Writing While Black
World Premier For Copy That At The Tarragon Opens Next Week By Stephen Weir Hey, most folks don’t care that cop shows don’t let the truth stand in the way of an action packed storyline when shown on prime time TV. But, what happens when the Black writer of said police stories is censored when he tries to work in a true account of his own painful encounter with the police into a new television episode? Later this month the Tarragon Theatre is staging the World Premier of Jason Sherman’s new play Copy That . The comedy drama takes a caustic look at the entertainment industry by taking the audience behind the scenes of network television. Jason Sherman This is the story of four writers struggling to get their new cop show script approved for production. When the team’s only Black writer (Toronto’s Tony Ofori) is roughed up in an actual cop encounter, the fallout threatens to not only kill the show, but expose the systemic racism at the heart of popular
