Laugh, Cringe, Repeat: Travis Ray Brings ‘White’ to Off-Central
By Avery Anderson
What’s the quickest way to kill a conversation about race, identity, and power in the arts? Make it a lecture.
What’s the surest way to get people to lean in? Make it a comedy.
That’s exactly what James Ijames does in White, the satirical gut-punch now in rehearsals at Off-Central Players under the direction of Travis Ray. On the surface, it’s a play about the art world—who gets to create, who gets shown, who gets left out. Underneath, it’s a mirror held up to every cultural institution, every gatekeeper, and every audience member who thinks they’re immune from bias.
“[James Ijames] uses humor as a way into conversations that can otherwise feel heavy or avoided, which makes the play accessible while still hitting deep,” Ray says. “In Tampa Bay, a region with a growing and diverse arts scene, this play feels especially timely. We’re actively negotiating questions about representation, ownership, and who gets a seat at the table in our cultural spaces.”
Satire With Teeth
There’s nothing polite about White. One moment the audience is doubled over laughing, the next they’re squirming in their seats. Ray sees that tonal tightrope as the play’s secret weapon:
“I remind the actors that the comedy and the discomfort live side by side, and both are essential,” he says. “When the actors stay truthful, the tonal shifts feel organic, and the audience is right there with them, laughing one moment and questioning themselves the next.”
That whiplash isn’t an accident—it’s the point. In a region where “diversity” often gets boiled down to optics, White doesn’t just talk representation. It messes with your head until you feel the contradictions.
Tampa Bay Is the Stage
Every city says its conversations about race and representation are urgent. But Tampa Bay is living that tension in real time. New theaters and galleries are opening, new voices are taking leadership roles, and audiences are shifting with the region’s growth.
That makes White more than just another “timely” play. It’s entering a city in the middle of rewriting its cultural DNA.
“As someone who has worked to champion equity in the arts, this play pushes me to examine where my own blind spots might be,” Ray admits. “It’s easy to critique systems of privilege from the outside, but White forces us to also ask, ‘How am I complicit? Where do I benefit? Where do I need to push harder for inclusion?’”
Off-Central’s Sweet Spot
Off-Central Players has built a reputation on staging work that doesn’t play it safe, and White fits the bill. It’s provocative, funny, and unflinching. More importantly, it’s not content to sit onstage—it follows you out of the theater.
“My hope is that people leave the theater buzzing with questions: Who gets to create? Who decides what’s ‘authentic’? What does representation really mean beyond optics?” Ray says. “If people are still unpacking those questions in the car ride home or debating them at dinner afterward, then this production has done its job.”
Why This One Matters
Plenty of plays claim relevance. White earns it. By turning satire into a scalpel and dropping it in the middle of a city renegotiating its cultural identity, the play makes relevance unavoidable.
It’s not just a show you watch. It’s a conversation you can’t get out of—even when you’re laughing.
If You Go
White by James Ijames
Directed by Travis Ray
📍 Off-Central Players, 2260 1st Ave. S, St. Petersburg
📅 October 9–19, 2025
🎟️ Tickets: offcentralplayers.com
Avery Anderson
Avery Anderson