Rep Disses Locals
To The Editors:
Perry Tannenbaum’s review of Charlotte Rep’s production of Proof (CL, May 1) strongly suggests that Steve Umberger’s departure from the organization was involuntary. This has been rumored within the theater community for quite awhile, so that came as no surprise. What did surprise me was an examination of the upcoming season brochure for Charlotte Rep, and that, combined with the implications of Tannenbaum’s review, raises a number of questions.
For the record, I have a nodding acquaintance with Steve Umberger. We have served on a theater panel together, and I read with him once at an audition for the Rep. I mention these to make it clear that this is not written out of having any particular ax to grind. His work speaks for itself. He is a wonderful director, and though he won’t be directing for the Rep, an artist of his caliber will have no difficulty in finding work.
What disturbs is not that Umberger has apparently been summarily severed from a company he helped found, but that with his departure the native theater community in Charlotte has been dissed again. Umberger’s professional life has been spent in this town, and time and again he has staged important plays for the Metrolina area using its prolific local talent. The new Rep administration seems to have confused their mission with that of the Broadway Lights Series. The idea that importing second-rank Broadway performers will significantly raise the artistic bar for a theater that has staged outstanding productions of Angels In America, The Exact Center of the Universe, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Proof, among many others, is insulting. Moreover, what does this casting have to do with a theater that still calls itself “Charlotte” Rep? It seems to me that a theater that casts non-Carolina actors in the major roles of its upcoming season has forfeited the right to the name. Finally, in what sense is the Rep a repertory theatre, either in casting or production schedule?
None of this would matter in the least if Charlotte Rep did not receive public funding. It would then be another commercial venue, entitled to do any damn thing it pleased. But at a time when all arts organizations are struggling to maintain themselves in Charlotte, the transmogrification of Charlotte Rep into Anytheatre, Anytown USA is lamentable.
I am aware that the new administration has ties to Charlotte. Umberger had artistic committment. There is a difference.
Simon Donoghue
Director of Theatre
Belmont Abbey College
Take The Test
To The Editors:
Since the subject matter was so disturbing, I can’t say I enjoyed Tara Servatius’s article “It’s A Crapshoot” (CL, April 10). However, it was an excellent piece of investigative journalism. Did anyone happen to notice the Quick Takes from the local section of the Observer on Thursday, May 2?
“A sewage spill near Lake Cornelius Wednesday prompted Mecklenburg’s first no-swimming advisory of the year. An overflowing manhole from a blocked sewage line near the end of Holiday Lane in Cornelius sent an estimated 3-4000 gallons of sewage into a ditch that leads to the lake. Water samples to measure the amount of fecal bacteria are expected today.The signs will remain in place until bacteria levels are considered safe.”
Strange that so many spills went untested and so many residents went unnotified until Tara’s article. Kudos to Citizen Servatius.
Jeremy Stroud
Charlotte
Keep On Caring
To The Editors:
Nice work by Tara Servatius on the spilled sewage report (“It’s A Crapshoot,” April 17), and congratulations on the courage to follow that with a counter to the retraction BS. Until your report, I had heard nothing about sewage spills and the joke enforcement. Not surprising, really, with the likes of Bill and Debi clogging the airwaves. Keep up the good work. And keep caring. Will Tara be running for City Council anytime soon? I’d vote for her.
Eric Nelson
Charlotte
Nauseating SUVs
To The Editors:
I wholeheartedly agree with Lucy Perkins’ excellent column “Highway to Hell” (CL, April 24). It’s one thing for people to be unable to see the forest for the trees. That is bad enough. But to be driving on highways and byways in a small car while constantly being engulfed in a seemingly endless sea of SUVs is claustrophobic and utterly suffocating. It’s little wonder that so many people arrive at home and work feeling dour and nauseous, with their minds mired in dense fog.
Gary W. Baker
Matthews
I’m Not Like Lucy
To The Editors:
Lucy Perkins’ article “Highway to Hell” (CL, April 24) was grossly mis-titled. Far more appropriate would have been “How I Turned Economic Penis Envy into a Paying Job.” After all, the entire article was about her resentment against folks with SUVs. She, on a teacher’s salary, apparently cannot afford an SUV.
Two quotes are telling: “Those of us who can’t afford, or who aren’t willing to purchase, SUVs are. . .” So, she admits that she isn’t talking about SUVs per se, but rather the resentment of non-SUV folks toward SUV owners.
She continues: “I can’t imagine how even the most ardent capitalist could possibly support the right of the rich. . .” Ahh, the heart of the matter, a little bashing of the rich. I am an ardent capitalist, which means that I support all voluntary economic relationships. Every person has the right to spend his money as he sees fit, whether I or Lucy Perkins approves of that choice. Unlike Lucy, I explicitly repudiate the moral authority to tell others how to spend theirs.
Rev. Christopher S. Cole
Charlotte
Lucy The Car Nazi
To The Editors:
To randomly condemn every person who drives an SUV puts Lucy Perkins in the same boat as the KKK, American Nazi Party and every other hate-mongering group on the planet.
She states that it was difficult to stay on the road with jerks cutting her off. The best possible course of action would have been to get out of the high-speed lanes and go to the slow lanes. I also drive on I-85, I-277 and Hwy 74 on a daily basis and the biggest problem to navigation isn’t SUVs but the people who are unwilling to move to the right lanes when there are people obviously wanting to go faster than them. Her statement concerning drivers who tailgate her when she is already going too fast is a very telling one. Get the hell out of the way!
I drive an SUV daily that gets over 20mpg, not earth-shattering mileage but on a par with the mini-vans Lucy seems to love. People who drive small cars do so because that is their decision; it isn’t forced on them by any legal edict that I am aware of. When they choose that small vehicle, they also assume the drastically reduced survival rate associated with a collision involving that vehicle.
Doug Dover
Belmont, NC
Slavery Through
The Ages
To The Editors:
In response to Charles Blackwell’s letter (“Where Would Reparations Begin?” May 1), how can one forgive, in Mr. Blackwell’s words, when there is no agreement that a transgression occurred? And since when does forgiveness equal abdication of responsibility? In addition, to use the term “slavery” in its diverse historical context is to undermine the important distortion of the word in modern American history. There has never been slavery the way Americans created it. Serfdom, indentured servitude, yes. America completely revolutionized the concept with the induction of prolonged oppression, the creation of a permanent non-class, and not to mention the overt worldwide propaganda produced to convince the international community that an entire race of people were not even human. The Moors, the Mongols, the Spanish never imagined slavery this way. Leave it to America to rise above and beyond.
Moving on to Mr. Blackwell’s oft-quoted yadda yadda about Africans aiding the European traders. That is correct, but can anyone trace the Industrial Revolution (which led to worldwide dominance) to the profit made by Africans in the slave trade? No? That would lead me to believe that white Americans profited most from the 450 years of free labor. Not to mention that most African nations, unlike America, have long since acknowledged and apologized for their role in the slave trade. I suspect since no institution like it had ever existed, my people had no idea what they were selling us into.
I won’t even go on to address Mr. Blackwell’s bemoaning of the little credit blacks give “well-meaning” whites for their contribution to civil rights progress. I’ll simply say that I’ll kiss Massa’s ring in thanks right after President Bush stands before his cohorts and acknowledges Osama Bin Laden and pals are not the original axis of evil.
Tressie McMillan
Charlotte
Own Up To Racial Wrongdoing
To The Editors:
Re: Charles Blackwell’s “Where Would Reparations Begin?” letter: Despite the fact that the practice of slavery in America no longer exists, we all must be honest enough to admit that the mentality which provided the justification for it still does: white supremacy. When I speak of white supremacy, I’m not just talking about neo-Nazis or robed Klansmen, but of the apparent universal belief among those of European descent that they must always be in a dominant position in all aspects of life (socially, economically, politically, etc.) in order to survive genetically as a distinct group of people in a world where the majority of the people are not white. People of color around the world have had to endure centuries of land grabbing, war and dehumanizing practices at the hands of Europeans because of this fear. Even though this topic may be painful to some, it is a problem some of us will have to own up to and eventually learn to take a different view of the species known as humans.
What confuses me about people like Charles Blackwell is that a simple admission of wrongdoing is out the question, and usually invokes anger and hostility. If you can’t even sincerely say, “I’m sorry,” then addressing the problem of white supremacy will be a really hard pill to swallow.
Christopher Freeman
Charlotte
Another Movie
Ticket Already
To The Editors:
I just want to say that I love the Another Week Already column by John Grooms. When I pick up the paper on Wednesdays that’s the column that I read just after I search for the free movie tickets. I especially enjoyed the one about Osama being blamed for everything. Thanks for the entertainment.
Candy Bordner
Charlotte
This article appears in May 8-14, 2002.
