SKELETON CREW Playwright Dominique Morisseau Describes White Privilege and Elitism Problem Among Theatre Audiences

A recent recipient of the Steinberg Playwright Award honoring promising dramatists, Dominique Morisseau is recognized as one of the theatre's rising young artists.

In 2013 The Public Theater produced the first of her trilogy of plays about her hometown, DETROIT '67. The second, PARADISE BLUE premiered this summer at the Williamstown Theater Festival and the Atlantic Theater Company has just begun rehearsals for the final third, SKELETON CREW.

While the issue of diversity in theatre is being discussed more and more in regards to plays produced and artists hired, American Theater has published an article by Morisseau that addresses another diversity issue, regarding what she describes as a culture of "white privilege, elitism, and entitlement" among theatre audiences.

Morisseau begins by describing a recent experience while attending a performance of an Off-Broadway play; one that she prefers not to mention by name.

Arriving at the theatre without tickets, a front of house staff member matched her up with a white women who had extras.

"The woman, possibly in her early 60s, looked at me," Morisseau writes. "We'll call her Jane. I said: 'I don't have any cash, so I can't really take those off your hands.' She handed me the tickets: 'Well, just take them,' she said. Then, as she walked away, she added, 'Just don't pop your gum, because I hate that.'"

"I wasn't chewing any gum at the time."

"As the production began," she continues, "we were suddenly transported into an interactive audience experience. I had developed a role in this play as an actress, so I knew the culture and tone that the play was setting. The lights were up on the audience to invite us into our own personal 'church?like' experience. And my own church experience is a buoyant one, so I began to laugh and nod my head as the play's music began. I clapped as the onstage choir clapped."

"Because I was sitting dead center, I was even recognized by the lead of the show, who started to use me as he gave his opening monologue; he made eye contact and gestured to me. In the middle of the play's opening, as my friend and I laughed and enjoyed ourselves, Jane leaned in toward me and whispered, 'Can you stop and keep it down?'"

Morisseau responded to her in a whispered, "I will laugh whenever I think things are funny, so get used to it. You're not going to tell me how I should respond to art."

An attempt to engage Jane in a post-performance discussion of the situation did not go well.

The playwright goes on to describe other incidents that lead her to conclude that, "theatre has a white privilege and elitism problem. There is an environment that is fostering this kind of behavior. Our collective institutions-artistic staff, marketing departments, etc.-are placating the older white audiences, and are afraid to challenge them, or even educate them. We take their donor money and put them on boards, and we brush their microaggressions off as our old grandma or grandpa who might be a little racist and elitist but are otherwise harmless."

Such an attitude, she explains, "further marginalizes audiences of color and tells them they are not fully welcome in the theatre, except by permission of the white audience. It tells the upper-middle-class white audience that theatre is their home first and the rest of us are just guests."

She calls on Institutional leaders to set the tone for a more inclusive environment.

"We need to say it with our plays. With our programming. With the overall culture we set in the theatre. Or else we continue to foster a community of racial privilege and entitlement in the theatre, regardless of how many people of color there are onstage."

Click here for the full article.

In Dominique Morisseau's third play in her Detroit trilogy, SKELETON CREW, a makeshift family of workers at the last exporting auto plant in the city navigate the possibility of foreclosure. Power dynamics shift, and they are pushed to the limits of survival. When the line between blue collar and white collar gets blurred, how far over the lines are they willing to step?

This world premiere production of Steinberg Playwright Award winner Dominique Morisseau's bold new play is directed by Obie Award winning actor, writer and director Ruben Santiago-Hudson (The Piano Lesson, Lackawanna Blues). Visit https://atlantictheater.org