CLARION — The playwright who barred a planned production of one of his works at a Western Pennsylvania university due to the race of some of the student actors said his decision reflected his belief that “people of color are not simply replaceable.”

Three of the five characters in Lloyd Suh’s play “Jesus in India” are Indian, but on Clarion University’s mostly white campus, two of those characters were to be played by white students and a third was to be portrayed by a mixed-race student.

Suh of New York City said Friday that he “could not allow the play to be performed by white actors in nonwhite roles before a public audience.”

“The practice of using white actors to portray nonwhite characters has deep roots in ugly racist traditions,” he wrote. “It sends a message, intended or not, that is exclusionary at best, dehumanizing at worst.”

A mostly white cast playing Indians would be especially ill-timed at “a moment on multiple college campuses where racial tensions are undeniable and extremely dangerous,” he said.

According to Suh’s theater company’s website, “Jesus in India” is a “contemporary parable” about Jesus’ “wayward” journey to the East with a friend. There, they encounter “a spiritual haven full of Maharajas, punk rock and some really good weed.”