Broadway, Philadelphia theaters put race in the spotlight

The subject of race has emerged as a major theme in a place where themes are never planned: Broadway. Eight productions that opened last season dealt in some pointed or major way with race, and so far three more have opened this season.

The energy generated among theater professionals and audiences grappling with race theatrically - many of whom see theater as an engine for provoking thought and discussion about issues - is reflected on Philadelphia stages.

Philadelphia Theatre Company is the first in the nation to produce David Mamet's Race since it closed an extended Broadway run in August, after almost 300 performances. The play, which opened Wednesday night after previews, is about a white man who seeks legal help when he is charged with raping a black woman. It examines racial perceptions in several ways, including fashion: The alleged victim was wearing a red sequined dress, which becomes a key element in both the plot and the discussion about race. The production runs through Feb. 13.

On March 3, the Arden Theatre Company begins previews for its production of Superior Donuts, a play by Tracy Letts (August: Osage County) that also ran on Broadway last season, and that parses the relationship between a young African American and the white, middle-aged man he works for at a doughnut shop in a changing Chicago neighborhood.

Sara Garonzik, Philadelphia Theatre Company's producing artistic director, says she went after the rights to Race as soon as she saw the Broadway production. "I thought it was fascinating." After seeing it, she read the script. "There's so much there, you can ponder it forever," she says. "A lot of people have different feelings about what Mamet's trying to say, and my current thought - I won't say that it won't change five months from now - is that the play is a kind of snapshot of race relations in America today.

"In my opinion - and I wouldn't speak for Mamet - he's created a complex story line to show that when you work through any exchange that involves race relations, there can be an awkwardness, a wariness, and sometimes a great deal of mistrust."

Broadway itself has entered the sort of major exchange involving race relations that Garonzik points to. Race and Superior Donuts take the subject into account in different ways; Mamet, among the nation's foremost playwrights, attacks it head-on, looking at slippery perceptions of race and also justice, while Letts focuses more on personal relationships.