Short films playing at Cyberland, the cinema house:

1) “You Go Girl” – it’s about a black woman
2) “Ash Land” – it’s also about a black woman
3) “Whole” – it’s about a 12-year-old black boy, growing up in the (white) suburbs, “missing parts of his blackness.”
4) “North Loop” – it’s about two black friends in Minneapolis
5) “Let Me Kill My Mother First” – a film about a token alternate minority, in this case East Asians.

And that’s it. No short films by white people – at this Shakepeare Festival in Southern Oregon.

As for the plays…

Romeo & Juliet:
1) Black director (Garrett herself)
2) Hispanic Romeo, black Juliet

From Garrett’s foreword to the play:

It teaches us that a society divided against itself cannot prosper. Yet we allow ourselves to live in a more polarized country in a more polarized world. As a society, we are more cynical and self-righteous, while our children continue to be slaughtered by violence and poverty. The vitriolic campaign against people—mainly children—seeking refuge and asylum reflects our base humanity.

The Three Musketeers:
1) Black playwrite
2) Black director
3) Entirely black or Hispanic cast

From the director’s foreword:

The adaptation freely deploys verse, contemporary vernacular language, hip-hop, Rap, dance, music, and swordplay! Is this the origin of Urban contemporary swagger and style?

Twelfth Night:
1) Black director
2) Almost entirely black and Hispanic cast

Director mostly avoids reference to race in the extremely short foreword, but does mention the production was inspired by “Blues and jazz greats.”

Rent:
1) Black director
2) Only 5 of the 20 cast members are white.

Where We Belong:
1) Asian director
2) A pretty damn white looking “Native American” playwrite/actor performing a one woman show.

Description:

In 2015, a Mohegan theatre-maker moves to England to pursue a PhD in Shakespeare, grappling with the question of what it means to remain or leave, as the Brexit vote threatens to further disengage the UK from the wider world. Moving between nations that have failed to reckon with their ongoing roles in colonialism, Achokayis finds comfort in the journeys of their Native ancestors who had to cross the ocean in the 1700s to help their people. In this intimate and exhilarating solo piece directed by Mei Ann Teo, Sayet asks us what it means to belong in an increasingly globalized world.

I got a really nasty note in the mail a week ago that said, “Go woke, go broke.” And he put his member number down next to his name and said, “Former member, 33 years.” I was like, let me analyze this language here for a moment: He doesn’t want to be awakened. He wants to be in the dark. He wants to be asleep. And if choose to wake people up at OSF then then we’re going to lose our resources—that’s the threat, you know, “Go broke.” And I think: Thank you for letting me know in advance. What I need to know now is, who’s coming behind you? And how do I make a connection to them? And then maybe you’ll come back?