Spinning into Butter' both startling and pertinent

Ironic intertextuality graced the "stage" of Barnum 008 Wednesday night as the administration brought in a play about college administrators attempting to reduce racism on campus.

Associate Dean of Students Marisel Perez and the Bias Intervention Team asked Lesley Chapman to bring her production of Rebecca Gilman's Spinning into Butter to Tufts. Chapman had directed the show at The Theatre Cooperative in Somerville this past fall.

Perez said she had thought about bringing the production to Tufts in the fall, when the production was still running at The Theatre Cooperative. They later decided to postpone the event until March so the play would coincide with the Speak Out, Stop Hate Rally, which took place on Wednesday afternoon. The two events were organized and advertised by the Dean of Students Bias Intervention Team and the Peer Educators.

Dean of Students Bruce Reitman said the two events were -- unfortunately -- well-timed as there has been a "saturation" of bias incidents on campus in the past few weeks. "In some ways, it's good to get the campus together and get people talking about this," he said.

The play takes place on a predominantly white college campus in Vermont and focuses on the newly-hired Dean of Students, Sara Daniels. Though at first she seems to be a very sympathetic administrator -- especially compared to the old windbags on the staff -- even she cannot escape the reality of her own racism. In fact, anyone who reads or sees the play cannot avoid questioning their own racism. One way or another, Gilman shows us, everyone is culpable.

As the audience slowly begins to realize, Dean Daniels is incorrect in everything she thinks about people she meets because she makes her judgments solely on first impressions. Yet, the play is masterfully constructed so the audience identifies and takes her side from the beginning. Then, later on, when she makes her total confession of her deep-seeded racism, we are completely blind-sided. By revealing her long struggle with her inner racist feelings and overt racist actions, the audience is immediately implicated into her struggle, for it is one we know all too well.

Chapman, said working on the show forced her to continually examine her own feelings and actions to see if they were racist. She added that the cast was made to do the same. "During the rehearsal process," Chapman said, "the cast and I had some very good discussions, which jogged a lot of thoughts."

Everyone should read or see a production of Spinning into Butter because it helps you to understand the different dimensions of racism and how to start finding its root within your own self.