HowlRound: I am Caucasian American. I recently played a character with the last name Chang. My questions are: If I played the character as the ethnicity suggested by the name, would that be offensive? If I played the character close to my own ethnicity, would that be offensive?
5 comments:
I appreciate the appeal to understand how so many things, things once considered acting, are now seen as offensive. I understand your search for the line of where things stop being offensive. I understand your skepticism around the idea that there are some things you just can’t do. You ask who decides, and when and how do they decide but I wonder if you have ever taken the time to talk to minority groups about this. You say that Hawaii is 38.6% Asian, talk to some of the Asian population about how they feel about you, a Caucasian woman, playing these Chinese parents. Then, ask an Asian actress, who time and time again has been ignored for not being the Caucasian woman that you are, or for not being willing to be stereotypically Asian for comedic purposes.
You said that the casting of your show helped you “In many ways that helped us more deeply explore the play than simply casting along ethnic lines.” I don’t mean to get all emotional or anything, but being black has shaped my life every single day. Sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse, but it is always there. So an educated playwright who wrote that a character is black didn’t write that to give Caucasian people a chance to offend, and push theatrical boundaries, a play wright wrote that because being black forces you to go throw life obtaining a different perspective than any other race. Unless the playwright was just throwing in race as an accessory, in which we have a bigger problem. So Susan Soon He Stanton, the playwright, wrote that these people were Chinese in the hopes that someone who was Chinese, someone who has lived life with that perspective, would play that part.
I wish that there was more information on hat the playwright did and did not have a part in. If she was there for casting I think it changes things, but not too much. At the end of the day you catch yourself in the argument hen you say your state is 38.6 percent Asian, and yet you can’t find enough Chinese Actors for a 9 person show? I’m not buying it. IF the playwright took the time to say Chinese, that character is Chinese. There are SO MANY instances where the playwright doesn’t specify race and yet only Caucasians are considered, try out for those!
I agree with the author when they say that there is no longer a clear line between making a character choice and causing public offense. I think that line is often crossed during casting. Take for example the movie Aloha that came 2 years ago. The main character, played by Emma Stone was supposed to be half Chinese. However, Emma Stone isn't remotely such. Who's to blame the producers for wanting Emma Stone as there lead? Of course they are going to cast her because she alone will earn the movie millions. With all that said an done, did you do the piece justice by not honoring the text during casting? It is that which I think the anger and frustration comes from; there is probably a hundred other actresses who could of played the role perfectly, but they weren't the A-List star. So do you take a chance and honor the playwright's/screenwriter's choices, or do you do what you think will be most successful, but know it could end up in public offense? Sometimes choices that come across offensive were not made to do so, but is just the easy out or best way to appeal to their majority audience. I think that's why it was great that the playwright came in to the show's rehearsals to help navigate those decisions because it's all in the text. It is important that if a company chooses to do a particular show that they honor the casting as much as possible with their casting pool. If you stick to the text, there's usually won't be much to be offended by.
It's really difficult to say whether any of this is in the wrong. The article doesn't necessarily provide much insight into why exactly actors that did not match the ethnicity of their characters were casted that way, which I think would provide a more interesting look into this issue. In addition, it would also have been interesting to have a bit more insight into the playwrights thoughts into the mixed ethnicity issue on this particular play, because if the play actually does have as much diversity as the author of this article suggests, the playwright must have had some thoughts on the casting choices and how they affect the message that is being told. This is a very complex and multifaceted issue, and without clear justification or explanation on why these casting choices were made (if there was any thought in it at all), it's simply too hard to say whether or not the "offensiveness" of the choices made were "excusable" or not.
First of all, I don't have a problem with the ensemble Greek-chorus type cast containing other races that don't fit the show, but when it comes to a single person playing a role of the wrong race, I think that's where I draw the line. Asian Americans aren't given many substantial roles in the entertainment industry to begin with, so why give one of those few roles to a white person? And as for making the lines that are intended to show the language barrier between Chinese parents and daughter gibberish... Why continue to perpetuate this portrayal of Asian Americans as a stereotype to be laughed at with funny voices and cooky antics that are lesser than the white people portraying them. Having the parents speak real Chinese in perhaps a funny phrase would have created the same effect with the audience being isolated, and given Chinese audience members something to laugh at as well rather than being offended.
I think that this production set in a place with such a large asian population could have been a gift, but they simply didn't utilize it. There are so many community theaters that continue to stage shows that simply don't have the race for the cast that the show intends. Recently in my town, a community theater did a production of Mulan with only white kids. And so many community theaters don't cast racially conciously in shows where race doesn't matter. So why, when given the opportunity to really showcase actors of another race did they choose to continue to cast white actors in roles they weren't intended.
This article is difficult because it’s trying to figure out if the things done in this play were offensive or not simply by listing the moments where offense was possible. When they talk about how accents were added or taken away because the “accents got in the way of character” which sounds more like an early rehearsal problem where the actors are trying to figure out who this person is and so need to focus in their own accent. However, later the accent can be added back in without being distracting because the character is set and really should have that accent. Taking out almost all accents because they are distractions is like pretending that you are never going to run into a person in real life who has an accent. Just because people or characters have accents doesn't mean they aren't interesting, relatable people. I think deciding to have characters who would normally have accents based on their background not have accents is getting similar to casting caucasians as people of color, though on a smaller scale because we have to fix the bigger problem first. But I feel like so often accents get cut because people play them up and make them funny and a stereotype when accents are just the way people talk. There is no reason to be ashamed that you have an accent and when we cut out all acknowledgement of that we are falling down the same rabbit hole of ethnically wrong casting.
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