Should I wear blackface makeup?

UPDATE: Based on feedback from my friends R and C, the director and producer have agreed to switch to using brown makeup. We opened last night and it looked great. we all feel better about it too!
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How would you react if you saw a white stage actor dressed as Shakespeare's Othello in blackface makeup and a black curly wig?

Your reaction -- or lack thereof -- would probably depend on your ethnicity. At least it did in my case. During auditions for my current show "Lend Me a Tenor," (opening this Friday) the director asked me if wearing black makeup was something I would be comfortable doing. Before answering, I considered the following:

• The role has been historically portrayed this way for 400 years;
• The humor in "Lend Me a Tenor" is situational, not racially-based;
• We were not doing a minstrel show.
  

I consider myself to be generally attuned to issues of race. After all, I have a number of African-American friends, my adopted sister is mixed race, and my wife is Latina. I am also aware of the privileges of being European-American, such as never having to wonder whether rude treatment or job loss is due to the color of my skin.

So I told the director I would do it. Later, after trying on the makeup, and seeing that I looked nothing like a minstrel show performer, and more like a chimney sweep from Mary Poppins, I felt even more comfortable with my decision.

However, after discussing the use of black makeup with my much-more-racially-attuned wife, I began to reconsider.

It dawned on me that there is not a single African-American person in the cast or crew. If there were, would we be using the makeup? Did anyone do "due diligence" on this issue? I decided to seek the opinion of my friend, R, who is African-American. His response:

I believe to use "blackface" for makeup is very insensitive to what this means to many African Americans. I am very surprised with the advances in makeup that anyone would choose black over brown or dark brown. Maybe it takes too much time, however, in this play and setting I would presume it would be worth it.

R's response made me realize the mistake I made in presuming that since the play has artistic merit, and that since our intentions were good, that it somehow nullified the use of the makeup. R's point is not that it is the imitation of a dark-skinned person that is a problem, but the use of black (as opposed to dark brown) makeup that creates a racially insensitive climate.

Perhaps the creators of "South Park" were right when they said that the only way Caucasians can understand African-American feelings on racism is to understand that we can never understand it. That is, you only get it when you realize you don't get it.

Despite my sensitivity to racial issues, I clearly do not get it.

Do you share R's opinion? I would very much appreciate public input on this topic.