Via NYDailyNews: ‘The writer behind the acclaimed “The Mountaintop” play about Martin Luther King Jr. is outraged after an Ohio college cast a white actor to portray the iconic civil rights leader.
Katori Hall blasted Kent State University and the director of the school’s amateur presentation for their “tone deaf” decision to have a white man play the role of the historic figure.
“The casting of a white King is committing yet another erasure of the black body,” Hall wrote Monday in a scathing piece in The Root. “Sure, it might be in the world of pretend, but it is disrespectful nonetheless.”
“The actor playing King stood there, hands outstretched, his skin far from chocolate but a creamy buff. At first glance I was like, ‘Unh-uh, maybe he light-skinned. Don’t punish the brother for being able to pass,'” she said.
But she soon found out director Michael Oatman, an adjunct playwriting professor at the school, had in fact double-cast the role of MLK with a black actor and a white actor.
“Kent State had broken a world record; it was the first ‘Mountaintop’ production to make King white,” Hall said. “Rage would come in the morning.”
Oatman, who did not immediately return requests for comment, said in an August press release that he purposefully selected the white and black actors to “stir discussion” about race.
Director of “The Mountaintop” play, Michael Oatman
It also was reported that many people who attended the play were apparently unaware that MLK was going to be portrayed by a Caucasian actor, so when he hit the stage, a lot of the audience walked out, while others stayed out of curiosity of such a strange casting.
Who does the director think Dr. King is…”Annie”? A character he can just switch the race of at will? Now some may attempt to find a way to relate this Caucasian MLK to the uproar that occurred when folks found out that African American actress, Quvenzhané Wallis, would star as “Annie” in the 2014 adaptation of the movie. The one major difference between “Annie” and MLK is that “Annie” is FICTIONAL and MLK was a REAL LIFE HUMAN BEING who lived and died for equal, human civil rights of minorities in America.
Actress, Quvenzhané Wallis, as “Annie” (2014); actress, Aileen Quinn, as “Annie” (1982)
Now here’s another thing we’ve just touched in that last sentence- the topic of equal rights. Is it disrespectful to portray Dr. King, or any other public figure in a complete physical contrast other than what they were, or should it be considered an equal opportunity type of situation?
In my opinion, that equal opportunity thing is stretching just a wee-bit too much when it comes to real life representations of iconic figures. I mean really, what would be the point of casting an African American actor to portray Ronald Reagan? There is no point as far as I can see, other than to ‘stir up’ controversy, kind of like the director said he wanted to “stir up discussion about race” in his own bizarre way, which I think is a bunch of bull because any sane person knows the only thing that would “stir up” is controversy and outrage. So the same goes for MLK, what’s the point in casting a Caucasian version of an African American civil rights activist? Note to that play’s director: Dr. Martin Luther King ain’t “Annie.”
