It's frustrating to observe the enmity between blacks and Korean shopkeepers. As well as seeing the actual footage of the King beating, we watch surveillance footage of a shopkeeper who, after a physical altercation with a 15-year-old black girl, fatally shot her (she mistakenly thought the girl had shoplifted a container of orange juice). Although the jury recommended a 16-year jail sentence, the judge gave her community service and a $500 fine.
Late in Twilight, a Korean immigrant (Mark Carter) at a genteel, upper-class, why-can't-we-all-get-along dinner party given by restaurateur Alice Waters (Sandra Barrett) points out that Koreans have had a long history of prejudice and oppression in Japan, since their forebears were brought there as slaves 200 years ago. We are reminded, as we are with many of the disturbing vignettes here, that the Los Angeles riots had roots reaching far deeper than the streets of South-Central.
Related:
Undiscovered country, Year in Theater: Staged right, Sounding off, More 
- Undiscovered country
A young woman steps off the Elevator Styx into a Hades ruled by Pee-wee Herman.
- Year in Theater: Staged right
It's been a Buckingham Palace season on the local rialto.
- Sounding off
Chicago artist Nick Cave (no, not the musician) remembers the Rodney King beating as a turning point in his artwork.
- Review: The Laramie Residency
You can't accuse "The Laramie Residency" of being anything less than exhaustive in its four-and-a-half-hour series of interviews about the 1998 Matthew Shepard murder.
- History and mystery
In 1975 in Philadelphia, R. Buckminster Fuller delivered a 42-hour talk titled "Everything I Know." Even in this day of marathon theater events, that might be a hard sell.
- Gaga's eau de bloody load, Diddy exposed as 9/11 mastermind, and other music news in brief
Smell ya, shouldn't have to tell ya!
- Another town, another story
One of the great things about my day job as director of Insight Radio (part of Insight, a non-profit in Warwick that promotes independence and opportunities for people who are blind or visually impaired) is that I get to see just about every news website or publication in the state.
- Body politic
Anna Deavere Smith is a writer/actor/activist who listens.
- Crusaders
Broadway is strewn with the banana peel of Arthurian legend.
- Road trip
The open road has always been ripe territory for cultural scrutiny and self-discovery.
- Fall on the boards
There are tours to the former Czechoslovakia, Romania, Italy, Iraq, the Aran Islands, and even the Underworld on area stages this fall.
- Less
Topics:
Theater
, Entertainment, Crime, Charles Lloyd, More
, Entertainment, Crime, Charles Lloyd, Matt Fraza, Police, Performing Arts, Gang Violence, Theater, Rodney King, Rodney King, Less
