CMU School of Drama


Tuesday, January 09, 2018

‘Book of Will’ Fails to Diversify The Bard

rescripted.org: “Casting should be diverse. Shakespeare is meant for everyone.”

This simple statement, written atop the casting breakdown of Lauren Gunderson’s new play, THE BOOK OF WILL at Northlight Theatre, filled me with so much hope.

I am a woman of color who regularly directs Shakespeare and regularly encounters pushback when trying to convince producers and audiences that the words people often assume were written primarily for white, cis, able-bodied men can be shared by, well, everyone.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I’m all for color blind casting on those plays and musicals where it doesn’t matter. Historical plays, skin color matters. Richard the III was not black, nor a woman, nor asian. He was a white man. Othello is traditionally played by a black man. We get that. Where I take issue is when people call out a theatre company for not casting people of color or women or this or that without knowing the background. They want to run up and jump on stage and scream how bad it is that this group is ignoring talented black actors, or differently-abled, or women. They are also quick to do so without having dialogue and conversations about why the director chose the cast he/she did. In this case, as evidenced by the second article, the artistic director stated that they reach out to multiple people of color, all of who turned down the roles that they were being offered. So why are you faulting the production because you don’t see a person of color on stage? Society now is so quick to judge, and harshly, other’s actions without really getting to know the reasons behind them. They are not willing to have discussions, all they want is to point fingers, blame, or seek vengeance, based on the face value of what they see without ever scratching below the surface. Perhaps if people get all of the facts and not use just their own prejudices and feelings, we can have honest, open discussion about casting in American theatre.