Thursday, December 01, 2011
Playwright Criticizes Casting in Hartford for 'The ____________ With the Hat'
NYTimes.com: In a rare attack by a playwright on a professional production of his own work, Stephen Adly Guirgis took to Facebook on Wednesday to assail the casting of two white actors as the Puerto Rican lead characters in the Hartford regional production of his play “The ____________ With the Hat,” which was a Tony Award nominee for best play. The Hispanic Organization of Latin Actors has also complained to the theater, TheaterWorks, noting that the production had casting calls in New York City, a training ground for many Hispanic actors.
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This week seems to be all about casting issues - from Fat Beckett rewriting Godot so that women could play the roles, the all-woman Piano Lesson, up to this controversy in Hartford. The theatre definitely took some missteps here in not listing the ethnicity of the main characters in the casting notices. I'm confused by the choice to list Cousin Julio as Puerto Rican, but not the other two. Even in the case that Puerto Rican actors had the chance to audition for the roles and a white actor was cast for merit, that actor would be more informed that they would need to learn the dialect for performance - there's nothing to lose by including this point. I'm not entirely on Guirgis' side (Puerto Rican actors should be cast no matter what), but I feel that by not listing the characters with any specific ethnicity whatsoever, the Hispanic actors who might have gone out for the role may not pursue it.
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