backstage.com: Los Angeles theater executives are mulling whether a director’s artistic vision is compromised by a push for diversity.
Critics have said Asian-American, African-American, and Latino actors have limited opportunities on American stages despite the country’s growing diversity.
On Oct. 22, East West Players (EWP), an Asian-American theater organization based in Los Angeles, held a forum on race politics which brought out some of the top artistic directors in Southern California.
6 comments:
The growing diversity of actors is fantastic and notable but it is useless if they never get cast. I understand that there is the vision of the director and the constraints of the actual show though. I hope the directors will give a racially diverse cast a go because parts should be given on merit and acting skills, not skin color. Then again, actors are chosen for their looks so it is hard to be in the director's shoes. They have to ask themselves what the line is for pushing diversity or for keeping their artistic vision. We don't want this to turn into an affirmative action debate. But directors need to keep an open mind about it and about everything, it is their job.
I completely understand why the directors said they couldn't pledge to diversity. At the same time, I don't want actors to be excluded from opportunities because of their race. A large portion of choosing an actor isn't just their talent, but their "look". It wouldn't make any sense for Our Town to have a Korean Howie the Milkman, and everyone else white, but should a director be convinced into casting the Korean because of racial diversity? I don't think so. The problem is really that there aren't many plays in the past that have racially diverse characters, and people in the present who write plays with racial diversity aren't often prominent. Playwrights really need to take this matter into their own hands and write plays that have diversity built into them, and then publicize those plays heavily.
I remember we had this chat on the Greenpage back when Next to Normal came through town and those who saw Alice Ripley's Asian understudy and wondered why she would be cast against fully Caucasian children. It's a delicate balance - when characters need a "look" to satisfy the director's vision for the show, then I believe along with the panel that you have to support the director. I agree with Kelly that many plays of the past are not written with racially diverse characters in them, but disagree with present whitewashing - there's a fair amount of diversity in modern plays, and older plays can always be adapted and presented differently than their original production - remember, following the director's vision for the production.
Also remember that nary a Caucasian performer is going to be cast in Motown: The Musical. All the casting breakdowns call for black performers. It's how it is.
I agree with Kelly and Brian here. While I think that hiring people of diverse backgrounds is a really great thing to be pushing for, it has to make sense. In industries like theatre and film, how you look is a big factor in how you fair with job hunting. It's an industry based on story telling, and while there is always a level of suspending disbelief for theatrics, there is a line that audiences aren't always willing to go past. If you have a supposedly biological family that consists of an African-American mother, Caucasian mother, and Asian child, it doesn't really work out as believable, and I don't think directors should have to sacrifice that to accommodate for trying to be known as diverse.
I think this is entirely an issue for the playwright. Directors should not be casting based on affirmative action. They should be casting based on who fits the role. Casting anyone who wasn't white into the role of Yank, completely changes the message of the play, and might even make it more then a little racist, as at the end he decides that the only living being that understands him is a gorilla. Directors are restricted by the plot, if having people in those roles who do not look the part harms the integrity of the show it should not be done.
While I understand the need to cast people who fit the 'look' of a part, I feel like the definition of 'looking the part' may need to change. How many times has someone not looked the part just because the director's default look was white? Then I feel like they've created a cycle, where people of other races don't become actors because they don't see any they want to be, and so directors don't cast people of other races, and so on.
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