We Need More Nuanced Depictions of Black Women on Stage
Playwrights
An African-American critic calls for an end to endless suffering
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As a theatre critic, I see wide variety of shows about a multitude of subjects. But as a black woman, I am constantly confronted by the fact that the art form I adore often does not honor the experiences of people who look like me. Of the dozens of shows I’ve seen over the past six months, I can think of only a handful that had black female characters, and they were all subservient roles.
Certainly there are exceptions to this rule. Crowns, Nina Simone: Four Women and Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill come to mind, but they’re all set in the past. On commercial American stages, strong, modern-day black women are all but absent.
Latinx and Asian female characters are even scarcer on stage. According to the Asian American Performers Action Coalition’s most recent report on ethnic representation on New York City stages, African-American actors were cast in 18.6% of all roles, Asian-American actors in 7.3% and Latinx actors in 5.1%. That doesn’t even take gender or a character’s ethnic identity into account, but the numbers still paint a stark picture. Even though African-American women may turn out ahead in terms of representation, we are often portrayed in the context of suffering.
Still, even these plays depict black women suffering. Why must we always suffer? Where’s the show about the black girl obsessed with Zelda who wakes up one day in the video game? Where’s the play about the queer black girl who wins the beauty pageant? Where’s the comedy about the compassionate black female CEO who cracks the glass ceiling? Everyone’s waiting, because though our numbers are relatively small, our influence as tastemakers is vast — just look at the prevalence of cornrows, kente cloth and twerking in pop culture. Witness the way we start and fortify social movements like #BlackLivesMatter, #MeToo and #BlackGirlMagic. When we say, “Yaaaaassss,” the world listens and responds.
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Follow Kelundra Smith at @PieceofKay. Follow TDF at @TDFNYC.
Top image: Amber Reauchean Williams and Jehan O. Young in Behind the Sheet. Photo by Jeremy Daniel.
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Kelundra Smith is an award-winning playwright and arts journalist whose work has appeared in The New York Times, Oxford American, Food & Wine, American Theatre and elsewhere. She is the co-creator of the Edward Medina Prize for Excellence in Cultural Criticism, awarded by the American Theatre Critics Association. Follow her on Instagram @anotherpieceofkay for musings on life, art and everything else.