University play canceled over actors’ race
CLARION (AP) – Officials at a Western Pennsylvania university say a play was canceled because of the race of some of the student actors.
Three of the five characters in the “Jesus in India” are Indian, but on Clarion University’s mostly white campus, two of those were to be played by white students and a third would be portrayed by a mixed-race student.
Bob Levy, chairman of the visual and performing arts department, tells the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that playwright Lloyd Suh’s agent told the university he was uncomfortable with any notion that he supported white students portraying Indian characters.
Levy says Suh pulled the university’s right to stage the production after being told that finding replacements wasn’t practical with the play set to open soon.
Suh declined to comment.