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Monday, October 08, 2018
Legendary lyricist Sondheim dismisses protests calling for color-conscious casting as 'ridiculous'
St. Louis Public Radio: “That kind of protest, I just find sort of silly,” he said. “If you carry that to its extreme than you’d have to say that an actress couldn’t be played by anyone but an actress and that a mother couldn’t be played by somebody who hadn’t been a mother. I mean, it’s ridiculous.”
8 comments:
Ari Cobb
said...
When it comes to casting a play or a musical where the race of the character doesn’t have any impact on the storyline, then the race of the actors cast in the roles shouldn’t matter. For instance, “Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812”, the characters are Russian, but the color of their skin is never indicated in the story, they don’t talk about how X person has white skin, or this other person has brown skin. The actors could be any race and it wouldn’t matter, therefore yes, cast anyone from any nationality to play the characters. But for shows like “Hairspray or West Side Story,” the race of the characters plays a huge impact on the story – most of it circulates around the fact that the problems came about BECAUSE they were not the same race – so making the entire cast the same race would be confusing. I disagree with Sondheim’s statement of “If you carry that to its extreme then you’d have to say...that a mother couldn’t be played by somebody who hadn’t been a mother. I mean, it’s ridiculous.” A mother does not have a set look. A mother is really more of a relationship or a sort of concept, rather than distinct features. You could look at a person, and whether or not they’re a mother might not be apparent. But race is a very visual marker, and it’s a much more set thing than just a “mother.” I don’t think that we necessarily need to keep it strictly that people can only play characters within their race, but I do think that we should have diversity and accuracy whenever possible.
I am a big fan of many of Sondheim's work, and I think he brings a lot of challenges to the theatrical stages, however, I cannot support, in any capacity his disagreement over the protests. Casting West Side Story always seems to come off as a risky business because of the base agreement that this is a story between two different racial groups. It's important that white actors (or any other PoC that aren't Latino/a) because much of the tension is specific to them being Puerto Rican, and their rival group being white. Finding a story with specific roles for PoC are somewhat few and far between, and so when you take away the stories that they do have, a more realistic narrative is silenced. Agreeing with some of the other comments is here, is how ridiculous his 'mother' argument is. One of the challenges of being an actor is having to play someone who is unlike yourself. Emotional connections sometimes come easier if one has been able to fill that role in society, but nevertheless, someone like a mother can be played by anyone, because it's a term that doesn't apply to race or background, or really even age. That's very different from something like race. Actors can fit into a role of a mother, but they can't just fit into the a role of any race. It's non-negotiable.
I am severely disappointed by the comments made my Sondheim. He sounds just like people who protested gay marriage claiming that we would soon allow bestiality. It is just ridiculous. If race is not a central theme of a story, one can cast relatively color blind, as long as they are conscious of and avoid any unintentional statements about race that can be insinuated by casting a certain race in a certain type of character (ie. casting black people only as villains). If race is a central theme, it is essential to cast with race in mind, mainly because whitewashing is a practice which has been done to keep people of color out of the industry. It is an inherently racist thing to do. Maybe color-blind casting doesn't have that intention anymore, but that simply doesn't matter because that was exactly the reason for "color-blind" casting less than a decade ago.
I understand where people who say race shouldn’t matter with casting are coming from. In an ideal world it wouldn’t. In an ideal world any actor should be able to play any role because their job is to represent experiences other than their own. Everyone would have equal opportunities to play all parts and we’d all be equal. That would work if productions existed in a vacuum.
But they don’t exist in a vacuum. The exist within the cultural and historical context of the place they are being performed. As the world exists right now, actors of color have historically had fewer parts available to them. Given the history of blackface in the United States, a white-actor playing a character of color has inherent baggage to it. Our culture has a lot of issues surrounding race and a history in many ways defined by racism. Casting as if none of that is there doesn’t make that history or those problems go away, nor does it help solve them. It only serves to marginalize people even more.
I disagree with Sondheim… mostly. I think that anybody is able to play any role in which they have the ability, talent, and opportunity for, but it’s also important to stick to the original design of the show. I don’t think a school of only white students shouldn’t be allowed to put on West Side Story. In the same manner, if there are minorities who are equally as qualified to play those roles as the white students, I think they should be cast in those roles. Its important to keep up the artistic integrity of a show, but at the same time, having an originally homogenous cast shouldn’t limit who a casting director can cast. Its unfortunate that so much relies on race when it comes to shows. Luckily, I think we are heading towards a place where talent and personality are more important factors than the color of your skin.
I find it ridiculous that Stephen Sondheim find colour conscious casting ridiculous. Plays and musicals that are created with the theme of race affecting the storyline should be played by people of that race. There are plays that do not have race as one of the driving forces in it storyline, it is perfectly fine to cast some of any race to that role. When Sondheim refers to the issue of color conscious casting as silly, I feel like it dismisses the importance of telling the stories of people of color. White washing has been part of the culture of entertainment for a really long time and it is problematic. Being indifferent and nonchalant about this issue does not make it stop but encourages it. A perfect world would be where we don't have to worry about the color of skin but who can tell the experience well but unfortunately we don't so it is important that we have people stop saying "I don't see color" in sugar coated ways and we start fixing the problem.
The main problem with casting white performers in non-white characters is that it takes an opportunity away from an actor who the play was written for. If the play is written with specifications about race, those specifications should be followed. I will step aside from WSS and talk about Hamilton for a second. In Hamilton we have the founding fathers of United States, who in real life were white people, but are interpreted by people of color. The whole concept of the play is to have minorities be the founding fathers, to point out that Washington could’ve been anyone of us. People could argue that having people of color perform these roles is taking away opportunities from white performers. But if white performers were casted to do Hamilton, the whole purpose of the play would be tossed down the drain. They are “white” characters, but they were written for people of color. In West Side Story, the characters were written for Puerto Rican actors. Not latinxs. Puerto Rican. It is not the same, it should not be an assumption that every single latinx country can be casted replacing another.
First off, as a white man, does Sondheim really get to weigh in on the issue of white washing? As a Woman of Color myself, it is so so important that PoC characters are represented accurately and respectfully on stage. Like some comment above said: when a character’s race is not specified, it doesn’t really matter the actor, but when a character is specifically a Person of Color, it is really disrespectful to take that away from them. Especially when part of their character is their experience as a PoC, a white person simply shouldn’t take that for themselves. Furthermore, it is so important for young PoC it is so important they are able to see themselves on stage and the silverscreens. When you are growing up and you see only white people performing, that kind of tells you that only white people can be actors. You don’t have anybody who looks like you that you can look up to. And I think that is really unfortunate.
8 comments:
When it comes to casting a play or a musical where the race of the character doesn’t have any impact on the storyline, then the race of the actors cast in the roles shouldn’t matter. For instance, “Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812”, the characters are Russian, but the color of their skin is never indicated in the story, they don’t talk about how X person has white skin, or this other person has brown skin. The actors could be any race and it wouldn’t matter, therefore yes, cast anyone from any nationality to play the characters. But for shows like “Hairspray or West Side Story,” the race of the characters plays a huge impact on the story – most of it circulates around the fact that the problems came about BECAUSE they were not the same race – so making the entire cast the same race would be confusing. I disagree with Sondheim’s statement of “If you carry that to its extreme then you’d have to say...that a mother couldn’t be played by somebody who hadn’t been a mother. I mean, it’s ridiculous.” A mother does not have a set look. A mother is really more of a relationship or a sort of concept, rather than distinct features. You could look at a person, and whether or not they’re a mother might not be apparent. But race is a very visual marker, and it’s a much more set thing than just a “mother.” I don’t think that we necessarily need to keep it strictly that people can only play characters within their race, but I do think that we should have diversity and accuracy whenever possible.
I am a big fan of many of Sondheim's work, and I think he brings a lot of challenges to the theatrical stages, however, I cannot support, in any capacity his disagreement over the protests. Casting West Side Story always seems to come off as a risky business because of the base agreement that this is a story between two different racial groups. It's important that white actors (or any other PoC that aren't Latino/a) because much of the tension is specific to them being Puerto Rican, and their rival group being white. Finding a story with specific roles for PoC are somewhat few and far between, and so when you take away the stories that they do have, a more realistic narrative is silenced. Agreeing with some of the other comments is here, is how ridiculous his 'mother' argument is. One of the challenges of being an actor is having to play someone who is unlike yourself. Emotional connections sometimes come easier if one has been able to fill that role in society, but nevertheless, someone like a mother can be played by anyone, because it's a term that doesn't apply to race or background, or really even age. That's very different from something like race. Actors can fit into a role of a mother, but they can't just fit into the a role of any race. It's non-negotiable.
I am severely disappointed by the comments made my Sondheim. He sounds just like people who protested gay marriage claiming that we would soon allow bestiality. It is just ridiculous. If race is not a central theme of a story, one can cast relatively color blind, as long as they are conscious of and avoid any unintentional statements about race that can be insinuated by casting a certain race in a certain type of character (ie. casting black people only as villains). If race is a central theme, it is essential to cast with race in mind, mainly because whitewashing is a practice which has been done to keep people of color out of the industry. It is an inherently racist thing to do. Maybe color-blind casting doesn't have that intention anymore, but that simply doesn't matter because that was exactly the reason for "color-blind" casting less than a decade ago.
I understand where people who say race shouldn’t matter with casting are coming from. In an ideal world it wouldn’t. In an ideal world any actor should be able to play any role because their job is to represent experiences other than their own. Everyone would have equal opportunities to play all parts and we’d all be equal. That would work if productions existed in a vacuum.
But they don’t exist in a vacuum. The exist within the cultural and historical context of the place they are being performed. As the world exists right now, actors of color have historically had fewer parts available to them. Given the history of blackface in the United States, a white-actor playing a character of color has inherent baggage to it. Our culture has a lot of issues surrounding race and a history in many ways defined by racism. Casting as if none of that is there doesn’t make that history or those problems go away, nor does it help solve them. It only serves to marginalize people even more.
I disagree with Sondheim… mostly. I think that anybody is able to play any role in which they have the ability, talent, and opportunity for, but it’s also important to stick to the original design of the show. I don’t think a school of only white students shouldn’t be allowed to put on West Side Story. In the same manner, if there are minorities who are equally as qualified to play those roles as the white students, I think they should be cast in those roles. Its important to keep up the artistic integrity of a show, but at the same time, having an originally homogenous cast shouldn’t limit who a casting director can cast. Its unfortunate that so much relies on race when it comes to shows. Luckily, I think we are heading towards a place where talent and personality are more important factors than the color of your skin.
I find it ridiculous that Stephen Sondheim find colour conscious casting ridiculous. Plays and musicals that are created with the theme of race affecting the storyline should be played by people of that race. There are plays that do not have race as one of the driving forces in it storyline, it is perfectly fine to cast some of any race to that role. When Sondheim refers to the issue of color conscious casting as silly, I feel like it dismisses the importance of telling the stories of people of color. White washing has been part of the culture of entertainment for a really long time and it is problematic. Being indifferent and nonchalant about this issue does not make it stop but encourages it. A perfect world would be where we don't have to worry about the color of skin but who can tell the experience well but unfortunately we don't so it is important that we have people stop saying "I don't see color" in sugar coated ways and we start fixing the problem.
The main problem with casting white performers in non-white characters is that it takes an opportunity away from an actor who the play was written for. If the play is written with specifications about race, those specifications should be followed. I will step aside from WSS and talk about Hamilton for a second. In Hamilton we have the founding fathers of United States, who in real life were white people, but are interpreted by people of color. The whole concept of the play is to have minorities be the founding fathers, to point out that Washington could’ve been anyone of us. People could argue that having people of color perform these roles is taking away opportunities from white performers. But if white performers were casted to do Hamilton, the whole purpose of the play would be tossed down the drain. They are “white” characters, but they were written for people of color. In West Side Story, the characters were written for Puerto Rican actors. Not latinxs. Puerto Rican. It is not the same, it should not be an assumption that every single latinx country can be casted replacing another.
First off, as a white man, does Sondheim really get to weigh in on the issue of white washing? As a Woman of Color myself, it is so so important that PoC characters are represented accurately and respectfully on stage. Like some comment above said: when a character’s race is not specified, it doesn’t really matter the actor, but when a character is specifically a Person of Color, it is really disrespectful to take that away from them. Especially when part of their character is their experience as a PoC, a white person simply shouldn’t take that for themselves. Furthermore, it is so important for young PoC it is so important they are able to see themselves on stage and the silverscreens. When you are growing up and you see only white people performing, that kind of tells you that only white people can be actors. You don’t have anybody who looks like you that you can look up to. And I think that is really unfortunate.
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