Color Conscious Casting: Three Questions to Ask

HowlRound: I’ve got a big fat opinion on the term “color blind casting,” which is that it doesn’t exist. I can’t think of an environment, in real life, where race doesn’t factor into relationship dynamics. And if it doesn’t exist offstage—why do we think we can (or should) create that scenario? I prefer the term “color conscious casting,” by which I mean that race is acknowledged in, and ideally deepens, theatrical conversations.