Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Hearing Actor as Deaf Man in McCullers Play Draws Protests
NYTimes.com: "When the playwright Rebecca Gilman began adapting the Carson McCullers novel “The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter” for the stage several years ago, she made a bold and controversial artistic leap: opening and ending the play with speeches by a central character, John Singer, who is deaf and mute throughout the book."
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
8 comments:
While I understand the argument of the deaf actors, the final decision should be up to the casting directors. Pressure from outside groups controlling casting will not result in the best actors being chosen. Also the whole point of acting is play someone different. An actor should not be judged on their outside ("real life"), they should be judged on their acting talent. If straight actors protested every time a gay man or woman played a straight character, there would be riots in the streets. I realize this is a slightly different situation but people should still keep that in mind. The actor that has already been hired for the role should not be fired. Maybe in future a deaf actor will play this role but for now a hearing actor has the job.
I understand that some our upset I don't know if saying this is like a white actor in blackface is a true comparison, nor do I believe saying it is like a homosexual actor playing a straight actor is a true comparison. The fact of the matter is that the director of this production hired who they felt was the right choice. That may mean the actor doesn't have all qualities of the character they are portraying on stage. But that is okay because that is the job of the actor, to portray the character's traits.
There seem to be two complaints from the deaf community about this production.
One is about the script itself. I in no way mean to offend anyone but playwrights always twist and change stories to fit in with their own creative vision. If Ms. Gillman intended to make a true adaptation of this book than maybe she did not succeed but maybe she was creating a new version of this story for her own artistic intentions. We work in a medium that intentionally and unintentionally offends people all the time. Why should we cater to one group and not another?
The second big argument seems to be the casting choices. Once again in our profession people make all kinds of unpopular choices. They did attempt to reach out to the Deaf Community, which they ultimately did not have to do.
I can understand why people might be upset or offended just given the subject of this argument but I honestly think this situation is just another example of how artistic freedom and expression can be so controversial without even intending to.
There is an interesting point that these protesters are making, but I can't help but wonder: would they object to a deaf actor getting cast in the role of a hearing person? To my mind, the most able actor should be given the role. After all, acting is about the ability to portray a certain character, often plays present caricatures, not realistic characters, so sometimes realistic casting is not the best answer for the art.
I do agree that deaf actors should be given equal opportunities as hearing actors are, but I also think that it was up to the director. People shouldn't be discriminated against based on a physical limitation, but if the part was written for a speaking actor, I know many deaf people who do not speak. This is somewhat similar to a recent hubub about Glee having a non-disabled actor being a character in a wheelchair. There are enough actors in wheelchairs that they could have found a good actor who was both talented, and in a wheelchair.
Regardless, I don't think the Alliance for Inclusion in the Arts has the right to ask them to fire this actor, or rewrite the play. That just seems absurd to me. The decision was already made, and they only seemed to care AFTER the play won awards. I think changing the opening and end monologues is a mistake. They were written the way they were for a reason. If the actor was signing at the same time as he spoke, that would be awesome, but if they change this over to the actor only signing, I think it loses some of the impact it might have with the audience.
The protesters claim that casting a hearing actor as a deaf character is like putting a white person in black face, but as the article goes on it seems that the deaf actors are more concerned with equal opportunities for deaf actors. The latter is a perfectly valid position to have, but it doesn't help your case to throw in comparisons to black face to make the casting seem worse than it is. It's unfair that deaf actors are often turned away in favor of hearing actors, and this is definitely an issue that should be addressed, but I'm not convinced that this particular incident is the right time to do so. It sounds like the role calls for a hearing actor, since the character speaks during the play. While some may not agree with this decision, the playwright felt that this was the best way to tell the story and that should be respected.
I agree with Katherine, white actor to blackface is not equal to hearing actor to deaf role. It doesn't seem right that only deaf people should be able to play this role, because in that right doesn't that restrict the different adaptions that can be performed of this show? Perhaps if a deaf actor that had auditioned was exactly what the director was looking for would have been cast instead, but merely limiting the kind of person that can be cast for such a role is close minded in itself. As Molly said, maybe in the future a deaf actor may play this role, but just because an actor is deaf, doesn't mean they should automatically have "dibs" on this role.
Although I am not deaf and cannot know what this would be like for me if I was, I still feel like a big part of the beauty of Acting is becoming someone other than yourself. If we were only to act as people that we acted like in "everyday life" what fun would that be; what talent would that require? Even though it can be found offensive, and it may deny a deaf actor work, it may help to open up the eyes of the actor playing singer -- as with the rest of these "casting faux pas".
Post a Comment