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Actress Danai Gurira: Black Casts And Crews On Broadway Shouldn't Be 'Unusual'

The playwright said it's a "shame that there is any significance to the moment."
Kira Brekke
By 

Editor, HuffPost Video

Actress Danai Gurira is making her first impression on Broadway in the coming weeks as the playwright behind "Eclipsed." The play is gaining buzz for its black female cast, which includes Oscar-winning actress Lupita Nyong'o, but Gurira told HuffPost Live last week that she looks forward to the day when seeing so many black women grace a Broadway stage isn't so noteworthy.

"The Walking Dead" actress explained to host Caroline Modarressy-Tehrani that while many repertory and non-profit theaters across the country are working on diversifying the theatre world, "there's still a lot of growing to do," she said. But even with the lack of diversity, Gurira said it "shouldn't be that unusual" for a Broadway play to have been written, directed and acted by a black cast.

"I understand the significance of the moment, but I also find it a shame that there is any significance to the moment," she said, adding: "It just really shouldn't be that much of an event, and that's what I yearn to see. I yearn to see that the next time one of my plays is on Broadway, it's just not that much of an event for a black woman to have written a play for Broadway."

Click here to watch the full interview with actress Danai Gurira.

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