White

Gus is an artist with a problem that he’s about to make worse. His old friend Jane has announced that a “New America Exhibition” she’s curating will change the public face of a prestigious big-city art museum. By this, she means it will include no work by white artists, like Gus. His response? Hire an African-American actor, work with her to develop a fictitious persona, and submit his artwork under her name. North Carolina native James Ijames’s 2017 dramatic comedy sounds like an over-the-top lampoon of white privilege and race in the world of fine art. Then you learn it’s based on the true story of “Donelle Woolford,” a fictitious African-American artist that white New York artist Joe Scanlon created with two actors, whose inclusion in the 2014 Whitney Biennial resulted in protests and artist boycotts. JaMeeka Holloway-Burrell directs a cast including Jordan Clifton, Monèt Noelle Marshall, A.C. Donohue, and Raely Qiu in this Bulldog Ensemble Theater production.