That went too far for the Actors’ Equity Association union, which said Wednesday that the show’s language was not official or in compliance with their rules.
Friday, April 01, 2016
Open casting call for ‘Hamilton’ causes a little ruckus
That went too far for the Actors’ Equity Association union, which said Wednesday that the show’s language was not official or in compliance with their rules.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
Equity rules always seem to confuse me. I don't see why they should be giving the producers of Hamilton any problem about calling out for non white men and women, if that is what they did originally as well. My guess is that because of all the attention Hamilton has they are trying to keep racial casting open. With theater it is always a gray area when it comes to racial hiring. If their is a role that the playwright intend to be played by an asian, and the director wants that, then the casting call should be able to specify what they are looking for, just as they specify gender and age. By with our culture pushing for acceptance and equality on all fronts it gets a little harder with theater, to keep the right intention in mind while still doing the piece justice. I still admire the Hamilton team so much for being a leader in color blind casting. I think they handled the response well to their casting call when Equity pushed by saying they welcome non white actors.
I don't understand why this caused she a big up roar. Many shows have characters of certain ethnicities and backgrounds and in the end it is saving everybody time. If you know a role is specified as a certain ethnicity why audition when you know you are going to get the part. The whole point of Hamilton is to be extremely diverse. They don’t want to white wash the show! Another thing I found weird was that it was stated that equity reads all casting notices but did not read this one? Equity needs to be on top of these things since it can really affect people. It is equity’s job to make sure everyone is given a fair chance. Hamilton responded in such a great way by apologizing and re-submitting a different version of the casting notice. I hope more shows are open to be as diverse as Hamilton is being!
Post a Comment