Wednesday, September 07, 2016
The Great Theatrical Melting Pot
Breaking Character: In the late nineteenth century, Broadway experienced its first ever production starring African-American performers. In July of 1898, Clorindy: The Origin of the Cakewalk opened on the rooftop of the Casino Theatre. The show had a successful run and proved to be revolutionary, paving the way for African-American and other minority performers in the realm of theatre. From that point on, theatre would no longer belong to just Caucasians. Over a century later, countless works of theatre showcase a diverse array of performers- African-American, Hispanic, deaf, and even wheelchair-bound performers- and the stories themselves are even more diverse than the storytellers.
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The United States has been known as a melting pot ever since the term was used over 100 years ago and, along with countless movements for societal equality, the theater world has been following behind this ideal. As the article states, the first African-American play had happened right around the time we coined the term “melting pot.” Now, over the last century, it’s revolutionary that we manage to provide a theater education for everyone, no matter what race or sex they are, no matter how old they are or how high their income is. Today, we even manage to incorporate those with disabilities into the theater world. Through professional shows such as The Curious Incident, mental illness is becoming more acceptable to be portrayed on stage and the audiences who come to see it are educated about the characters’ struggles. As artists we are often one of the first to facilitate this kind of change to society. As artists, we are extremely prone to accepting liberal ideals, respecting everyone around us, learning from the people we work with, and embracing each other’s differences. This is an extremely important idea to always keep close to heart, especially in the theater world where you can truly make a difference.
“Theatre education is something that should be readily available to all students, regardless of age, income, race, or disabilities”
This quote really gets the argument rolling and goes on to embody the sense of the article in that, when made available, theatre has the ability to influence and support anyone in any situation, if given the proper chance. Middle-class, Christian Caucasians have been the societal norm for centuries, which has caused the sense of ‘otherness’ in society. This otherness is what causes people to feel and be marginalized, disenfranchised, and underrepresented in society and when a person is marginalized due to this otherness, they are then unable to feel like they have a chance, they appear stuck in a path predetermined for them. But theatre can show them so much more. It’s kind of like when Obama became president; suddenly so many black youth saw the possibility of becoming a real influence in society after so many years of impossibility being thrown their way. Theatre is so diverse, it really can help and open doors to anyone, “regardless of age, income, race, or disabilities”.
To me, theatre is suppose to represent the world we live in, so it always surprises me when I think of the lack of diversity that plagued theatre for quite a while. However, with that disgust of the un-diverse came a joy and pride with all of the great strides that the theatre realm has made in the recent years. I agree with the article that all children of every background should know that there is a place that they belong in the world; they deserve to see their stories told too! to start, I think that the main principle of theatre lends it to the universal home that the author describes in the article. The principle of discovering and understanding different characters/perspectives/situations. This helps theatre makers try to understand our differences and helps us accept them. Its true, we are community made stronger by our differences. Now, theatre is not just reaching a more diverse range of people, but also its reaching farther than ever before, into places that has never seen live theatre! It's about time!
I definitely agree with the author - I think theater education is extremely important and valuable, it can have such a powerful impact on someone. However, the theater/entertainment industry definitely still has a lot to work on. I think theatre's been taking some steps forward lately, especially with shows like Hamilton and The Color Purple. However, we still have a long way to go. To be honest, I think the world of theater is still lacking in diversity. There's still misrepresentation, stereotyping and whitewashing of colored characters going on today, especially in Hollywood. In order to change that, theater education institutes must help initiate action and start making changes, since that is where future actors, designers, directors etc are taught and molded. The same goes to the phrase "well this is how it's done in the real world" that we always hear. If something isn't working, then we should be the ones to start changing it.
I don’t think anyone who is a part of theatre could stress enough how important theatre education is and how it should, in some capacity, exist in everyone’s lives at one point or another. I am of course bias as I have chosen to study theatre as closely as possible for four years of my life and my high school theatre experiences changed my life; however, even those who do not elect to make theatre their life gain extremely important life lessons from theatre in more efficient ways than any other education. No matter what concentration of theatre you are interested in, everyone learn collaboration like the back of their hand. Theatre cannot work on any level without collaboration. As an extension to this, my experience shows that a higher percentage of theatre people hold themselves accountable more often than non theatre people. This idea of community and collaboration means that you don’t want to let anyone down, especially your production family, so you are far more likely to hold yourself accountable. Also, it is a way of expressing yourself. No matter whether you are on or off stage, you are taking a part in art, so you are expressing yourself artistically which – as the article mentioned – can be very therapeutic. Getting this opportunity at all – much less a complete theatrical education experience – to everyone, no matter what their walk of life, is impressively important. Hopefully, with an expansion in theatre education, professional theatre will become more diverse and more accepting to all walk of life and minority groups, which will lead to a wider range of theatre being developed and performed, bringing a progression to theatre as a whole.
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