Playwright Reacts to the White Casting of MLK in The Mountaintop
http://www.theroot.com/articles/culture/2015/11/the_white_version_of_mlk_in_the_mountaintop.2.html“I remember he had the prettiest skin I had ever seen. Flawless. So chocolate you could see yourself reflected in it,” Carrie Hall, my mother, recounted wistfully. On March 28, 1968, she had caught a glimpse of Martin Luther King Jr. when he came to Memphis, Tenn., to lead a march for sanitation workers. It quickly descended into a police-provoked riot fueled by tear gas and bullets. My mother remembers fleeing for her life to the safety of her home, mere blocks from the Lorraine Motel. Seven days later, King would be murdered at that very motel, a sniper’s bullet piercing his flawless brown skin.
My mother’s brush with history became the bedrock of my play The Mountaintop, a reimagining of King’s last night on earth before his assassination. A conversation between the civil rights leader and a hotel maid named Camae weaves through the night as King wrestles with the weight of his legacy.
Imagine my surprise when, on Oct. 4, 2015, at midnight in London, I received an email from a colleague sending me a link to Kent State University’s amateur production of the play. The actor playing King stood there, hands outstretched, his skin far from chocolate but a creamy buff. At first glance I was like, “Unh-uh, maybe he light-skinned. Don’t punish the brother for being able to pass.” But further Googling told me otherwise.
Director Michael Oatman had indeed double-cast the role of King with a black actor and a white actor for a six-performance run at the university’s Department of Pan-African Studies African Community Theater. Kent State had broken a world record; it was the first Mountaintop production to make King white."
http://www.hesherman.com/2015/10/29/when-a-white-actor-goes-to-the-mountaintop/
"For his production, under the auspices of the African Community Theatre at Kent State, Michael Oatman who is the company creative director this year, said that he had double cast the role of Dr. King, with a black actor performing for three shows and a white actor performing for three shows. In an interview on the university website, Oatman explained his concept":
"I truly wanted to explore the issue of racial ownership and authenticity. I didn’t want this to be a stunt, but a true exploration of King’s wish that we all be judged by the content of our character and not the color of our skin,” said Oatman about his non-traditional cast. “I wanted the contrast . . . I wanted to see how the words rang differently or indeed the same, coming from two different actors, with two different racial backgrounds.”
We’re not going to see a repeat of this particular case unless Katori Hall says it’s OK. And maybe we’ll see much more specific character descriptions in scripts in the wake of this incident – but hopefully we’ll also see playwrights making clear when they not only allow, but encourage, racially diverse casts, as a signal to directors that diversity and indeed variety is desirable."
From the first article, Ms. Hall says it's not OK.
= new reply since forum marked as read
I made a joke about a month ago that if Hollywood could cast Brad Pitt to play MLK they would. And damn, it didn't take long for my "joke" to be on its way to becoming reality! 
I would have had a good laugh thinking that is a good joke and impossible in this day and age. It's amazing that every thing that we could imagine under the heel of this system is possible 
rights to determine what could and couldn't be cut from script before the act, as is the right of the author, and that's the huge difference. As an artist, this story literally turns my stomach.
Even with dramaturgy(?) - Ha! I had to look that up - in the Dramatists Guild Bill of Rights, there is explicit instructions against what the director did:
"It has been well-established in case law, beginning with "the Rent Case" (Thompson v. Larson) that neither dramaturgs nor directors (nor any other contributors) may be considered a co-author of a play, unless (i) they've collaborated with you from the play's inception, (ii) they've made a copyrightable contribution to the play, and (iii) you have agreed in writing that they are a co-author."
Maybe one day there could be a white MLK, Jr. but not today and not without the author's permission. He should write his own damn play instead of biting off of someone else's hard work. The nerve 
right now - seen it frequently only on Facebook - of artists fighting an incredible amount of theft going on. And friends alerting each other of who's outright stealing whose works. Artists are the most generous people I know and it breaks our hearts when we'd give something freely for a cause or whatever just for the asking.
I really couldn't believe the casting of Saldana. I think I've seen everything she's done because I like her so much. But Good Lord, it seems like such a slap to the face of Ms. Simone. If the movie gets thru production, I don't think I'd have the stomach to watch it, especially knowing now Ms. Simone's daughter disapproves.
Maybe when they do a black JFK 
I'd go see that and all the other thefts of identity they're pushing nowadays.
