In its ongoing quest to produce Theater That Matters, The Old Globe has reached back to the 1950s to produce a kind of theatrical mea culpa for the current state of American theater as expressed by organizations such as We See You White American Theater. As the program notes, the Old Globe's commitment is "to make [theater] matter to more people," and to that end, it has "embarked on a series of steps to intensify and accelerate necessary change at all levels of our institution." And what better way to illustrate that commitment than a play about a play that attempts to tackle race (to the extent that saying "Lynching folks is bad" is tackling race, anyway), but which runs up against more subtle tensions along the way? (The lead actress' opening lesson to the newcomer about How to Handle a White Director sets the stage nicely, and nastily.) Better still, it's by pioneering Black playwright Alice Childress, who passed up the chance to be the first woman to see her work on Broadway because she refused to water down her ending. And better still, at least from the audience's perspective, it isn't a political screed, but a zippy, humane depiction of how Everybody's Got Problems — some of which have to to with race, some with sex, some with money, some with age, some with power, etc. — and the way it's a miracle anything ever gets better, or even produced. (The Big Final Blowup between lead actress and director is more about Art vs. Commerce than Black vs. White.) It's clumsy in places, e.g. the play-within-a-play'sdirector is forever asking his charge to both not think about and also justify every dramatic decision she makes, a contradiction necessary for the drama, but a contradiction all the same. But the cast's energy and presence are enough to keep both your attention and your affection. — Matthew Lickona