Dael Orlandersmith

In the mid-1980s, Dael Orlandersmith was a struggling actress in New York. But even when she found a casting call for black women, she hated most of the roles she read for. "A lot of stuff I auditioned for I didn't want to do," says the fast-talking New Yorker. "They wanted black junkie prostitutes. How many ways can you say 'ho'? There simply wasn't any work. I'm not America's version of eye candy, and I can't sing or dance."

In the mid-1980s, Dael Orlandersmith was a struggling actress in New York. But even when she found a casting call for black women, she hated most of the roles she read for. "A lot of stuff I auditioned for I didn't want to do," says the fast-talking New Yorker. "They wanted black junkie prostitutes. How many ways can you say 'ho'? There simply wasn't any work. I'm not America's version of eye candy, and I can't sing or dance."

NEW YORK -- Novelist Mischa Berlinski, one of last year's finalists for the National Book Awards, is among the 10 recipients announced this week of the Whiting Writers' Awards for authors of "exceptional talent and promise in early career." The winners each will receive $50,000. Berlinski, whose "Fieldwork" came out in 2007, is among five fiction writers to win a Whiting in 2008. The others are Laleh Khadivi, Manuel Munoz, Benjamin Percy and Lysley Tenorio.

A $50,000 grant from AT&T will help South Coast Repertory produce "Getting Frankie Married ... and Afterwards," a new play by Horton Foote that will have its world premiere April 5 at the Costa Mesa theater. Foote, the 85-year-old Texan who has two screenwriting Oscars and won the 1995 Pulitzer Prize for his drama "The Young Man From Atlanta," will receive an additional $5,000 under the grant program, an SCR spokesman said.

Heather Woodbury has that gift common to all mesmerizing performance artists -- an ability to capture an audience's imagination as much with her story as her singularly flamboyant way of telling it. In her latest piece, "The Last Days of Desmond Nani Reese: A Stripper's History of the World," which runs Saturdays at Bang Studio Theatre, she channels the voices of two women who supposedly speak the same language but have great difficulty understanding each other.

Words were Pulitzer Prize finalist Dael Orlandersmith's ticket out of ghetto hopelessness, and she wields them with devastating eloquence in "The Gimmick." Performed by the author in a limited engagement at the Fountain Theatre, this riveting and inspiring solo piece is guaranteed to touch the soul of anyone who's ever aspired to a better life.

Friday 8:30pm: Music John Mauceri conducts the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra and soloists Sylvia McNair, soprano, and Tracey Welborn, tenor, in "The Great American Concert," with fireworks. The program celebrates two of America's most beloved composers, beginning with selections commemorating George Gershwin's 100th birthday: "Gershwins In Hollywood" and "Watch Yor Step."

A revival of a 1953 musical and a one-man tribute to George Gershwin tied for most honors for a single show in the 2007 Ovation Awards, LA Stage Alliance's peer-judged awards recognizing excellence in Southern California theater. The awards were scheduled to be announced Monday night at a ceremony at downtown L.A.'s Orpheum Theatre, hosted by actor Neil Patrick Harris.

Racism is for white people, says the common wisdom. We are guilty by inheritance. All of us. Each of us corrupted in his normal heart. We are history's prime plunderers, wearing in public discourse the scarlet "R" of cultural remorse. Many of us do so gladly because basking in guilt somehow assuages it. Self-deprecation half cleanses us of the past. African Americans often play a scripted role in this perverse exchange as well by meeting whites' far-flung penance with entitlement.

HERE are some notable -- and forgettable -- productions cited by Times reviewers and writers Philip Brandes, F. Kathleen Foley, Lynne Heffley, Daryl H. Miller, David C. Nichols, Don Shirley and James C. Taylor: The true-life controversy at the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia provided ripe material for Thomas Gibbons' "Permanent Collection." This glimpse into the internal struggles at an art institution took on issues of race and cultural ownership.