Some of you may think this racist...it's not:

I guess if you can have a Blonde Egyptian, you could have a white Nubian.

I'm assuming they are going for color-blind casting here. Interesting-- please keep us posted!

There was recently a production that had a white Aida and a black Radames. As long as they're of different races, I guess the basic idea of forbidden love and nationality differences can be kept, even though I thought it a little weird anyway. Historically, Amneris and Radames probably weren't *really* white, for the record.

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There have been threads on this in the past, and it's a complicated (not to mention touchy) subject. I personally am of the philosophy that in a show were realism and/or historical accuracy are important, actors of appropriate physical characteristics should be cast, whether it's a matter of race, looking like a historical figure, or simply being believable as a blood relative. Also, one has to be true to the time period. If you're doing, say--to take an example I used on an earlier thread--"Death of a Salesman," you need to cast a white actor as Howard, Willy's boss, because in the 1950s that's (unfortunately) how things were.

SO...if you're doing "Aida," and the character is supposed to be black, well then, a black actress should be playing the part. But I guess if no black women audition they don't have much of a choice!

I just feel that part of the story is a forbidden love between races... and it is the underlying theme of the story. Of course, similar to Romeo and Juliet... except that it's not the families that hate each other, it's their nations. I don't know though, if a white person got to play Kim in Miss Saigon, I would be pretty angry. I guess I understand if there are no African Americans in the theatre, then they have no other option but to give it to a white person... maybe they should have thought this through before choosing Aida. How is your ratio of 'minorities' to white people... not to sound crass?

~kangaroo

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I love how PC everybody is talking about how historically an African American should play Aida. Shouldn't she just be African if we're going to cast it "correctly?"

"I personally am of the philosophy that in a show were realism and/or historical accuracy are important, actors of appropriate physical characteristics should be cast."

The thing you have to consider with Aida is that it's not exactly realistic or historical. Verdi made up the story. Further, Elton John and Tim Rice chose to make their adaptation modern, infused with pop culture, and only mildly suggestive of Egypt anyway. So in one sense, it doesn't matter one bit who plays the roles as far as historical accuracy or realism go.

What's important is that the THEMES (such as international tension, forbidden love, etc.) are recognizable. The easiest way to do this is to have obvious physical differences like race represent them, but there is no reason a competent director and designer can't work around them.

That having been said, I sure hope you have some soulful white girls in your area that can do justice to "The Gods Love Nubia."

Updated On: 5/4/05 at 05:55 PM

I know that the show isn't particularly realistic, and nor are its focuses really on the "touchy" issues so much as they are on the story of forbidden love, but even though the situation that it DOES portray is not current doesn't mean that it's a "fairy tale." Slavery and war still happened, even though they're not modern. I'm sorry, but this isn't just in defense of the show, it's a matter of watching your words. Wouldn't that be like saying that any other ancient time of war and slavery are fairy tale, just because of the particular treatment they get in one place or another, and because they aren't particularly current? History, no matter how it's presented, doesn't disappear. Take AIDA for what it's worth, but be respectful to what is at least its partial source material.

Actually, the story DOES have historical basis, to whoever posted that. Its primary purpose is not historical, but the fighting between Egypt and Nubia WAS real.

I'm not saying that the show is deeper than it really is, but it's not complete fiction, and it's not a cartoon.

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Updated On: 5/4/05 at 05:57 PM

In the opera world when a white soprano sings Aida she normally wears dark make-up - certainly in every production I've seen. Likewise for tenors singing Otello.

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everyone's a little bit racist sometimes...
doesn't mean we go around committing hate crimes...

Wow, whatever people say against my school, I have to give it credit in this area. Funny how in most of examples given, there's been talk about a white Aida, a white Once On This Island cast, etc. My school over the years was quite the opposite:

Aida this past year-Amneris was white, Radames was Haitain though he looks Hispanic and Aida was black...Mereb was Indian, Zoser was black, as was the pharoah. In fact, aside from Amneris...there were 2 white slaves. That's it.

West Side Story-Tony was white, Maria was half white, half asian, Riff was the same person to play Radames, Bernando was black...again not few whites in the rest of the cast.

We did Once On This Island in 9th grade, that was awesome! Couple white leads but most people in the show were black or minority. It actually made me laugh to see another's high school production that was all-white, gah, definitely lost something.

My high school when I graduated I believe was 18% white. And, especially Aida and West Side Story, race was an important factor in the story, yet casting was not influenced, as it should not be I think for amateur productions. We've really had some wonderful productions, I'm glad we're pretty diverse.

Though if someone wants to laugh, when we did Fame: the musical...in a school that is 18% white...Tyrone of all characters...was played by a whitey. Nick and Schlomo were black, it was actually great casting though. Hehe.

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"African American and Black American are not the same
Egypt is in Africa those people have dark skin."

Thank you for pointing this out. My friend is Egyptian and always filled out "African American" on questionaires and applications. The only negative reaction he got was from a black individual, who accused him of trying to use it as a loophole, since colleges were looking for "racial diversity." My friend challenged them to trace their own heritage back to Africa, and when they couldn't, suggested that maybe they didn't have the right to refer to themself as African American.

Narrowed-minded attitudes about ethnicity is where discrimination comes from. If you can't have a white Aida, why should you be able to have a black Glinda? Colorblind casting has to go both ways.

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Yes, there is a way to have a fairly accurate idea of what the Ancient Egyptians looked like and that is know Egyptian history....actual history, not the revisionist "afrocentrist" propaganda that unfortunately is distorting the issue.

Approximately 10% of Egyptian society today is known as "Coptic". These are Egyptian Christians who have been Christian since the time of Saint Mark. Because Egypt became a predominantly Muslim society (as did most countries in the Middle East), Egyptian Christians intermarried with each other from that time and preserved that heritage in a similiar way that Jews have done in predominantly Christian societies.

The poster that said that most Egyptians are Caucasian is correct and that is my point. One of the themes in AIDA is the racial divide between Egyptians and Nubians which still exists today, so the irony of someone saying the Egyptian roles should be "authentically" cast by black actors is really too much.