Just How White is "The Great White Way"?: Racial Narratives, White Audiences and White Supremacy on Broadway
Noling, Ann Card
2012
- In response to a critical focus on the representation of people of Color on Broadway, or theatre for people of Color off-Broadway, this thesis examines how Whiteness is constructed and presented to White audiences on Broadway. I identify three different ways race is dealt with in mainstream theatre: 1) shows where race, problematically defined as only about people of Color, is explicitly marked ... read moreand is obviously central to the story_�_s plot 2) shows where race is not explicitly marked and the casts are all White and 3) shows where race is not explicitly marked and the casts are multi-racial. Using both Critical Race theory and Performance Studies theory as a framework, and focusing on the past five years on Broadway, I look at how shows in each of these categories engage with or inform Whiteness. In each category I identify and analyze common patterns within the category and then do an in-depth case study of one show in each category. The three case studies, corresponding to the categories listed above, are: 1) Memphis by Joe DiPietro and David Bryan 2) God of Carnage by Yasmina Reza and translated by Christopher Hampton and 3) August: Osage County by Tracy Letts. I find that in all three categories, Broadway shows reinforce White supremacy by failing to analyze Whiteness and ask White audience members to recognize and examine their own Whiteness and White privilege.read less
- ID:
- 00000b401
- Component ID:
- tufts:UA005.008.065.00001
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