WhatsOnStage.com: Whenever I come to New York City, I'm always struck by how much more diverse than London this city seems. Not just seems, but is: 56 per cent of New Yorkers are non-white, compared to 41 per cent of Londoners. That shifts the sense of your surroundings. It lessens the notion of majorities and minorities. Instead, the experience is one of a mix – genuine multiculturalism – exacerbated both by a tourist's eye and the city's cultural geography.
3 comments:
I have loved seeing the progression into colorblind casting that has occurred recently both on stage and on the screen. Like the author, I think that it is an important step that needs to be consciously taken so that true blind casting can occur. And what better place than the theatre to suspend your disbelief about race. However, I think the lines begin to blur when a character is written as a specific race but is casted differently. Though colorblind casting technically means that anyone should be able to play any role, I find offense when a character has been written as Asian but is not casted as such - i.e. Emma Stone in Aloha - because it takes that opportunity away from talented Asian American actors/actresses. A colorblind world is the ideal but, until we truly get there, the industry must be mindful of the dangers of using it as an excuse to take away opportunities from minorities.
In hindsight, my very first theater environment was what the article describes as ideal: "diverse casts [were] not curated but created unthinkingly," as the author wrote. (It could be achieved due to the diversity in the university--more than 50% was Asian at the time, and about 30% white.) Colorblind and non-traditional castings were taken for granted because of the given situation. Therefore, I had no idea what the real world was like until I broke out of the bubble. Many times I felt like I was there as the token of the tokenism. Gracefully skipping the complex emotions and thoughts of being the token, I believe the awareness towards building diverse casts and production team is heading toward the right direction. Like the author wrote, the seeming tokenism is a step towards progress.
And the article briefly mentions another interesting point of how a less diverse society systematically teaches homogeneity on actors. I agree 100% that the culture here not only tolerates but even encourages individuality compared to any other homogeneous culture. People erase their accents, physicality or any other traits that can be used against them to judge or to categorize them into certain socioeconomic stratum. I can only speak from my own experience that being respected as my whole self leads to much better quality of life than being evaluated by how I present myself. In the sense, American culture is much ahead of the game than other homogeneous groups, but still the ideal is far too much away.
While talking about casting, diversity is incredibly important and I believe in expanding the ethnicities of actors onstage. I also agree with everything BinAhn said. Colorblind casting does not exist, because of our inherent biases, so I don’t agree with the author in that sense. In almost all contexts, the race of the actor sends a very specific message. Sometimes trying to jam in racial casting to a play doesn’t work and actually takes away from the play. For, example you cannot racially cast, Mechinal because it was written for a white woman. So rather than just casting, the theater industry should be focused on telling more diverse stories. For example, promoting more diverse playwrights and directors who can tell their stories and write more diverse roles that can give more opportunities for people of color.
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