Controversial play
examines racism, identity
MICHAEL SMITH World Scene Writer
5/5/2004

The short guy, the fat lady, the Iranian student, the black nurse - labels like these are everyday language for many people, the way they differentiate between those they resemble and those they do not. It can seem innocent enough - even more so when the labels are socalled politically correct ones - but as one character in the controversial play "Spinning Into Butter" says, "Most people are racists. They just don't know they're racists." Heller Theater presents playwright Rebecca Gilman's work, about an incident at a fictional small Eastern college. One of the school's few black students receives threatening letters, and the campus erupts as students and faculty alike try to define their own politically correct views on race.

Harriet Chenault (right) plays Sarah and George Nelson plays Strauss during a rehearsal for the upcoming play “Spinning Into Butter” at Heller Theater. JOHN CLANTON/Tulsa World

Heller artistic director Julie Tattershall said she can see why a friend of hers called the piece "a white person's racist play." She sees why the play is thought of as both offensive and as an eye-opener.

But she can also see the play as "incredibly beautiful at the end, touching to the point that it made me cry the first time I read it; not because it was sad, but because it held out hope that we can get past the labels that we have for each other, that we can connect."

At the center of the play is Sarah Daniels, a dean of students who thinks of herself as a forward-thinking liberal but who eventually is forced to consider her own feelings about race.

"White is the invisible normal. We don't say that out loud, but it is, and everything else is a label first," said Tattershall. "I've had some of the same arguments that Sarah in the play has had, that if you say, 'This is my friend Sherry,' and 'This is my black friend, Sherry,' that you've used a label. You've now made this person different.

"The whole thing about the play is that we can do better than what we're doing, and we have a long way to go to cross some of these barriers that we've grown up with. They're almost unconscious barriers. We think of a racist as the KKK member, not the person sitting next to you."

The play deals with many kinds of labels, the ways that people objectify one another. The subject matter has generated much discussion and debate among the cast of Harriet Chenault, David Gray, George Nelson, Liz Masters, Sean Stefanic, Barry Maxwell and Owen Froeschle.

It's also resulted in some pointed comments from members of the theater community.

"I've got some friends who are really hacked off I'm doing the play," she said, explaining that "the black student never shows up in the play. They think that's a racist statement in itself. They talk around him. He never appears to have a voice for himself.

"The playwright said she wanted to write from a white person's point of view, and this person realized that they were a racist. She did not feel comfortable writing from a black point of view, so that person's point of view is not in here."

Tattershall can remember when the Goodman Theater in Chicago commissioned the play and invited black students in that city to see the play.

"Some of the comments were, 'Well, we knew that white people were thinking this, this isn't a surprise,' she recalled some students saying of the prejudices that are revealed in the play.

"Is the play offensive? Yes," Tattershall continued. "Is the play controversial? Yes. Is it worth seeing? Oh, yes. I hope that it causes dialogue. I think this is the kind of play that people could sit around and talk about for weeks, and isn't that the best kind of play to do?"

theater

Who
Heller Theater

When
8 p.m. Thursday-Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday, also 8 p.m. May 13-15

Where
Heller Theater, 5328 S. Wheeling Ave.

Tickets
$5-$7, may be reserved by calling 746-5065

Michael Smith 581-8334
michael.smith@tulsaworld.com