When I was cast in the ensemble of Show Boat at the Media Theatre I was very excited. I was happy to be back at the Media after experience there in the Spring of 2008. It was a very talent heavy cast. Philip Boykin played Joe, Jennie Eisenhower played Julie and the incredibly talented and under rated Elisa Mathews played Magnolia. However, the first day of rehearsal let me know right away that this show experience was going to be very different from my last Media Theatre experience.Show Boat was directed by Jesse Cline who's also is the Producing Artistic Director of the Media Theatre. At the first rehearsal he told us he was going to be using the original script of Show Boat when it was produced in London in 1927. In that script they use the word "nigger" alot when refering to some of the black charecters in the show. Right before the first read through I thought Jesse was asking the cast on how we felt about the use of the word "nigger" in the show. I raised my hand to explain my experience when I did Big River four years earlier and we kept "nigger" in the script. I agreed with that decision. However, Jesse made it clear he didn't paticularly care how we felt about it. He had the final say and that was it! I didn't have a problem with the nigger being in the script. My issue was when we sung the song at the top of the show. Instead of singing "Colored folks work on the Mississippi" Jesse went back to the original script when the black ensemble sang " Niggers all work on the Mississippi." I don't know if Jesse knew that the original 1927 Negro London cast were white actors in black face! So them calling theirselves niggers was meant to be insulting to blacks!!! Also complicating the matter to me was the fact that we were blocked during this number to sing the song while our wives were greeting us on the docks while we stacked the cotton bales. We were directed to be happy to see our women but calling ourselves niggers while singing the song!!! I was dumb founded!!! I give Jesse Cliene the benifit of the doubt that his intentions were to be authenthic to the time the play took place. Blacks on these show boats were treated that way in 1880. However, the direction to me felt like it was a heavy handed attempt to invoke guilt or emotion out of the Media audiences. Also when the black ensemble was singing the song m"Misery" we were upstaged by a back drop with images of slaves with welts on their backs. The fact that the images had nothing to do with song was ignorant enough but the fact that it upstaged us insulted the black ensemble even more. This heavy handed, unimaginative direction, caused a slight rift in the cast that never really quite recovered. However, when you have blockbuster talent it can make up for alot of bad direction. Phillip Boykin was incredible as Joe (I found out I was his understudy on opening night which was a violation of my contract which thoughly annoyed me!) When Phillip sang "Ole Man River" he brought down the house! When Phillip was asked to sing "Ole Man River" at the opening of the Paul Robeson Museum, he graciously asked myself, Paris Nesbitt, Brandon Dennis and Alex Fraser to sing along with him. The museum was Robeson's old house and it was an amazing experience! Elisa Mathews as Magnolia was breath taking! Jennie Eisenhower's portrayal of Julie was sublte and equally as breath taking. The show recieved great reviews and was well recieved. 
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