Slave Play

Last updated

Slave Play
Slave Play 2019 Broadway poster.jpg
Broadway promotional poster
Written by Jeremy O. Harris
Characters
  • Kaneisha
  • Jim
  • Phillip
  • Alana
  • Dustin
  • Gary
  • Teá
  • Patricia
Date premieredNovember 19, 2018 (2018-11-19)
Place premiered New York Theatre Workshop
Original languageEnglish
SubjectRacism, sexuality, power relations, trauma, interracial relationships
Official site

Slave Play is a three-act play by Jeremy O. Harris [1] about race, sex, power relations, trauma, and interracial relationships. [2] [3] It follows three interracial couples undergoing "Antebellum Sexual Performance Therapy" because the black partners no longer feel sexual attraction to their white partners. The title refers both to the history of slavery in the United States and to sexual slavery role-play.

Contents

Harris originally wrote the play in his first year at the Yale School of Drama, [4] [5] and it debuted on a major stage on November 19, 2018, in an Off-Broadway New York Theatre Workshop staging directed by Robert O'Hara. It opened on Broadway at the John Golden Theatre on October 6, 2019. In 2019, Slave Play was nominated for Best Play in the Lucille Lortel Awards, [6] and Claire Warden won an Outstanding Fight Choreography Drama Desk Award for her work in the play. [7] The play has been the center of controversy due to its themes and content. [8] At the 74th Tony Awards, Slave Play received 12 nominations, breaking the record set by the 2018 revival of Angels in America for most nominations for a non-musical play, though it did not receive any awards.

Characters

Plot

Act One: "Work"

Act One begins at McGregor Plantation, a southern cotton plantation in pre-Civil War Virginia. [10] The first act chronicles three private meetings and sexual encounters of three interracial couples. The play begins with the song "Work" by Rihanna playing in the McGregor's overseer cottage. [11] Kaneisha, a slave, begins to twerk to the song when Jim, a white slave owner, walks in holding a whip. Jim is repeatedly uncomfortable when Kaneisha calls him "Master," but berates her for not cleaning the room better and throws a cantaloupe on the ground and tells Kaneisha to eat it. As Kaneisha eats the cantaloupe, she begins to dance again, which confuses and arouses Jim. [11] The overseer then initiates sex with Kaneisha. [12] When she asks to be called a "nasty, lazy negress," he instead proceeds to perform cunnilingus. [11]

The scene transitions to the boudoir of Madame McGregor, the wife of Master McGregor. Madame McGregor, or Alana, calls upon Phillip, her mulatto servant, and asks him to play the fiddle. Phillip begins to play Beethoven's Op. 132. Alana stops him, calling European music boring, and asks him to play "negro" music. Phillip plays "Pony" by Ginuwine and Alana dances, then initiates sex, saying she is under Phillip's mulatto spell. [11] She then uses a dildo to penetrate him, asking him if he likes being in the woman's position. [13] Phillip replies that he is unsure. [11]

In the McGregor's barn, Gary, a black slave, is in charge of Dustin, a white indentured servant. Gary taunts Dustin, finding their allocation of power amusing. Gary kicks Dustin down, calling him lesser than other white people. [11] The song “Multi-Love” by Unknown Mortal Orchestra begins to play. The two fight before they engage in sexual intimacy. [2] Gary has Dustin lick Gary's boot clean; this causes Gary to orgasm. He suddenly starts crying and cannot be comforted by Dustin. [11]

The scene shifts back to the other couples. Phillip keeps playing music that Alana does not like on his fiddle and Kaneisha and Jim are engaged in sex. Kaneisha asks again to be called a "negress." Even as Kaneisha nears orgasm, Jim stops participating when Kaneisha calls him "Masta Jim". Jim then switches to speaking in a British accent and tells Kaneisha that he is not comfortable with the situation. [11] Jim uses his safeword, [12] "Starbucks," to end the encounter. [11]

Suddenly, new characters in modern clothing, Patricia and Teá (also an interracial couple [13] ) come into the room. They recommend for the three couples to meet back at the main house soon. [11] It is revealed that in reality the characters are modern couples participating in a role-playing exercise meant to improve intimacy between white and black partners. [12]

Act Two: "Process"

The second act is dedicated to a contemporary group therapy session among the three couples to treat their inability to experience sexual pleasure. [10] The therapists, Patricia and Teá, speak through affirmations and academic jargon for most of the session. [14] They are on Day Four of the therapy, which focuses on fantasy play.

Dustin begins by noting that Gary came, which he could not do before, but Gary counters that Dustin was uncomfortable in making his whiteness hyper-visible. Alana enjoyed the release of the fantasy and asks Phillip if he enjoyed it too, noting that he got an erection when he had trouble before. [14] Jim keeps interrupting speakers with laughter; Teá asks him to share, especially since he was the one who said the safeword. Jim is confused and overwhelmed by the therapy. Teá clarifies that the therapy, titled Antebellum Sexual Performance Therapy, was designed to help black partners feel pleasure again with their white partners. Jim is uncomfortable playing the role of the slave overseer and demeaning his wife, and believes the experience is traumatizing and ruining his relationship with Kaneisha. Kaneisha feels frustrated and betrayed that Jim did not give what she asked of him. [14]

After Patricia and Teá read back to the group what they have said, Alana points out that mostly white men are speaking. Dustin insists that he is not white. Dustin and Gary get back into an old argument over Dustin wanting to move into a more gentrified neighborhood. Dustin refuses to label himself as white, and Gary feels that through this he erases Gary's identity. [14] Phillip, who has not spoken much, says that the therapy seems fake to him. Alana speaks over him, still upset about Jim saying the safeword. [14]

Patricia and Teá explain the origins of Antebellum Sexual Performance Therapy in treating anhedonia, with Patricia speaking over Teá. The couple shaped it as their thesis together at Smith and then Yale. They are foregrounding the study both through their experiences in their own relationship and their academic background. They state that anhedonia is caused by racial trauma passed down through history: black partners may be unable to enjoy sex with their white partners because of “Racialized Inhibiting Disorder." Teá previously experienced anhedonia with Patricia, and it was through fantasy play that she worked out her racial trauma. Symptoms associated with Racialized Inhibiting Disorder include anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and "musical obsession disorder." [14]

Phillip says none of his partners are able to see him as black and he struggles with being mixed race. Gary realizes that the song he often hears, “Multi-Love”, was imagined due to "musical obsession disorder." Kaneisha says she felt in control during the fantasy play, but Jim took that away from her by using the safeword; Gary agrees but Phillip does not. It is revealed that Phillip and Alana met because her ex-husband had a cuckold fetish, and that when Phillip was with her under those pretenses, he felt sexually excited because he was viewed as black by her husband. Alana insists it had nothing to do with race, and now that they are in a committed relationship Alana views him as a complex person. Alana breaks down. Gary confronts Dustin, asking why he always says he is not white. Gary questions why they are still together, and he and Dustin almost get into a fight before Patricia and Teá break it up. [14]

Jim starts to read something he wrote on his phone. He does not understand why Kaneisha looks at him with disgust, like he is "a virus," nor does he know what he is supposed to do. Kaneisha realizes that "virus" is the description she has been searching for, referencing the diseases introduced by Europeans which decimated the indigenous peoples of the Americas. [2] She says she knows now that she cannot experience pleasure because she cannot forget her disgust with Jim's race. [14] She confronts Patricia and Teá, saying they are wrong: the problem is within the white partners, not a disorder within the black partners. [14] Kaneisha is overwhelmed as “Work” by Rihanna begins playing again. [14]

Act Three: "Exorcise"

In the third act, [10] "Work" plays as Kaneisha is packing in a room and Jim comes in. Kaneisha says that what she needs isn't better communication, but for Jim to simply listen. Jim is silent as Kaneisha recounts how they met, and then times in her childhood when she had to visit plantations on school field trips. As the only black girl, she felt a need to act proud for her "elders" watching her. She says she fell in love with Jim, a white man, because he was not American. [15] Jim begins to initiate foreplay and the music rises while Kaneisha continues that the relationship went downhill three years ago, when she stopped feeling sexual pleasure because she began to see him as foreign and frightening. She saw Jim's whiteness and power, and that he also has "the virus", because though he is not American, he benefits from being white while being unaware of the privilege that whiteness gives him. She says that Antebellum Sexual Performance Therapy and the fantasy play gave her a sense of peace because she feels the elders watching her again; the elders do not care that she is with "a demon / who thinks he’s a saint", but simply want the two of them to know he is a demon. [15]

Suddenly, Jim calls Kaneisha a "negress" and gags her; the music stops. Jim returns to performing his slave owner role, dominating and insulting Kaneisha. She silently consents to continue, but when Jim initiates forceful sex she struggles free and screams the safeword. She begins to cry, then laugh, and Jim cries as well as they comfort each other. Kaneisha stands and thanks Jim for listening. [16]

Themes

Slave Play deals with the themes of race, sex, power relations, trauma, and interracial relationships. [2] [3] Lapacazo Sandoval wrote that the play provides a real look at racism in America, especially in how racism persists even past the abolition of slavery. [3] The play attempts to uncover current racism and microaggressions through the lens of slavery. [3] Aisha Harris, writing for The New York Times , said the play “bluntly confronts the lingering traumas of slavery on black Americans." [17] Through the reoccurring theme of psychoanalysis, Jeremy O. Harris examines how slavery still impacts both the mental states, and the relationships, of black people in the present. [17]

By staging a conversation between slavery and the present, the play uses the theme of time and history to depict how the trauma of slavery persists. [17] As Tonya Pinkins writes, racism does not have a safe word in the play, and throughout the narrative, white characters are forced to recognize their historical and social locations in relation to their partners. [8] The play dwells on the impact of black erasure in interracial relationships. [10] Throughout the narrative, the white partners are incapable of recognizing, or naming, their partners race, rather it is because of guilt, or because they get defensive. [10] By placing sex and racial dynamics in juxtaposition through the Antebellum Sexual Performance Therapy, the play makes whiteness, and white privilege, hyper visible in interracial relationships. [10] Soraya Nadia McDonald points out that the play works to uncover racial innocence. [13] Racial innocence is the concept that white people are innocent of race, and therefore they are racially neutral. [18] By placing the white characters in the position of the master, the mistress, or the indentured servant, the play makes whiteness visible to the white characters. [13]

Background

Author Jeremy O. Harris Jeremy O. Harris at CultureHub, November 9, 2018-1.jpg
Author Jeremy O. Harris
Director of New York Theatre Workshop and Broadway productions Robert O'Hara Robert O'Hara at the Bootycandy Symposium, September 15, 2014-1.jpg
Director of New York Theatre Workshop and Broadway productions Robert O'Hara

Author Jeremy O. Harris has said that he wrote Slave Play during his first year at the Yale School of Drama, [5] from which he graduated in 2019. [19] In October 2017, a production of Slave Play was presented at the Yale School of Drama as part of the annual Langston Hughes Festival. [20] [21] The first workshop production was directed by Em Weinstein. [22]

Production history

Off-Broadway (2018)

The play was announced for the 2018–2019 season of the New York Theatre Workshop (NYTW) [23] and was taken into the development program of the National Playwrights Conference at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center. [24] [25] Later that month, Robert O'Hara, [26] who had known Harris since his brief studies at De Paul University and was one of his teachers at Yale, [27] was announced as director. [28] At the end of July 2018, the first public reading of the work was held at the conference. [29]

Previews of the production at NYTW, under the patronage of the production company Seaview Productions, began on November 19, 2018. [30] Due to high demand, the duration of the show's run was extended before the official December 9 premiere, with the final performance being postponed from the original closing date of December 30, 2018, to January 13, 2019. [31] Over the next two weeks, tickets for all performances sold out. [32] [33]

Broadway (2019)

On September 18, 2019, the play ran and hosted a Broadway Blackout night where the audience consisted of only black identified artists, writers, or students. [34] The play began its Broadway run at the John Golden Theatre in October 2019. [35] [36] The play opened its 17-week limited Broadway engagement on October 6, 2019, and closed as scheduled on January 19, 2020. [36] [37] Harris and his team promised that 10,000 tickets would be sold at $39 in an effort to diversify the crowd. [38]

In June 2020, the producers and creative team of Slave Play made a donation of $10,000 (~$11,599 in 2023) to the National Bailout Fund and released a statement in support of Black Lives Matter. [39]

Broadway remount (2021)

In September 2021, it was announced that a new engagement of the play will run at the August Wilson Theatre from November 23, 2021, to January 23, 2022, with plans to then transfer to Los Angeles. Most of the cast returned, with the exception of Joaquina Kalukango, due to a prior commitment to the pre-Broadway run of Paradise Square ; she was replaced by Antoinette Crowe-Legacy, who originated the role of Kaneisha at the Yale School of Drama. The producers said they intended to repeat their previous efforts to sell 10,000 tickets for $39 each. [40] The production later transferred to the Center Theatre Group's Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles from February 9 to March 13, 2022, after plans to stage it in 2020 were delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. [41]

West End (2024)

In February 2024, it was announced that the production would transfer to London's West End for a limited engagement. The show is expected to begin performances from 29 June 2024 at the Noël Coward Theatre and is scheduled to run through 21 September 2024. Appearing in the cast will be Fisayo Akinade , Kit Harington , Aaron Heffernan , and Olivia Washington , alongside James Cusati-Moyer, Chalia La Tour, Annie McNamara, and Irene Sofia Lucio, all four of whom are expected to reprise their respective roles from the original Broadway production. [42] "Black Out" nights return in this run, wherein two performances will be exclusively available for black-identifying audience members, facilitated through partnerships with outside organizations. [43] [44] Additionally, a select number of tickets will be reserved for each performance as pay-what-you-can, along with an additional selection of £20 tickets released each performance day. [45]

Roles and principal casts

CharacterOff-BroadwayBroadwayBroadway RemountLos Angeles
2018201920212022
Kaneisha Teyonah Parris Joaquina Kalukango Antoinette Crowe-Legacy
Jim Paul Alexander Nolan
PhillipSullivan JonesJonathan Higginbotham
AlanaAnnie McNamaraElizabeth Stahlmann
DustinJames Cusati-Moyer Devin Kawaoka
GaryAto Blankson-WoodJakeem Dante Powell
TeáChalia La Tour
PatriciaIrene Sofia Lucio

Reception

Critical reception of Slave Play has been polarized. [3] [8] Due to themes revolving around sexuality and slavery, reviewers have either defended the play or criticized it. [46] In particular, Harris believes that making a play palatable would be buying into respectability politics, and reviewers such as Tim Teeman and Soraya Nadia McDonald have noted how Slave Play's explicit content is utilized to critique racism in the United States. [10] [13] [46]

There have been petitions to shut down Slave Play because of its themes. [47] In particular, audience members and writers have criticized the play for its treatment of Black women characters, and voicing that it disrespects the violent history of rape in chattel slavery. [47] In 2018, a petition titled "Shutdown Slave Play" was started, with the petitioner describing the play as traumatizing and exploitative of human atrocities. [47] Critic Elisabeth Vincentelli noted the similarities between the themes and style of Slave Play and those of the plays An Octoroon (2014) and Underground Railroad Game (2016). [48] [49]

Despite the controversy, many reviewers have met the play with acclaim. [8] Peter Marks describes the play as funny and scalding, while Sara Holden wrote that Harris manages to make every character an archetype while at the same giving them depth. [50] [12] Positive reviews of the play herald Slave Play as both confronting racism and unpacking the nuances of interracial relationships, and cite it as comedic and entertaining. [50] [12] Aisha Harris wrote about the experience of seeing Slave Play as a Black woman, stating that the uncomfortable narrative of the play allows for productive thought. [17]

Other reviewers have reviewed the play negatively. Thom Geier reviewed the play as intentionally designed to provoke, and calls the play uneven. [2] Juan Michael Porter II, a Black theater writer, reviewed the play as consisting of oversimplified confessions meant to titillate the audience. [51]

Black Out performances

The concept of the black out performance originated during the initial Broadway run of Slave Play. [52] The performances were aimed at a Black or Black-identifying audience, including people of mixed race. [53] The black out performances were replicated in the London run of the play which led to criticism by a spokesperson for the British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak that they were "wrong and divisive". Harris defended the idea on BBC Radio 4's The World At One , saying: "The idea of a Black Out night is to say: this is a night that we are specifically inviting black people to fill up the space, to feel safe with a lot of other black people in a place where they often do not feel safe. I think that one of the things that we have to remember is that people have to be radically invited into a space to know that they belong there. In most places in the West, poor people and black people have been told that they do not belong inside of the theatre." [54]

Awards and nominations

Original Off-Broadway production

YearAwardCategoryNomineeResult
2019 Lucille Lortel Awards [6] Best PlayNominated
Outstanding Featured Actor in a PlayAto Blankson-WoodNominated
Drama Desk Award [7] Outstanding Lighting Design for a Play Jiyoun ChangNominated
Outstanding Fight ChoreographyClaire WardWon
Outer Critics Circle Award [55] John Gassner AwardJeremy O. HarrisNominated

Original Broadway production

YearAwardCategoryNomineeResult
2020 Tony Awards [56] Best Play Nominated
Best Leading Actress in a Play Joaquina Kalukango Nominated
Best Featured Actor in a Play Ato Blankson-WoodNominated
James Cusati-MoyerNominated
Best Featured Actress in a Play Chalia La TourNominated
Annie McNamaraNominated
Best Direction of a Play Robert O'Hara Nominated
Best Original Score Lindsay Jones Nominated
Best Scenic Design of a Play Clint Ramos Nominated
Best Costume Design of a Play Dede AyiteNominated
Best Lighting Design of a Play Jiyoun ChangNominated
Best Sound Design of a Play Lindsay JonesNominated
Drama League Awards [57] Outstanding Production of a PlayNominated
Distinguished Performance AwardAto Blankson-WoodNominated
Outer Critics Circle Award [58] Outstanding Actress in a PlayJoaquina KalukangoHonoree
GLAAD Media Award [59] Outstanding Broadway ProductionNominated

Related Research Articles

Reparations for slavery is the application of the concept of reparations to victims of slavery or their descendants. There are concepts for reparations in legal philosophy and reparations in transitional justice. In the US, reparations for slavery have been both given by legal ruling in court and/or given voluntarily by individuals and institutions.

During the history of the Latter Day Saint movement, the relationship between Black people and Mormonism has included enslavement, exclusion and inclusion, and official and unofficial discrimination. Black people have been involved with the Latter Day Saint movement since its inception in the 1830s. Their experiences have varied widely, depending on the denomination within Mormonism and the time of their involvement. From the mid-1800s to 1978, Mormonism's largest denomination – the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints – barred Black women and men from participating in the ordinances of its temples necessary for the highest level of salvation, prevented most men of Black African descent from being ordained into the church's lay, all-male priesthood, supported racial segregation in its communities and schools, taught that righteous Black people would be made white after death, and opposed interracial marriage. The temple and priesthood racial restrictions were lifted by church leaders in 1978. In 2013, the church disavowed its previous teachings on race for the first time.

Racial equality is when people of all races and ethnicities are treated in an egalitarian/equal manner. Racial equality occurs when institutions give individuals legal, moral, and political rights. In present-day Western society, equality among races continues to become normative. Prior to the early 1960s, attaining equality was difficult for African, Asian, and Indigenous people. However, in more recent years, legislation is being passed ensuring that all individuals receive equal opportunities in treatment, education, employment, and other areas of life. Racial equality can refer to equal opportunities or formal equality based on race or refer to equal representation or equality of outcomes for races, also called substantive equality.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Leslie Uggams</span> American actress and singer (born 1943)

Leslie Marian Uggams is an American actress and singer. Beginning her career as a child in the early 1950s, Uggams is recognized for portraying Kizzy Reynolds in the television miniseries Roots (1977), earning Golden Globe and Emmy Award nominations for her performance. She had earlier been highly acclaimed for the Broadway musical Hallelujah, Baby!, winning a Theatre World Award in 1967 and the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical in 1968. Later in her career, Uggams received renewed notice with appearances as Blind Al in the superhero films Deadpool (2016), its 2018 sequel and the upcoming 2024 third film, as well as a recurring role as Leah Walker on the Fox musical drama series, Empire (2016–2020) and for the comedy-drama film American Fiction (2023).

Alice Childress was an American novelist, playwright, and actress, acknowledged as "the only African-American woman to have written, produced, and published plays for four decades." Childress described her work as trying to portray the have-nots in a have society, saying: "My writing attempts to interpret the 'ordinary' because they are not ordinary. Each human is uniquely different. Like snowflakes, the human pattern is never cast twice. We are uncommonly and marvellously intricate in thought and action, our problems are most complex and, too often, silently borne." Childress became involved in social causes, and formed an off-Broadway union for actors.

<i>Kindred</i> (novel) 1979 novel by Octavia E. Butler

Kindred (1979) is a novel by American writer Octavia E. Butler that incorporates time travel and is modeled on slave narratives. Widely popular, it has frequently been chosen as a text by community-wide reading programs and book organizations, and for high school and college courses.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stereotypes of African Americans</span> Generalizations and stereotypes linked to racism against African Americans

Stereotypes of African Americans are misleading beliefs about the culture of people with partial or total ancestry from any black racial groups of Africa whose ancestors resided in the United States since before 1865, largely connected to the racism and the discrimination to which African Americans are subjected. These beliefs date back to the slavery of black people during the colonial era and they have evolved within American society.

Winthrop Donaldson Jordan was an American historian and professor who specialized in the history of slavery in the United States and racism against Black Americans. His 1968 work White Over Black: American Attitudes Toward the Negro, 1550-1812 was awarded the National Book Award in History and Biography.

<i>All Gods Chillun Got Wings</i> (play) 1924 play by Eugene ONeill

All God's Chillun Got Wings (1924) is an expressionist play by Eugene O'Neill about miscegenation inspired by the old Negro spiritual. He began developing ideas for the play in 1922, emphasising its authenticity in his notes: "Base play on his experience as I have seen it intimately." O'Neill wrote the play in the autumn of 1923 and revised the text only slightly for its 1924 publication. Arguably one of his most controversial of plays, it starred Paul Robeson in the premiere, in which he portrayed the Black husband of an abusive White woman, who, resenting her husband's skin colour, destroys his promising career as a lawyer.

Multiracial Americans or mixed-race Americans are Americans who have mixed ancestry of two or more races. The term may also include Americans of mixed-race ancestry who self-identify with just one group culturally and socially. In the 2020 United States census, 33.8 million individuals or 10.2% of the population, self-identified as multiracial. There is evidence that an accounting by genetic ancestry would produce a higher number.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tariq Nasheed</span> American media personality and film producer

Tariq Allah Nasheed is an American film producer, and internet personality. He is best known for his Hidden Colors film series, as well as his commentary and promotion of conspiracy theories on social media.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anti-miscegenation laws in the United States</span> Laws against interracial marriage

In the United States, many U.S. states historically had anti-miscegenation laws which prohibited interracial marriage and, in some states, interracial sexual relations. Some of these laws predated the establishment of the United States, and some dated to the later 17th or early 18th century, a century or more after the complete racialization of slavery. Nine states never enacted anti-miscegenation laws, and 25 states had repealed their laws by 1967. In that year, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Loving v. Virginia that such laws are unconstitutional under the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

The angry black woman stereotype is a racial stereotype of Black American women as pugnacious, poorly mannered, and aggressive.

<i>Dear Evan Hansen</i> 2015 American musical

Dear Evan Hansen is a musical with music and lyrics by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, and a book by Steven Levenson. The musical follows Evan Hansen, a high school senior with social anxiety, "who invents an important role for himself in a tragedy that he did not earn".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Race and sexuality</span> Intercultural and interracial sexuality

Concepts of race and sexuality have interacted in various ways in different historical contexts. While partially based on physical similarities within groups, race is understood by scientists to be a social construct rather than a biological reality. Human sexuality involves biological, erotic, physical, emotional, social, or spiritual feelings and behaviors.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jeremy O. Harris</span> American playwright and actor (born 1989)

Jeremy O. Harris is an American playwright, actor, and philanthropist. Harris gained prominence for his 2018 Slave Play, which received a nomination for the Tony Award for Best Play. Harris is also known for his work in film and television. He produced and co-wrote the A24 film Zola (2021), for which he received a nomination for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Screenplay. He acted in the HBO Max series Gossip Girl (2021), the Netflix series Emily in Paris (2022), and in the film The Sweet East (2023).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Racism against African Americans</span>

In the context of racism in the United States, racism against African Americans dates back to the colonial era, and it continues to be a persistent issue in American society in the 21st century.

<i>White Noise</i> (play) 2019 play by Susan-Lori Parks

White Noise is a 2019 play by Suzan-Lori Parks. It premiered at The Public Theater in New York.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joaquina Kalukango</span> American actor, singer (active 2011–)

Joaquina Kalukango is an American actor and singer best known for playing Nelly O'Brien in the Broadway musical Paradise Square, for which she won the 2022 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical. She was nominated for Best Actress in a Play in 2020 for portraying Kaneisha in Slave Play. In addition to her theatre work, Kalukango has appeared in One Night in Miami..., When They See Us and Lawmen: Bass Reeves.

References

  1. Megarry, Daniel. "Jeremy O. Harris". Gay Times (09506101), Mar. 2019, pp. 32–35.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Geier, Thom (December 9, 2018). "'Slave Play' Theater Review: A Twisty Play That's One Giant Trigger Warning". The Wrap . Retrieved September 30, 2019.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 Lapacazo Sandoval, Contributing Writer. "'Slave Play' by Jeremy O. Harris a Real Look at Racism in America —Opening on Broadway, Oc-Tober 6." Los Angeles Sentinel (CA), October 9, 2019.
  4. Daniels, Karu F. (January 7, 2019). "Rising Playwright Jeremy O. Harris Addresses Backlash Over Controversial Slave Play". The Root . Retrieved September 30, 2019.
  5. 1 2 Cuby, Michael (March 8, 2019). "For Jeremy O. Harris, Playwriting Is Just the Beginning". them. Condé Nast . Retrieved September 30, 2019.
  6. 1 2 Gans, Andrew (April 3, 2019). "Nominations for 34th Annual Lucille Lortel Awards Announced; Carmen Jones and Rags Parkland Sings the Songs of the Future Lead the Pack". Playbill . Retrieved September 30, 2019.
  7. 1 2 Fierberg, Ruthie (July 2, 2019). "Tootsie, Hadestown, and The Ferryman Lead 2019 Drama Desk Award Winners". Playbill . Retrieved September 30, 2019.
  8. 1 2 3 4 PINKINS, TONYA. “Racism Doesn’t Have a Safe Word.” American Theatre, vol. 36, no. 6, July 2019, pp. 40–41.
  9. Harris, Jeremy O. "Slave Play." American Theatre, no. 6, 2019, p. 39-67.
  10. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Teeman, Tim (September 12, 2018). "What Makes Jeremy O. Harris' 'Slave Play' Such a Powerful Play About Racism". The Daily Beast . Retrieved September 30, 2019.
  11. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Harris, Jeremy O. "Slave Play." American Theatre, no. 6, 2019, p. 42-50
  12. 1 2 3 4 5 Holdren, Sara (December 10, 2018). "Theater Review: Slave Play Blends the Terrifying and the Tantalizing". Vulture . Retrieved September 30, 2019.
  13. 1 2 3 4 5 McDonald, Soraya Nadia (December 14, 2018). "The subversive 'Slave Play' peels back the veneer of racial innocence in Northern whites". Andscape . Retrieved September 30, 2019.
  14. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Harris, Jeremy O. "Slave Play." American Theatre, no. 6, 2019, p. 50-64
  15. 1 2 Harris, Jeremy O. "Slave Play." American Theatre, no. 6, 2019, p. 64-67
  16. Jung, E. Alex (March 6, 2019). "How to Fuck With White Supremacy". Vulture . Retrieved September 30, 2019.
  17. 1 2 3 4 Harris, Aisha (October 7, 2019). "What It's Like to See 'Slave Play' as a Black Person". The New York Times.
  18. Bernstein, Robin. Racial Innocence.
  19. Murphy, Tim (August 19, 2019). "These Boundary-Pushing Playwrights Talk Theater, Creative Activism, and Turning Trauma Into High Art". Departures . Time Inc. Retrieved October 1, 2019.
  20. Kafadar, Eren (October 27, 2017). "Langston Hughes Festival: Giving Voice to New Playwrights". Yale Daily News . Retrieved October 1, 2019.
  21. "Friday, October 27, 2017". Yale Calendar of Events. Yale University. October 27, 2017. Retrieved October 2, 2019.
  22. Hankinson, Bobby (March 12, 2021). "Em Weinstein, Thank You For Coming Out (While Staying In) – Gay City News". gaycitynews.com. Retrieved July 2, 2023.
  23. Clement, Olivia (April 4, 2018). "New York Theatre Workshop Unveils 2018–2019 Season". Playbill . Retrieved October 1, 2019.
  24. Cox, Gordon (April 17, 2018). "Beth Henley, J.T. Rogers and Sarah DeLappe Set for 2018 O'Neill Playwrights Conference". Variety . Retrieved October 1, 2019.
  25. Goldberg, Wendy C. "national playwrights conference — NPC '18". Eugene O'Neill Theater Center . Retrieved October 1, 2019.
  26. Clement, Olivia (April 27, 2018). "Robert O'Hara Will Direct World Premiere of Jeremy O. Harris' Slave Play". Playbill . Retrieved October 2, 2019.
  27. Simpson, Janice C. (July 16, 2019). "In Conversation With Jeremy O. Harris and Robert O'Hara on Slave Play". Broadway Direct. Nederlander Organization . Retrieved October 10, 2019.
  28. "Jeremy O. Harris Talks New York Theatre Workshop's "Slave Play"". BUILD Series. YouTube. December 6, 2018. Retrieved October 8, 2019.
  29. "One year ago today, SLAVE PLAY by Jeremy O. Harris (NPC '18) had its first public reading on our campus". Eugene O'Neill Theater Center . Twitter. July 25, 2019. Retrieved October 2, 2019.
  30. McNerney, Pem (July 31, 2019). "From Baked Goods to Broadway Productions: Shoreline Trio Tackles One of the Hottest Plays of the Season". Zip06. Shore Publishing. Retrieved October 8, 2019.
  31. Clement, Olivia (December 7, 2018). "Slave Play Extends Another 2 Weeks at NYTW". Playbill . Retrieved October 8, 2019.
  32. Harris, Jeremy O. (December 21, 2018). "The ⁦@nytimes⁩ is making me love ⁦@Mr_NaveenKumar⁩ even more than I did last month with this beautiful #tbt. Slave Play sold out but get a ⁦@vineyardtheatre MEMBERSHIP to guarantee a "Daddy" ticket!". Twitter . Retrieved October 8, 2019.
  33. Peitzman, Louis (December 21, 2018). "The Best Plays And Musicals Of 2018". BuzzFeed News . Retrieved September 30, 2019.
  34. Smith, Kyle (September 18, 2019). "'Broadway Blackout'". National Review. Retrieved November 5, 2019.
  35. Riedel, Michael. "Hot Ticket A Captive Audience? Downtown's Provocative 'Slave Play' Is Proving a Hard Sell on B'way." New York Post (New York, NY), 2019.
  36. 1 2 Lapacazo Sandoval. "'Slave Play' by Jeremy O. Harris a Real Look at Racism in America —Opening on Broadway, October 6.” Los Angeles Sentinel (CA), October 9, 2019.
  37. Wetmore, Brendan (January 21, 2020). "'Slave Play' Changed Broadway's Accessibility Forever". Paper. Retrieved June 5, 2020.
  38. Fierberg, Ruthie (October 30, 2019). "Why Jeremy O. Harris' Slave Play Is Inextricably Linked to Rihanna: The playwright talks about Rihanna's influence on the Broadway play, texting in the theatre, the price of theatre tickets, and more". Playbill.
  39. Evans, Greg (June 4, 2020). "'Slave Play' Team Pledges $10K To National Bailout Fund, Challenges Broadway Community". Deadline. Retrieved June 5, 2020.
  40. Paulson, Michael (September 27, 2021). "'Slave Play' Was Shut Out at the Tonys. But It's Coming Back to Broadway". The New York Times . Retrieved September 27, 2021.
  41. Evans, Greg (October 13, 2021). "'Slave Play' Back On Track For Los Angeles After Venue Pledges Commitment To Address Gender Imbalance". Deadline. Retrieved February 19, 2024.
  42. Wood, Alex (February 26, 2024). "Slave Play to run in the West End – with cast to include Fisayo Akinade, Kit Harington, Olivia Washington and more".
  43. Simpson, Craig (February 28, 2024). "West End play stages shows to all-black audience 'free from the white gaze'". The Telegraph. ISSN   0307-1235 . Retrieved February 28, 2024.
  44. "Black Out". blackoutnite. Retrieved February 29, 2024.
  45. Culwell-Block, Logan (February 26, 2024). "Jeremy O. Harris' Slave Play Is West End-Bound". Playbill. Retrieved February 29, 2024.
  46. 1 2 Street, Mikelle. "No Intermission." Out, vol. 27, no. 4, Nov. 2018, pp. 80–83.
  47. 1 2 3 B, Ashley. "Shutdown Slave Play". change.org.
  48. Vincentelli, Elisabeth (December 15, 2018). "I have seen it. And i have also seen the plays it rips off, namely An Octoroon and Underground Railroad Game". Twitter . Retrieved October 8, 2019.
  49. Vincentelli, Elisabeth (December 17, 2018). "I'll rephrase: the play covers very similar thematic and aesthetic grounds the earlier ones did, just not as imaginatively or skillfully". Twitter . Retrieved October 8, 2019.
  50. 1 2 Marks, Peter (October 6, 2019). "'Slave Play' Is a Funny, Scalding, Walk along the Boundary between Black and White in America". The Washington Post.
  51. Porter II, Juan Michael (October 15, 2019). "Despite the Hype, I Hated 'Slave Play' [Op-Ed]". COLORLINES.
  52. Peck, Patrice (December 3, 2019). "At 'Black Out' Performances, the Power of Healing Through Community". New York Times . Retrieved March 3, 2024.
  53. Lukowski, Andrzej (February 29, 2024). "Why are Black audiences-only London theatre nights causing a scandal?". Time Out . Retrieved March 3, 2024.
  54. Chi-Santorelli, Leisha (March 1, 2024). "Slave Play: No 10 criticises black-only audiences plan". BBC News . Retrieved March 4, 2024.
  55. Andy Lefkowitz. "Hadestown Leads Winners of 2019 Outer Critics' Circle Awards". Broadwaybuzz.com. Retrieved June 10, 2020.
  56. Libbey, Peter (October 15, 2020). "Full List of the 2020 Tony Award Nominees". The New York Times . Retrieved October 18, 2020.
  57. "Drama League Award nominees 2020". dramaleague.org. Retrieved June 10, 2020.
  58. Caitlin Huston (May 11, 2020). "Outer Critics Circle names 2019-2020 honorees". Broadway News. Retrieved June 10, 2020.
  59. "The Nominations for the 31st Annual GLAAD Awards". glaad.com. Retrieved June 10, 2020.