The Ithaca Journal reports that students complained when a white actress was cast in the role of Esmerelda, a part intended to be portrayed as a Romani person living in 15th century Paris.
Tuesday, January 30, 2018
High School Production of HUNCHBACK Cancelled Following Outcry Over Casting Diversity
The Ithaca Journal reports that students complained when a white actress was cast in the role of Esmerelda, a part intended to be portrayed as a Romani person living in 15th century Paris.
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So let’s never produce another show at our school because we are too sensitive about casting decisions. Sorry, that was harsh, and not meant to be but it drives a narrative that seems to be popping up everywhere. Not all Romani are persons of color and I don’t feel that persons of color own exclusive rights to songs about oppression and misery. There is quite a diversity of skin tones among them. Two things that come to mind when reading articles like this; First, sorry, but where there any female persons of color that auditioned? And secondly, why does the role have to be played by a person of color? I feel that in this case, the students may have overreacted. Yes, I want to see roles played by people they were written for (if the script actually calls for that). This reminds me of an article from last semester where a company got into hot water because they cast a different person in a role. It turns out that in that case, the company reached out to those who would be great for the role but declined to audition or take the role. There was a missed chance here, not only to learn about the culture of the Romani, but also about how the community has changed and adapted over the years. There was also the chance to have a serious conversation about oppression as well as life in 15th Century France. But once again, someone got upset over a casting decision and the world had to stop. Instead of educational opportunities and letting these actors show off their chops, someone had to shut it all down because they failed to understand the full scope of the casting decision or to use it as a chance to learn something they otherwise didn’t know.
I, disagree wholeheartedly with Joshua. I think the students had every right to call out the school for casting a person who is not a person of color in a role that is intended for a person of color. My high school just did a production of “In the Heights,” back in September and the students there called it “In the Whites,” because every single person that was cast in a racially specific role was white, which is so clearly not what the show is about. It is the school’s fault, both my high school, and Ithaca high school’s fault that they decided to put on shows that involve racially specific roles if there are not people in the school/involved with the productions that are able to justify playing that role as the type of person it was written for. Musicals and plays tackle a lot of racial issues and some of the most important parts require that the cast fill the playwright’s intentions specifically. You wouldn’t like it if an all-white cast played the main characters in “A Raisin in the Sun,” because it is so clearly not about the white experience in the 1960s, and there’s no reason to make it that way. Productions like Ithaca high school’s are allowing the problems with our industry to be excused and that is simply not okay, whether or not it’s a high school production. Pick shows you can cast appropriately, this shouldn’t even need to be a discussion.
I just don't understand why a director can't see their pool of students and realize that maybe somehow that they don't have enough people of color for a show. It's not unheard of, it's common sense. In a high school the temptation to do popular new shows is really tempting, and I'm sure the white students were really excited to have the opportunity to be apart of a show like the Hunchback of Notre Dame. I'm sorry, but not every role was written for white people and roles cannot be changed to be white and fit the white actor. Those opportunities are for people of color. In order to achieve proper diversity, it has to start within American high schools, those lessons have to be learned. In the same sense, high schools with people of color shouldn't be doing all white shows where people of color are in the ensemble. There's already such few roles for actors of color, I just don't understand why Caucasian actors have to have the mentality that they too are entitled to the same roles, it just does not add up.
Welp, just another day in high school theatre. At least according to the directors/casting person, at this high school. This is only a taste, the tip of the ice burg of the problem of inclusion in theatre today. High school especially seem to have a bad trend of getting it wrong on the hopes of education. We have to stop this cycle of using inappropriate and inaccurately diverse shows. If you have a school with a tipped scale of one race or another than shows with similar backgrounds should be the shows you do and you watch and learn about the shows that don’t fit in those parameters. Or better yet do more racial neutral show that is fun for everyone. It is no longer, and the term should have never been coined, ok to have colored blind casting. The action of color blind casting has been grossly miss used. In a “PC” USA there is no excuses to accidentally misappropriate someone else culture in any way.
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