Dutchman
As the 50th Anniversary passes of this seldom-produced play of the
Black Arts Movement, KCMeltingPot Theatre brings to the stage
Dutchman, by Amri Baraka.
On a subway car in New York city during the late1960s Clay, a middle-
class black man en route to somewhere, is forced to engage the
stereotypes of black masculinity in the dominant American
imagination head on when he encounters Lula, an eccentric white
woman who pokes and prods at his black manhood. Written at the
height of the Civil Rights and Black Arts movements in the United
States, Amiri Baraka's Obie-Award Winning play Dutchman captures
the nation's deepest fears from the past about race and racism in a
rich, poetic dialogue, so rich that it flattens time to predict those fears
in the present. In his last play as LeRoi Jones, Baraka reflects the
zeitgeist of black rage and repression embedded in the fears and
stereotypes of whites in the late 20th century. This timeless story
boldly foretells the future of racial tensions in America in the 21st
century as it turns the notion of post-raciality on its head. KC
MeltingPot's production of Dutchman is directed by its Associate
Artistic Director, Nicole Hodges Persley and features Laura Jacobs and
Frank Oakley as Lula and Clay.
NEWS/ARTICLES Dutchman
Dutchman Cast/Crew
Anna Oakley
as Train Rider
Timothy Burks
as Train Rider
Richard J. Burt
as Train Rider
Orlando Newton
as Conductor
Frank Oakley III
as Clay
Laura Jacobs
as Lula
Nicole Hodges Persely
Director
Rana Esfanfiary
Assistant Director/Set
Designer
Laura Burt
Stage Manager
Troy Cox
Assistant Stage Manager
David Ruiz
Dramaturg