Diversity on Broadway — Page 12

"If shows such as Hamilton, In the Heights, andAllegiance continue to written and produced, I can almost guarantee that the number of white audience members will decrease and the audience will diversify, and that is such a great thing."

I agree and suggest that it's not a zero sum game.  It's a win-win for theatre in general.  I'm heartened by the success stories of some community theater groups to attract a diverse roster of writers,directors, and actors, which FindingNamo alluded to.   Apart from a few warts, I find Broadway to be a helluva lot more inclusive within than other sectors of society without.  And yes, I'm looking at you Silicon Valley.  Context is everything so please read on at the link below whenever you can spare the time.  

http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2015/05/asians-tech-glass-ceiling-hidden-plain-sight-ascend-study

Finally, as a simple thought exercise, I implore each of you to replace the word racism with "hegemony" as you devise ways to move theatre forward in the US.  The aim here is not to re-write history but to move past the loaded word racism.  We are often not aware of the origins or nature of our biases or hangups.  Consequently, we become either defensive at the mere suggestion that our successes are due in any measure to birth-right or discouraged by the burden of always having to receive the nod of approval of the dominant group. 

@javero, thanks for that link - I will definitely be reading it later! 

Updated On: 10/17/15 at 07:43 PM

hork said: Nothing (or very little) is required in theater. But a little verisimilitude never hurt anything. It would be weird to see a farce set in 17th century China with a lot of non-Chinese actors. And what's "plenty"? It was a very small number, compared to the number of whites.

Just because Broadway is historically (and unjustly) white, it doesn't mean we have to swing in the extreme opposite direction and start filling every cast with non-white actors, just because.

Oh no, Old Times and Sylvia and China Doll and Therese Raquin have no people of color! Quick, someone add a few!"

Yes, it would be weird to see a farce set in 17th century China with a lot of non-Chinese actors because Chinese actors get almost no stage presence and on top of that China was essentially marginalized and exoticised in the world market until relatively recently. Britain has nothing to lose by having an Elizabethan farce feature a variety of ethnicities because Britain spent centuries dominating the global culture. China hasn't. And why can't Old Times and Sylvia and China Doll have people of color? This isn't just "oh gosh let's toss in some quotas", it's representing and giving a chance to a great number of people who are being actively, persistently, and historically discriminated against. If you're against that, you're a tremendous bigot.

@firebolts, my big takeaway from the article was the following excerpt from one of the comments,

"Until recently if you were an Asian CEO of a startup about to go public, the investors often insisted that a white CEO be brought in to make the company more attractive to Wall Street. This is now decreasing."

That's consistent with my experience as an over-50 technologist, entrepreneur, patron of the arts, and ethnic minority in the US.  On the business side of things, it's not an unsurmountable obstacle but one nevertheless.  In addition to penning original works, minority players in theatre have to get and stay on the same hustle as indie recording artists to overcome barriers to entry.  Even if you're not a fan of rap or hip-hop music or Tyler Perry, you gotta admire the hustle.  And thanks to regional theatre & the Internet, Broadway is not the only game in town.

Updated On: 10/17/15 at 09:12 PM

Charley Kringas Inc said:

Yes, it would be weird to see a farce set in 17th century China with a lot of non-Chinese actors because Chinese actors get almost no stage presence and on top of that China was essentially marginalized and exoticised in the world market until relatively recently. Britain has nothing to lose by having an Elizabethan farce feature a variety of ethnicities because Britain spent centuries dominating the global culture. China hasn't.

Chinese actors get a lot of stage presence in China. What you said is true, but my example would also be weird if none of it were true. It would be weird (actually, even weirder) if the production were in China. Not everything is about geo-political history.

And why can't Old Times and Sylvia and China Doll have people of color? This isn't just "oh gosh let's toss in some quotas", it's representing and giving a chance to a great number of people who are being actively, persistently, and historically discriminated against. If you're against that, you're a tremendous bigot.

I didn't say they couldn't. I'm just mocking your notion that every show must have non-white actors in it.

Showface said:  And please, enough of this "historically accurate" stuff. If it has nothing to do with race, then have a cast as colorful as the frickin rainbow. Hamilton has proven that it can work...people stop making excuses.

Hamilton works (presumably ... I haven't seen it yet) because it's making a specific point. But not every show wants to do that or should have to. What is wrong with historical accuracy, if that is what the creative team wants? Are Jane Austen movies culturally problematic because the cast is all white? Where do you draw the line? Do you draw the line? Would you have insisted they consider Chiwetel Ejiofor for the lead in The King's Speech? It had nothing to do with race, and he's a great actor, and it's all about talent, right?

Updated On: 10/18/15 at 12:59 AM

"Hamilton works (presumably ... I haven't seen it yet) because it's making a specific point. But not every show wants to do that or should have to. What is wrong with historical accuracy, if that is what the creative team wants? Are Jane Austen movies culturally problematic because the cast is all white? Where do you draw the line? Do you draw the line? Would you have insisted they consider Chiwetel Ejiofor for the lead in The King's Speech? It had nothing to do with race, and he's a great actor, and it's all about talent, right?"

The thing is, theatre has a certain freedom that film doesn't in my opinion, so yeah.

I'm not saying that you have too--I'm not forcing writers to include underhired and underrepresented actors in their plays or musicals (but again, what's wrong with simply writing out race...there is an eraser on a pencil and a backspace button on a keyboard--use it), but goodness, if race doesn't matter, or if a character's specific iconic look does not matter, why not? If we're going to keep getting revivals and plays about a time in our world that took place decades and centuries ago,and then race and appearance isn't even an issue, then just excluding a very talented group of actors does seem ridiculous. That's my point.

Updated On: 10/18/15 at 09:21 AM

Race always matters.  That's why Cornell West called his landmark book "Race Matters."

Since we're all theater lovers here with a passion that runs so deep that we put a lot of thought and intellectual curiosity into it, I know I don't have to remind any of us that plays take place in three parallel time periods. 

The action of the play takes place in the time it was set, but it also takes place in the time the playwright creates it, and ALSO takes place in the time it is performed.  

Fortunately, we've been moving into a time when an all female production of Julius Caesar, to pick one example, works perfectly well.  This way, the world of the theater is no longer exclusively the domain of white men. Playwrights are moving away from all white racial breakdowns and that's great for the health and vitality of the theatre. 

Why?

I would like to clarify that when I say "race does not matter", I mean plays/musicals where the subject matter is not dealing with race or racism--and there are a lot of plays/musicals that don't deal with that subject.

We're all saying what we believe. That's what the board is for. Hence, we don't have to use the word arguing, we can just say stating what we believe. 

hork said: "Chinese actors get a lot of stage presence in China. What you said is true, but my example would also be weird if none of it were true. It would be weird (actually, even weirder) if the production were in China. Not everything is about geo-political history.

I didn't say they couldn't. I'm just mocking your notion that every show must have non-white actors in it."

Racism is about geo-political history, that's the entire point. The point is that America has consistently put down non-whites for years and years, as has the English colonial culture, and since we, America, still do to a great extent dominate the global media landscape, it is our responsibility to make a conscious effort to involve other cultures and ethnicities. And should every show have non-white actors in it? I have no idea, but lots more should. The point is that people who are non-white are being actively discriminated against. The point is that we can't just keep somehow stumbling across the "best actor" who "happens" to be white. "Mocking your notion that every show must have non-white actors in it" ok archie bunker

Like the almost-entirely-white production of The Mikado that (thankfully) went up in flames here in Seattle, a city with an incredibly significant and active Asian population.