ANNIVERSARY OF OKLAHOMA! TOLD
NEW LENS BY JOHN MOORE
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When Artistic Director Chris Coleman opens Oklahoma! for the DCPA Theatre Company, it is believed it will be just the second time a director has employed a primarily African-American cast in the 75-year history of the beloved American stage musical. The first was Chris Coleman, for Portland Center Stage in 2011. Coleman was initially seized by a little-known historical fact that never let him go: In 1906, the year before Oklahoma became a state and the same year the famous story is set, there were 50 all-black towns in the Oklahoma Territory and 137,000 African-Americans living there. Here appeared to be one speck of dust on the national map where blacks could be full participants in Manifest Destiny — that uniquely American belief that westward expansion was both justified and inevitable. “There was actually a movement to make Oklahoma an all-black state, and there was great fear among white residents of that happening,” Coleman said. “I had never heard any of that in my history classes. And I got curious about what it would mean if African-American artists got the chance to tell this story.” That story is the same hopelessly optimistic and yet psychologically dark yarn audiences have adored since Oklahoma! opened on Broadway back in World War II 1943: Ranch hands and rival suitors Curly and creepy Jed woo a farm girl named Laurey, with deadly consequences. But in the end, the farmers and the ranchers band together to celebrate the new state of Oklahoma.
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Only in Coleman’s production, there are no white people. Back in 2011, he had no idea the impact that would have on actors and audiences alike. “I vividly remember during one rehearsal looking over at the actors playing Curly and Ado Annie,” Coleman said. “They were sitting on the floor watching a scene and tears were just streaming down their faces — and it wasn’t a sad scene. So I asked them, ‘Why are you crying?’ And one of them said, ‘I just realized I have never sat through a play about black people that wasn’t about being oppressed by an outsider. This was about our community just living their lives, and falling in love, and trying to make something of their lives.’” Audiences responded, Coleman said, according to their own experience. “Some people came in and they just saw Oklahoma! — and they thought it was awesome. Some people said, ‘After 10 minutes, it just seemed like that is the story,’ and they went with it.” And some people said it was a revelatory staging. Coleman said Ted Chapin, President of the Rodgers & Hammerstein music publishing company, told him it was the most thrilling production he’d ever seen of Oklahoma!, because he had seen it through totally new eyes. But perhaps Coleman’s favorite comment was from a 15-year-old white kid seeing Oklahoma! for the first time. At intermission, he said to Coleman, “You know what? I can’t imagine this story with white people.” That’s just the way the story made sense to him. “So I think it completely depends on who you are,” Coleman said.
APPLAUSE • AUG – OCT 2018 • 303.893.4100 • DENVERCENTER.ORG
Illustration by Kyle Malone
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