CMU School of Drama


Wednesday, December 07, 2016

Race and representation on Chicago stages

www.timeout.com: In July 2006, this very magazine asked a provocative question on its cover: Why is theater in Chicago so white?

I didn’t have a hand in that story—it was written by then-staffers Christopher Piatt and Novid Parsi—but as Time Out Chicago’s chief theater critic for nearly eight years now, the question is never far from my thoughts. And how could it not be on my mind, when people bring it up all the time in private conversations, on social media, at conferences or over drinks at the bar, telling me how much it meant to them to see Chicago theater’s segregation problem addressed so directly.

1 comment:

Kimberly McSweeney said...

I definitely like the perspective this article takes in interviewing Steppenwolf’s artistic director, and how she does not defend the footprint of time this diversifying change is happening, however does note that it is something talked about every day within the company. Diversifying definitely takes a lot of time, but as the article discusses, social media really is the nitrous fueling the more rapid changes to companies’ representation. By opening a gateway for discussion and even more critique, companies can now see really what is bothering the people in real time, something that they could not do before. This article also brings up the common argument that companies can only cast the ones who audition for them, and while this is true, it doesn’t make much sense that in a place like Chicago, where the population is over half people of color, that not enough of the stage presence is.