TWAIN ON RACE: IT'S A STATE OF MIND.(comments on a stage adaptation of The Tragedy of Pudd'nhead Wilson)(Brief Article)(Interview)

American Theatre, October, 2001

In January the New York-based touring group The Acting Company will add a new commission to its repertoire--Charles Smith's adaptation of Mark Twain's The Tragedy of Pudd'nhead Wilson, the 1894 novel in which a light-skinned slave woman switches her baby with her master's child, who is of similar color and age. Freedom Theatre of Philadelphia's artistic director Walter Dallas will stage the production, which debuts Nov. 17 and subsequently tours the U.S. before playing in New York in May 2002. Here Smith and Dallas discuss the risky and inventive casting choices they've made regarding the principal characters, whom Twain described as "identical in almost every way."

WALTER DALLAS: I actually didn't know Twain's version until I joined the project. The...

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