REPRESENTATION
More and more frequently marginalized people have refused to remain silent about the lack of representation in the media. Take the 2015 #OscarsSoWhite campaign for example. The hashtag was started because no actors of color were nominated in the big four categories of Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress, Best Actor, or Best Supporting Actor. Then in 2016, Asian-American actors not only pointed out the lack of diversity in American films, but also the white-washing of characters that were supposed to be Asian, such as in the movies, Ghost in a Shell, Doctor Strange, and Aloha. And most recently, Scarlett Johansson faced backlash for taking the role of a transgender man. But, why does representation in the media matter? Media is a part of our everyday lives. It always creeps in. What you see on television is what you learn to expect from real life, even if you acknowledge it as fiction. It becomes a part of your “experience” (Boboltz and Yam). So, if the people behind the media lack representation, then most likely the actual media will lack representation or it will be stereotyped. These stereotypes can be exaggerated or completely untrue, which influences how real people are looked at. This can be just as damaging as not being there at all because in both cases, minorities will not be able to see themselves in any of the characters. This could cause people to wonder if there is anyone like them, or if “they count at all” (Boboltz and Yam). Everyone wants to have the ability to tell their own story and to have people listen to them. They want people to see they exist.
REPRESENTATION IN THEATRE
Theatre has much the same problem with representation of minorities as on-screen media. In the last decade, this inequality on and off stage is being called out more and more. A writer for AmericanTheatre.org highlights it by stating, “68% of the Broadway audience is female, but you don’t have a single new play by a woman on Broadway in the 2013-14 season" (Evans). The inequality does not stop at gender. People of different races and ethnicities also have trouble being able to tell their own stories or being represented on stage. There was an uproar in 2011 when the Shakespeare Theatre Company put on Much Ado About Nothing set in Cuba, renaming the characters “Huevos” and “Frijoles.” To add insult to injury, only three Latino actors were cast in the production. Public outcry caused the theatre to apologize for the “insensitivity” (Tran). More recently, a theatre project by Robert Lepage, chronicling Canada's history with white people and natives, received harsh scrutiny for not employing any native actors (Hamilton). All of these examples prove that it is just as important to have diversity off the stage to tell an authentic story. People are ready to see diverse stories in all media, including theatre. They want to see stories that represent themselves in an accurate way. People learn from theatre, and the way minorities are represented impacts the way people think. Lin Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton is an excellent example of this as Edward Delman points out in his Atlantic article. He states that the diverse cast of Hamilton shows that American History is not just for white people. When a show depicts a period of history that is typically defined by white people, and it has people of color present in it, it changes the narrative. It becomes a new voice from a different perspective. This perspective was always there, just often ignored and discarded, much like the actual oppression of minorities. Jackie Sibblies Drury, a female African American Playwright, brings new perspectives that people are calling for, as well as tackling the issues of race and representation, whether it be directly or indirectly, in her plays.
REPRESENTATION IN DRURY'S PLAYS
A major theme in Drury’s We Are Proud to Present... is representation. The play centers around actors telling the story of the Herero genocide, which is largely forgotten. Drury even admits that she had no idea about the Herero and Nama genocide until she stumbled across it doing research for a much different play (“Conversation…”). This play represents a neglected group while also addressing the difficulties of representation head-on.
This idea of representation is explored and challenged in Drury’s newest play, as well. Fairview is like a family comedy about a middle class black family. After the first act though, it goes haywire. In the second act, the first act plays over again, except the black family on stage is muted. There are obviously white voices talking about the people on stage, judging them and watching them. At the end of the play, one of the characters interacts with the audience. Because of this, the ending changes from night to night based on the people in the audience. On one night, the character asks the audience, “Do I have to tell them [white people] that I want them to make space for us for them to make space for us? Do I really have to tell them that?” (Holdren). It is an interesting and almost unanswerable question, and Drury does not answer it. People should not have to beg for the space to tell their own stories. History has shown that if under-represented people do not demand for space to tell their stories, the people in power will never allow their voice to be heard.
