Spinning Into Butter is a play by American playwright Rebecca Gilman. The play debuted at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago in 1999. It was later produced at the Lincoln Center and the Royal Court Theatre,Review of Spinning Into Butter at CurtainUp! was named one of the best plays of 1999 by Time, and eventually became the third-most-produced play of the 2000-2001 season."The Season's," American Theatre, Oct. 2001: 86.

The play takes place at the fictional Belmont College, a mostly-white liberal arts school in Vermont. Simon Brick, one of the few African-American students, begins receiving hateful, racist notes. The all-white administration, including a dean named Sarah Daniels, scrambles to contain the problem and reassure parents that everything is under control. But Daniels, in a controversial scene, reveals her not-so-latent racism, calling blacks lazy, stupid, and scary.

The play's treatment of racism has sparked some controversy. Several productions include a forum at the end for audience members to discuss the issues raised. The well known novelist Ishmael Reed criticized the play, calling it racist and clumsy.See Another Day on the Front. New York: Basic Books, 2003, pg. 166. But other critics defend the play, arguing that it exposes rather than perpetrates racism.See, for example, Geoffrey Stacks, "Simon Wasn't There: The Sambo Strategy, Consumable Theater, and Rebecca Gilman's Spinning into Butter." African American Review 40.2 (Summer 2006): 285-97.