Dramatists Guild Responds to 'Black Stars of the Great White Way' Photo

As a part of a century-old tradition, an event was held in Times Square today for a photoshoot featuring 'Black Stars of the Great White Way,' but not everyone was thrilled about this year's gathering. Dramatists Guild executive director Ralph Sevush realeased the following statement on the event:

"The Dramatists Guild of America was glad to note the gathering known as "Black Stars of The Great White Way", planned by Broadway veteran Chapman Roberts as a group photograph to be taken in Times Square on Friday morning, October 7, until we realized that the event's definition of "African-American theater professionals" who were invited to participate... "- actors, directors, choreographers, dancers, designers, producers, publicists and marketers -"... specifically excluded playwrights, composers and lyricists from its consideration.

It is shocking that, in this day and age, an otherwise important effort to recognize the contributions of African-American artists on Broadway apparently intends to overlook its litany of playwrights and composers. From DuBose Heyward, Lorraine Hansberry, James Baldwin and Langston Hughes to August Wilson, Micki Grant, George C. Wolfe and Ntozake Shange, to Lynn Nottage, Katori Hall, Lydia R. Diamond and Dael Orlandersmith, Broadway and its audiences have benefited from the voice of African-American dramatists for the past century. To see their fellow theater professionals honored without even a mention of their own contributions should be profoundly disturbing to anyone in the theater community, or the general public for that matter. And this slight is occurring in a season where not ONE but TWO new plays by African-American women are being produced on Broadway (Katori Hall's The Mountaintop and Lydia R. Diamond's Stick Fly), and where the director of these productions, Kenny Leon, is specifically mentioned as a participant in the event. Even the stars of Mountaintop and the producer of Stick Fly are mentioned in the press release, but no clue is given as to the authors of these plays, or any mention as to whether those playwrights have been invited. Upon further investigation, we have learned that neither playwright was specifically invited to participate, and, as far as we know, Micki
Grant was the only author present for the photo, perhaps due to Mr. Roberts' role as a musical director on some of her past shows. But Ms. Grant's involvement, while certainly gratifying to see, was not announced in the event's press release (even where Roberts was crediting himself for his work on her shows) nor did it serve to retroactively expand the exclusionary definition of "theater
professionals" they offered to the public.

The fact that the contributions of African-American authors to Broadway remains invisible in our culture is sad, but not surprising... but that it is unworthy of mention even within the African-American community itself? Appalling. Still, this may simply be an administrative oversight, or perhaps other authors were invited but chose not to participate (though the press release is silent even as to their very existence), or some other good faith explanation is readily available to explain the near total absence of dramatists from this event. So, we invite Mr. Roberts to offer clarification... to the public, to the theatrical community, to the Actors Fund, and to the 6200+ members of The Dramatists Guild of America."