{"id":26171,"date":"2012-10-24T04:11:56","date_gmt":"2012-10-24T04:11:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/wordpress\/?p=26171"},"modified":"2012-10-24T04:11:56","modified_gmt":"2012-10-24T04:11:56","slug":"against-black-face-roles-in-german-theatre","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=26171","title":{"rendered":"Against Black-Face Roles in German Theatre"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.avaaz.org\/en\/petition\/Against_BlackFace_Roles_in_German_Theatre\/\" target=\"_blank\">Against Black-Face Roles in German Theatre<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.avaaz.org\/en\/petition\/about\" target=\"_blank\">Avaaz: Community Petitions<\/a><br \/>\n2012-10-14<\/p>\n<p><strong>Gyavira Lasana<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.avaaz.org\/en\/petition\/Against_BlackFace_Roles_in_German_Theatre\/\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/avaazdo.s3.amazonaws.com\/6372f36344e5d18fca790e4c102d103d.jpg\" border=\"0\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Last January Schlosspark Theatre in Berlin opened \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/I%27m_Not_Rappaport\" target=\"_blank\">I\u2019m Not Rappaport<\/a>\u201d by <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Herb_Gardner\" target=\"_blank\">Herb Gardner<\/a>. The production featured a white actor in <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Blackface\" target=\"_blank\">black-face<\/a> in the role of Midge Carter, portrayed in New York by <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Ossie_Davis\" target=\"_blank\">Ossie Davis<\/a>. When concerned theatre professionals complained on the website of Schlosspark, they were blocked; yet neo-Nazis, who charged that the \u201cniggers should go back to Africa,\u201d were allowed access. Schlosspark insisted the production was not \u201cracist,\u201d that they cast a white actor because they could not find a \u201cqualified black actor.\u201d The widow of Herb Gardner has deflected inquiries about the rights to \u201cRapport\u201d to the agent in Germany. And she points to a 1986 conversation in which Gardner agreed to black-face \u201cif a suitable black actor could\u00a0not be found.\u201d That time and circumstance have passed. I am asking Actors Equity and the Dramatists Guild to decline participation in productions featuring black-face and condemn its use in Germany.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Why this is important<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The German theatre use of &#8220;black-faced&#8221; white actors in roles written and designed for blacks subverts the intentions of the dramatists and denies work to black actors. On a broader scale, black-face demeans black Germans and reinforces racist societal and political positions of power.<\/p>\n<p>For more information, click <a href=\"http:\/\/www.avaaz.org\/en\/petition\/Against_BlackFace_Roles_in_German_Theatre\/\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Against Black-Face Roles in German Theatre Avaaz: Community Petitions 2012-10-14 Gyavira Lasana Last January Schlosspark Theatre in Berlin opened \u201cI\u2019m Not Rappaport\u201d by Herb Gardner. The production featured a white actor in black-face in the role of Midge Carter, portrayed in New York by Ossie Davis. When concerned theatre professionals complained on the website of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,28,8],"tags":[3228,12585,2948,12584],"class_list":["post-26171","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-arts","category-europe","category-media-archive","tag-afro-germans","tag-avaaz-community-petitions","tag-germany","tag-gyavira-lasana"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26171","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=26171"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26171\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=26171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=26171"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=26171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}