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(Photo credit: Magnus Stark)
GableStage is presenting the Florida premiere of award-winning poet/playwright Claudia Rankine’s The White Card now through Mar. 27.
As Rankine’s first published play, The White Card is hailed as “a bracing experience that leaves [audiences] with plenty to think about” by the Boston Globe. The White Card poses the essential question: Can American society progress if whiteness remains invisible?
Composed of two scenes, The White Card explores identity, belonging and the racism that can go unnoticed by those who don’t suffer under its weight. Rankine’s first act captures the action at a dinner party; her second is devoted to an open dialogue with the audience.
Building on the themes in her award-winning 2014 book, Citizen: An American Lyric, a blend of poetry, essay, and imagery that stares at race in America, The White Card unfolds in a posh New York City loft. There, Virginia and Charles, a well-off white couple, their activist son, and a white art dealer engage with an African-American artist about her work and about race more broadly.
As the conversation ventures into the current political climate from the first champagne toast, it’s clear neither artist nor collector is what the other may have expected. The result is an uncomfortable, charged encounter, one that Rankine knows well.
Rankine, a MacArthur Fellow and poetry professor at NYU, describes the idea for The White Card as crystalizing during the book tour of Citizen. While on tour, Rankine became less interested in reading from the book and more interested in what people had to say about it and their experiences.
“In those conversations, I began to realize that we as a country have no practice talking about race publicly. And people and the discussion itself get stalled very quickly. We don’t know how to hold discomfort. We are easily defended in our positions. We become not only defensive but feel attacked and fragile in terms of the truth of our experiences,” she said. “So I wondered what it would be like to have one of these discussions play itself out… how could we stage a discussion where we would all have to move through the moments of discomfort into the next turn?”
An American playwright, poet, essayist and the editor of several anthologies, Claudia Rankine is co-founder of the Racial Imaginary Institute and the recipient of numerous awards and honors including the Jackson Poetry Prize, the Rebekah Johnson Bobbitt National Prize for Poetry and fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, Lannan Foundation, The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, United States Artists and the National Endowment for the Arts.
The GableStage production is directed by Atlanta’s Lydia Fort whose work has been seen at Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Bay Street Theater, Actor’s Express, Cygnet Theatre, Diversionary Theatre and Perseverance Theatre, among others. Lydia teaches directing, acting, African American theater, and eco-theater at Emory University.
Popular South Florida actors Rita Cole (Charlotte), Tom Wahl (Charles), Barbara Sloan (Virginia), Joshua Hernandez (Alex), and Iain Batchelor (Eric) star. Due to the change of performance dates, Lela Elam will take over the role of Charlotte beginning Mar. 9.
Each performance of The White Card will be followed by a curated conversation led by Katie Christie of Voices United.
The White Card is made possible in part through support from the Coral Gables Community Foundation, Citizens Interested in Arts and El Dorado Furniture. It runs through Mar. 27 with performances from Wednesday to Sunday. Matinee performances are at 2 p.m. on Wednesdays and Saturdays. Evening performances are 7 p.m. on Wednesdays and Thursdays, and 8 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays.
Tickets start at $35 with discounts available for artists, veterans and Biltmore Hotel members. Students with ID card and Biltmore employees may see any production free of charge by stopping by the box office an hour before the performance of choice begins. Tickets can be purchased online at https://ci.ovationtix.com/473/production/1058885 or via phone at 305-445-1119.
Groups of 10-plus receive $8 off each ticket and receive one additional ticket free of charge. Subscriptions are still available. Subscribers receive the best seats at the best prices. Call the box office at 305-445-1119 to learn more.
