Black Jewish Representation in Theater
On July 14, 2021, I will have the opportunity to interview the team behind the The Catastrophist, the newest play by America’s most produced playwright, Lauren Gunderson. The Catastrophist is the story of real-life virus hunter Nathan Wolfe and a stirring meditation on scientific discovery, Judaism, family, life, and loss.
William DeMeritt is the star of Gunderson’s newest play and shines in the role. He is an accomplished actor and voiceover artist who has been featured in HBO’s Emmy-winning film The Normal Heart, HBOMax’s The Flight Attendant, the critically acclaimed web series The Outs, NCIS: New Orleans, Person of Interest, and Law & Order:SVU. This winter, he can be seen in Netflix's The Noel Diary, based on the best-selling novel. He is also a featured narrator on the Audm app, a streaming service for narrated long-form journalism, where you can listen to articles from The New York Times, The Atlantic, Nature, and other leading publications. www.williamdemeritt.com @demeritt
I sat down with William to discuss both his involvement in The Catastrophist and the experience of being a Jew of Color cast in an explicitly Jewish role.
This interview has been edited for the sake of clarity.
Kendell Pinkney: Bill, here you are, a professional actor who’s been “in the game” for some time....
William DeMeritt: That’s debatable.
KP: (laughing) Your professional credits would suggest otherwise. Anyway, here you are with a career as an actor, but only in recent years have you had the opportunity to be both Black and Jewish on a stage. I am curious to know what it was like to step into this solo role for The Catastrophist and bring your full identity?
WD: It was unique to have the opportunity to play this role. As a bit of background, I wrote a one-man show where I could access my Black Jewishness. Additionally, in drama school I did a role that a director jokingly said was “the part I was born to play”–The Yiddish King Lear. That was the first time I was cast in a Jewish role, so it counts for something, but it was also school. The Catastrophist was a unique professional opportunity.
The playwright, Lauren Gunderson, and I have formed a close friendship and working relationship over the past two years. I didn’t know at the time, but it was very important for her that the actor cast in the role be Jewish. (For the record, I don’t necessarily think a non-Jewish person can’t play a Jewish role, but I do think there are times where it is more beneficial, and maybe most prudent to cast a Jewish actor.) So, as Lauren and I were working together on other projects, I became the go-to person for this role. To be on stage playing a character where I can inhabit, access and expose my identity as someone who is Black and Jewish was something I deeply treasured, and I feel a great deal of responsibility towards it.
KP: On the one hand that sounds incredibly empowering. On the other hand, it also seems a bit fraught to so publicly stand up there as a Jew of Color.
WD: Until I met you and became aware of organizations like Ammud, I didn’t really know there was a greater JOC (Jews of Color) community. Rather, there were a handful of people who were both Jewish and People of Color who I would run into over the course of my life. As it relates to The Catastrophist, though, I actually love the “in-your-faceness” of being the person who was cast in this role. You know, there will be some people who see the show and will ask, “What’s that guy doing up there?” And I would say to them that I have just as much a right–maybe more–to be up there as anyone else.
KP: To go back to something you mentioned earlier. What do you think makes it prudent to cast a Jewish person for this role, or any other role that centers Jewish experiences, for that matter?
WD: Several years ago, I was asked to be the unofficial cultural advisor on a piece that dramatized a story of anti-Black and anti-semitic violence. As a way of forwarding these narratives, the creative team developed a Black Jewish character who was struggling to make sense of his Jewish identity. The team was fantastic: they were sharp, very talented, and incredibly skilled, but none of them were Jewish, or had thorough personal access to the Jewish experience. In that case, I think it would have served the story to have someone on the official team who could give the “inside baseball” perspective of what it means to be Jewish at the intersections of racial trauma, religious trauma, and Jewish trauma.
KP: That perspective resonates with me quite deeply. Well, I know we both need to get going. Bill, thank you so much for sharing a bit more about yourself and your involvement with The Catastrophist. We look forward to speaking with you on July 14!
WD: Anytime. Looking forward to it.
JOC ACTORS REFLECT ON THEIR IDENTITIES
To see a short documentary of JOC actors reflecting on their identities produced by and featuring William DeMeritt, follow the link to DAWN: A Cosmic Reunion. Click on "What We Missed at Sinai" and go to timestamp 4:31:27 for "I Am Not What I Am."
Many thanks to REBOOT for the video permissions.