Regarding reenactments involving slavery...
 
One issue I don't think I've seen mentioned in the discussion yet:  We also
have to take into account that it is often a predominantly white audience.
There is a great psychological/emotional difference  between watching black
actors on TV or in a movie portraying slaves and having them performing live
in front of you. This certainly creates a completely different set of
interactions between audience and interpreter, which will in part be affected
by race relations today as much as race relations 200 years ago.
 
Am I right in remembering that Colonial Williamsburg does its "How the Other
Half Lived" tour in third person rather than first?  Are there any sites that
have African-American interpreters doing first-person characters who are slaves
and who interact with visitors in that character?  Ever since I heard the man
who plays George Washington occasionally for Mt. Vernon try to explain why a
particular "skit" did not work (it involved GW giving instructions to a slave
who was one of his foremen), without once mentioning the issue of the race of
the actors or the audience, I have been curious about this.
 
Carolyn Brady
 
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