Last night I had the pleasure of directing yet another zoom reading of another play by Kirt Shineman for the Theater Artists Studio.
In Whitewashed we discover how covering up the outer appearances never changes the inner truths. It is 1916, and the famous artist John Singer Sargent (played by Marc Comstock) is bored with painting portraits. Yet, his friend, Isabella Steward Gardner (played by Linda Peterson Warren), keeps lining up more portraits. At a dinner party, the President of the Boston Museum of Fine Art commissions John to paint the museum rotunda. He could, but he has no inspiration. Thomas McKeller (played by Alex Patrick), an uneducated Black hotel elevator operator, thrusts himself upon John to be his model. John hires Thomas. In secret John completes portraits of white men and women using a Black male model and goes on to create his final greatest work, the ceiling at the Museum of Fine Art, with White gods modeled on a Black man. All the while John is drawn to Thomas, they embark on a journey of love, but a journey they must never reveal.
We had a great response and I'm hopeful this is the first of many steps for this piece!
In Whitewashed we discover how covering up the outer appearances never changes the inner truths. It is 1916, and the famous artist John Singer Sargent (played by Marc Comstock) is bored with painting portraits. Yet, his friend, Isabella Steward Gardner (played by Linda Peterson Warren), keeps lining up more portraits. At a dinner party, the President of the Boston Museum of Fine Art commissions John to paint the museum rotunda. He could, but he has no inspiration. Thomas McKeller (played by Alex Patrick), an uneducated Black hotel elevator operator, thrusts himself upon John to be his model. John hires Thomas. In secret John completes portraits of white men and women using a Black male model and goes on to create his final greatest work, the ceiling at the Museum of Fine Art, with White gods modeled on a Black man. All the while John is drawn to Thomas, they embark on a journey of love, but a journey they must never reveal.
We had a great response and I'm hopeful this is the first of many steps for this piece!
RSS Feed
