficult task. This is the price and the promise of citizenship.
As Americans, we are responsible for our country, for the things that happen here or do not happen
here, for the changes we make or do not make. In theatre, generally, we try to challenge and provoke
audiences and ourselves to think about issues and topics in new ways, tangential ways, or even simple
ways. Especially today, theatre has taken political, racial, and economic subjects directly to the
forefront and produced some fantastic pieces about said issues, mostly disagreeing with the country’s
politics and taking a stand against them to inspire change in some way. Two Chicago theatre
companies, Remy Bumppo and American Theater Company, are both currently exploring race and
politics through thoughtful theatre. Remy Bumppo’s thinkTank piece American Ethnic is creating a
dialogue with audiences to ask and answer several questions about race and gender in the media, while
American Theater Company’s productions of True West and Topdog/Underdog are pushing the
boundaries between the texts to find if altering the races of the characters alters the production as a
whole. The point of theatre, to me, is to provoke thought, to keep people talking about what they have
just seen and experienced, to have the audience ask themselves, “What have I learned? Am I thinking
about things differently now? Did this play change me and the way I view (insert subject here)?” That
is what I look for in theatre.
In the height of this year about, or not about race, and the question of whether racism still exists in the
United States, I am reminded of the work that Remy Bumppo is doing to bring light to this issue. Our
thinkTank production, American Ethnic, is dramatizing the ways in which the media depicts race and
gender, and asking audiences to re-think the ways that they see race and gender. As Americans we are
at a crucial and historic period in our country. Shawn Douglass, thinkTank’s producer finds that “with
the election of the first African American President, some political commentators have claimed that we
are now living in a post-racial world and that racism has been rooted out of our culture. Others have
insisted that there is still much work to be done. American Ethnic will explore the way that images
created and perpetuated by the media and pop culture can either be a tool for deepening, or
dismantling, our perception of race, class and gender in America. It will also explore how these
perceptions affect us on a very personal level. How each of us must come to terms with the way
expectations affect our self-perceptions, our behavior and our personal relationships.” Does the media
perpetuate stereotypes? Do they create the stereotypes? Do they exclude certain ethnicities from their
exposure? When and why do they focus on specific ethnicities? Can media be a force for change or
progress? To help answer these questions, or perhaps shed new light on these issues, we have three
incredible spoken word artists creating this piece: Usman Ally, a Pakistani national and actor, born and
raised in Southern and Eastern Africa; Idris Goodwin, an African American NEA winning hip hop
playwright, break beat poet, recording artist and teacher; and Kelly Zen-Yie Tsai, a Chinese Taiwanese
American, three-time HBO Def Poetry Slam performer. Together, these three artists will speak for
their cultures and generation, challenging what media exposure, or lack thereof, has created,
perpetuated, and explored. In an article online at Remy Bumppo’s blogsite, Idris Goodwin commented
on race in America:
Racism is a disease. It’s the AIDS virus of the “isms.” It’s responsible for countless
deaths, deferred dreams, horrific atrocities. It’s ingrained, woven tightly into the fabric
of our country. You could say racism is our national pastime. Do I think things are
better? Of course. [But to] suggest that racism is over because the browner guy won the
game underestimates the weight and power of its legacy and insults its victims.
I am scared to think that this might really be true. Goodwin makes a convincing argument insinuating
that although we have gone through many years of progress, that progression may not fully exist. In
light of Obama’s victory, a path long set in place is now able to be walked. Instead of someone
thinking they can climb the mountain, they actually believe they can climb the mountain. Thinking and
believing are two very separate words, but as Goodwin speaks to those who have been racially
acknowledged, what are we supposed to think of those who have been ignored? Kelly Tsai writes:
As the presidential campaigns for the 2008 election began, I found myself rapt and
rabid in front of the television screen and the radio speaker hoping, praying, begging
that somebody, anybody would even mention the word, “Asian,” in ANY of their
speeches. My standards for politicians were sinking to new lows: “Just SAY Asian
pleeeeease!”
In the midst of all the media spin, mud-slinging, and rare dialogue on real policy issues,
I wondered shouldn’t we expect and want more from our candidates? Our candidates
need to not only acknowledge us, but also take on the charge to advocate for the rights
and freedoms of every single one of us.
Tsai brings up an interesting and vital point: what happens when race is simply a non-issue? Isn’t that
something to be thinking of too? This is the exact reason that so many ethnic theatre artists produce
incredible works that expose all American cultures that others may have previously ignored. Theatre
companies like Rasaka (the South-Asian theatre company), Teatro Luna (a Hispanic/Latino company)
and Congo Square (an African American theatre company) have given a voice to their heritage and
illuminated Chicago’s theatre audiences and communities to their work.
Here at Remy Bumppo, yes, we focus on primarily Anglo, British plays and playwrights, but
with our thinkTank (in its third year), we are continually challenging our work to connect with the
issues facing America today. And we are doing it in Remy Bumppo fashion: thoughtfully,
provocatively, and passionately. How is race being viewed by the media? You will have to come and
see thinkTank and find out what our artists have to say about the media’s role in viewing race and
gender.
Adding to the theme of race in the media, I turn to wondering how Chicago’s media might view
American Theater Company’s productions of True West and Topdog/Underdog. More importantly,
will ATC be perpetuating any stereotypes or ideas through this process, and if so, how will audiences
perceive these? For those who do not know me, I also work at American Theater Company, so I will
try to explain our present work. Currently we are producing The Black /White Rep, in collaboration
with Congo Square Theatre. This Rep is an experiment challenging the texts of Sam Shepard’s True
West and Suzan-Lori Parks’s Topdog/Underdog through race and social economics. What that means
is we are having a Caucasian and an African American cast for both shows—yes, there will be white
guys playing Lincoln and Booth in Topdog, and black guys playing Austin and Lee in True West. This
is not a gimmick, but an exploration of “how might circumstances and relationships differ in these two
incredible plays if the brothers in each show are racially different than written?” We are looking to see
how race changes the story, or whether it actually does change the story? In an online interview,
ATC’s artistic director PJ Paparelli commented on the Rep:
[Derrick and I] really didn't want to fall into the typical co-production where the white
theatre does a black piece in order to diversify. We thought, "How can we do something
together?" We turned our attention to finding two classic plays that could be told
through a multicultural lens. True West and Topdog/Underdog are universal stories of
brotherhood. Derrick and I thought we could guide each other's companies through
these stories with actors exploring characters in both plays. The big challenge, of
course, is putting white actors into the black piece. We asked ourselves, "Could we tell
the story of Topdog/Underdog with white brothers?" We didn't want white actors to
play African American roles. We asked ourselves "could these characters be white?"
Derrick felt he could do that and illuminate the story in a new way. I had directed True
West years ago in Russia and was eager to explore the play again with dual casts.
This is not about a white theatre and a black theatre doing two shows and producing them in the same
space, but it is about creating a dialogue for the two pieces of art, to have the art and the artists talk
with, teach, and inform the other, to illuminate one another and the text. We are not asking audiences
to go color-blind, NO, that is not the point. We are fully aware, and hope that the audience is aware,
that these characters are a specific race, and we want that fact to illuminate the text in ways that it has
never been before. That is what ATC and Congo Square are striving for. It is about asking audiences
to take a look at what happens when stereotypical race is removed from stereotypical surroundings—
when two brothers have grown up in an environment and that is all they know – how do black kids
function in a white suburban L.A. community? How much of an influence has an urban culture had on
these white brothers? I think Derrick Sanders, Artistic Director for Congo Square Theatre puts the
intentions of the Rep beautifully:
I hope they are enriched by the plays. I hope they talk about the similarities and the
depths of the plays. I think they will talk about, in a broader term, what it means to be
an American in today’s society. These plays have the ability to echo broader to
everybody about what it means to have family, and what it means to have a functional
family, and to have love and be without love. In any language and in any form, I hope
they realize it is all the same.
The most important part of this Black/White Rep is the education program at ATC called American
Mosaic, where six CPS High Schools, 600 students, and 23 classes are working on scenes from these
plays. This is a six week residency program that takes these two plays to the schools and asks students
to analyze and create scenes and designs for one play or the other. The various high school students
will all come to the theatre to perform the play in one fully realized production; in essence it will be a
mosaic. The students are not subjected to traditional ethnicities with the casting or design, they are not
subject to the genders either. It is amazing that we will have the plays explored through brotherbrother, brother-sister, and sister-sister relationships. The dynamics and variety that these students will
bring to the plays will be overwhelmingly insightful. We hope that our students find ways to connect
with these characters with whom they once thought they had nothing in common. Obama’s
inauguration even said that “Our patchwork heritage is a strength.” I can not wait for students from all
over Chicago, black, white and Hispanic, to come together and create one production. That will be
strength, these students uniting for one production. That is exciting to think about. Our hope is that
this residency will help them see that all Americans are similar at the most basic levels. We all have
similar conflicts and we all are accountable to one another—or at least we should all be there for one
another.
“The time has come to set aside childish things,” says Obama. “Today, I say to you that the
challenges we face are real. They are serious and they are many. They will not be met easily or in a
short span of time. But know this, America — they will be met.” It is time that our theatre pushes the
boundaries and challenges the social norms and accepted values. Fighting for a new way of thinking
and seeing is what makes theatre so wonderful. Theatre artists are a creative force in the world and an
expression of life—real life. I know that both Remy Bumppo and ATC are able to break the boundaries
concerning racial and gender issues through these productions. I hope theatre goers will resolve to take
advantage of the opportunities to experience both of these companies’ works on race. If theatre persists
in creating a buzz and a stir in our community and gets people talking and thinking about what is going
on, we will never forget it. For fun, and in the essence of hope and progress, I think I will leave this
article in the hands of Reverend Dr. Joseph Lowery:
“In the joy of a new beginning, we ask you to fight for that day
when Black will not be asked to get back,
when Brown can stick around,
when Yellow will be mellow,
when the Red man can get ahead man,
and when White will embrace what’s right.
That all those that love justice and have mercy say Amen!”