Griffin Matthews Source: Facebook/YouTube

Watch: 'Karens' are Alive and Well and Working on Broadway, According to Black Actor/Writer/Activist

READ TIME: 3 MIN.

What is it like to be young, gifted and black and working on Broadway in the 21st century?

Fraught with racist attitudes, says actor and writer Griffin Matthews, who co-wrote the musical "The Invisible Thread" that played off-Broadway at the Second Stage Theatre in 2015 with Matt Gould (who he subsequently married). The year before the musical played Cambridge's American Repertory Theater with the title "Witness Uganda," under the direction of its artistic director Diane Paulus. Paulus also directed the New York production.

Matthews talks about his experiences with the show in a pointed video released this week he released on his Facebook page.

Prefacing his remarks by saying it has been "an extraordinarily difficult week for me" and "anxiety-inducing," he goes on to describe his experiences with both runs of the musical.

And finds an avatar in Karen Cooper, the angry, Central Park dog-owner