THE ART OF THE THEATRE-THEATRE 100

Theatre as a Reflection on Race

Race has been a sensitive topic for a very long time, even before the pandemic hit the world, before George Floyd was killed. But these two events propelled change on race in the art industry. Actors, directors, scriptwriters were forced to see racism from a different angle especially the white ones. Broadway was not left behind, as seen in the article when Arbender J. Robinson says, “We are in a new world, we have a responsibility to make sure we understand what we’re doing and how it can be perceived” (Paulson,2021) From the article, the change that was important to me was the one done in the play “Hamilton” which included people of color as the nation’s founders, changed the way Hemings danced to show how she had no power over her life, over her body. The changes gave the perfect representation of how black people were treated in the past, how they are treated sometimes. Black people are rarely given opportunities to represent themselves thus allowing them to show that they also contributed to the foundation of the nation will be a good start to show society that black lives matter.

According to Chapter 3 “All art reflects the world within which it is made, theatre has the unique ability to keep reflecting each time and in every location that a play is produced.” This makes theatre a mirror giving a reflection back to society, releasing information about who we are today or who we were in the past (Cucuzza,2018). The changes in Hamilton will tell society from a different point of view a lot about race, slavery, to those who don’t understand, especially the white people and re- direct all conversations about race. It will also give the people of color an opportunity to feel like they have been understood like they have power over their life, and that the color of their skin is not an invitation to harm or inequality.

Works Cited

Cucuzza, Robet (2018). Theatre as A reflection 2nd edition. Great River Learning.

“Grlcontent”. Grlcontent.Com, 2021, https://www.grlcontent.com/.

Paulson, Michael. “As Broadway Returns, Shows Rethink and Restage Depictions of Race”. Nytimes.Com, 2021, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/23/theater/broadway-race-depictions.html?