The internet was abuzz last week with heated reactions to Thomas Jenkins’ far-from-rote review of Sarah Ruhl’s In the Next Room (or The Vibrator Play), currently playing in the Playhouse’s Cellar Theater. The play, a finalist for the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, includes a wet nurse named Elizabeth, whom Ruhl intended to be portrayed by an African-American woman. The Playhouse, however, cast an actress who's intended to be a Russian immigrant. According to Jenkins’ review, “a Playhouse representative reported that they tried but were unable to secure an African-American for the role."
The explanation grabbed the attention of the city's theater personalities, high and not so mighty alike.
“There’s no excuse,” said Kyle Gillette of the recently relocated Overtime. “We have the Renaissance Guild and the recent production of Ain’t Misbehavin’. They made this choice because it was too hard to find an African-American actress ... "
He pauses for emphasis.
"I think they didn’t try hard enough.”
Kurt Wehner of the Woodlawn sighed deeply before offering his opinion.
“I know sometimes you get put into ... situations," he said. "But we do our best to play by the rules."
GateGirl80 offered a lone defending comment on the Current's Disqus thread. “Have any of you commenting on this outrageous article actually seen ‘In the Next Room...’? If not, maybe you should rethink your comments until you have.”
JudyD234 replied: “Yes, GateGirl, I saw it on Broadway back in early 2010. Why should I want to see an all-white version of a travesty of Ms. Ruehl’s [sic] work? For that I can go and see the rip-off of her work at the movies called ‘Hysteria.’”
“Ruhl’s play is beautiful,” Gillette said. The play’s importance, he added, lies in its themes of gender, race and sexuality. He’s concerned that the Playhouse’s faux pas will undermine the reputation of San Antonio theater. “When you take an interesting, provocative work and gut what's interesting about it ...
"If someone were to visit from Austin or New York, surely they would say, 'Wow. That was a lame decision.'"
When the casting’s less than ideal, he suggests a better option would be to scrap the production all together.
What if, say, the still-new Proxy Theatre Company deleted lines in an effort to justify a casting choice. Would they find themselves in as much hot water as the century-old Playhouse, which operates in a City-owned building and receives $138,000 in annual City arts funding?
Gillette doesn't think so.
"A group of people like the Proxy would learn from their mistakes over time. With San Pedro Playhouse I feel it's different. They have plenty of funds to do things better," he said. "With that ticket price you expect to see the play that you are going to see.”
Overtime ticket prices average about $12 compared to the Playhouse’s $25.
Playwright Gregg Barrios was "immediately struck" by the news that the Playhouse had "misrepresented" Ruhl's work.
"It's so wonderful when we can play ourselves," he said. "It was an opportunity for a black to play a black."
His first thought was to use his membership in the Playhouse’s playwrights group to protest, but he discovered that the Playhouse had recently ceased funding it.
Barrios thinks the decision to water down In the Next Room has its roots in last year’s controversy over the Cellar’s successful production of Corpus Christi (a production that many in the theater community believe resulted in the firing of former executive director Di Ann Sneed), which was followed by a proclaimed season of “Stories of America.”
"They goofed. They didn't think anyone would notice, but Tom Jenkins sees everything. He's familiar with plays and when he sees a travesty he calls it like it is," he said.
"I would call [publishing agency] Samuel French and find out if [the Playhouse] was given permission to change the play and change the character of the wet nurse. If they did not, they are in deep caca."
According to Playhouse director Mindy Fuller, permission was not requested.
"We made this adjustment to the play with intention and thought," Fuller said.
“And a total of seven lines were cut.”
A dash of defensiveness.
“Anyone who works in theater knows that you make the hard choices, make it work and you move on."
She said some of the black actresses she contacted – which she admits were few – were concerned that the content conflicted with their religious beliefs. Others were simply not available. To her critics, she says, “I challenge them. We don’t have many in the city.”
"San Pedro is good for telling that lie,” local actress Aisha Love complained on Facebook after reading Jenkins’ review. “It's the reason I walked out of a rehearsal never to return again over five years ago.”
Danielle King of the Renaissance Guild, a theater company dedicated to producing plays that tell stories of the black experience with black actors, found Vibratorgate "interesting" but declined to offer a comment.
“The work is bigger than that. It’s not just a show about race,” Fuller said. “There’s a backdrop of race. The play is about relationships.
"I’ve been in the world of academic theater. And I’ve worked in professional theater. Those are two different, professional things.”
Jenkins and Gillette teach at Trinity University.
“My biggest comment is that we are a community of non-professional theaters in San Antonio. I hope in the future that we have four equity theaters,” Fuller said. “But until then, the show must go on.”
After Jenkins pointed out the redaction, Ciaravino asked Fuller to restore the lines, but Fuller says she refused.
“The reasons that the lines were removed were because they said things like 'negro' and 'darkie.' If you don’t have an African-American in the role they would be confusing the audience. If you leave the lines in the play they become offensive.
“I’ll agree it does lose the context of race relations after the Civil War. But that’s not what the play’s about. The division of people within society. Male to female, employee to employer, cultural relationships. That’s exactly what this play is about ... to me.”
She said the silver lining in all this is that the community is again talking about theater.
“I support her decision,” Ciaravino said. "My place in this is to be supportive of theater and make it the best that it can be."
Her voice is nurturing although the conversation seems unpleasant.
“Actors are leaving San Antonio because they have no place to make a decent living and have no place to work other than the Magik Theatre," she said.
“We should go to the theater to be more supportive ... to build it ... to grow it. I also feel like we should raise the bar and open our hearts to new experiences."
"I stand by my piece of work," Fuller said.
"And that would be my comment.”
