The Nightingale Casting — Page 3

How does it sound like affirmative action lol?

Also, making a statement like "there were no real mermaids in Little Mermaid" shows you have no desire to have a serious discussion about this lol

It was relevant when I posted it already in this thread!

The #nightingale hashtag on twitter is VERY enlightening. Tara Rubin saying they didn't have a proper audition process, Moises Kaufman saying they owe everyone an apology...

https://twitter.com/#!/search/%23nightingale

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So, did Sheik and Slater not attend the panel?

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"Multicultural casting was never meant to justify a Caucasian person playing a culturally specific role.”

I agree with that sentiment- though I'd broaden Caucasian to... well, anybody that is not of the specified culture.

I know people have pulled the old "so it only works one-way?!" on this.

And no.

But when you set a work in an Asian country- when actors of Asian descent are highly underrepresented- and cast Caucasian actors, it is insulting. It is saying, "Go wait for the next revival of Flower Drum Song, bitches!"

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As a Chinese American I have to say that I'm surprised that in California, which has a large Asian American population the creative team couldn't find more Asian American actors to appear in this show.

And there is an Asian American theater company in NYC they could have drawn upon.

We live in a society where most productions of Madama Butterfly and The Mikado are cast with mostly non-Asians. And yet no one would dream of putting on a production of Porgy and Bess without black singer-actors. Also, how many regional/stock/community theatre/high school productions of King and I have been filled with mostly white actors? The King and I is a show most people say that Asians can claim. It's our east-west struggle play, and still people produce it without a majority of Asian actors. Would anyone produce Hairspray or Show Boat, shows with similar racial issues, without a substantial amount of black actors? We live in a society where we view Asian actors or characters as optional or easily replaced and substituted.

Which brings us to this production. If the story were set in Africa, would they dare cast mostly non-black actors? I would think not. Words like "colorblind casting" and "multiethnic casting" is definitely convenient when a white actor is cast in a non-white role, as is the case with The Nightingale. But when the lead of a show is decidedly playing against race and cast with a white actor, that makes the casting look lazy and inconsiderate instead of bold and daring. You know what would be bold and daring? A black Billy Bigelow. An Asian Marian Paroo. A Latina Mama Rose. Or anything equivalently leading role played by an actor of ethnicity, not a leading role of ethnicity played by a white actor.

Even if it was not the creators' intention, this is yet another example in a long history of Asian actors being under-represented in theatre and in the media. Should we have to wait for casting calls for King and I, Miss Saigon, or Flower Drum Song to book work? Or should we be lucky enough to land the token ensemble track?

I saw Prison Dancer at NYMF this past weekend. Not only did the show feature an all-Asian cast, it was an all-Filipino cast. While watching the show, I realized how many talented Asian actors there are...in this one show alone, a show presented at NYMF! And the story can be told just as effectively using good actors of the correct ethnicity. Am I saying it would have been bad to cast a Latino or white person in the show? Not necessarily. But why give those roles to them when there is a plethora of talented Asian actors to choose from?

May this show open up more discussions about Asians in theatre. It's not a problem of colorblind casting and using it to a creative team's advantage. It goes far beyond that and deep into the American mindset.

I think a lot of words and time have been wasted over nothing.

The creative team made it quite clear that they were creating a fable, a fairy-tale, set in a mythical place called "China." Perhaps, if they were smart, they would have made up a mythical name, instead of using "China." But the piece is not about a real "China."

If any work set in a place remotely Asian could only be performed by Asian actors, there would be tempests every time The Good Woman of Setzuan and all of Brecht's other mythical Asian plays were produced.

NewinTown said, " But the piece is not about a real "China."

Um, that's what the Asians are saying. They wouldn't have a problem if it was set in Middle Earth. But it's CHINA, a very real place, even more real in today's interconnected world than it was during Hans Christian Andersen's time. There is no reason to do this in 2012.

"If any work set in a place remotely Asian could only be performed by Asian actors, there would be tempests every time The Good Woman of Setzuan and all of Brecht's other mythical Asian plays were produced."

Again, that's their point! One of the women from AAPAC said, "there was once a time when white men played Othello but the African American community stood up and said 'that's not acceptable.' The Asians are telling you now, 'this is not acceptable.". Not everyone gets to play Malcolm X. Not everyone gets to play The Emperor of China. And that goes for King and I and Good Womn f Sczhechuan too.

It was only a matter of time. There is only so much snubbing and lip service any group of human beings are willing to take.

I admit that I've always secretly felt sort of sad to see the same 2 or 3 credits in most Asian actors' biographies. The initial sense of accomplishment that shows like Miss Saigon brought soon served to only highlight the ridiculous lack of work available for Asian actors and especially the lack of flexibility in casting Asian actors in roles typically filled by actors of specific backgrounds.

I've long bemoaned the absence of Lea Salonga on Broadway and feel someone of her talent should have a long roster of Broadway credits by now. Unless she personally can't be bothered--something I highly doubt--why hasn't this woman played Elphaba on Broadway? Why hasn't she donned the iconic white dress as Eva Peron in America? It just seems unreasonably limited on the Great White Way for such a great talent.

Saying she hasn't done more roles on Broadway because she physically doesn't fit most roles and would thus not be believable is the stock response most commonly on offer, and that makes me sick.

I wish they'd come out with it, be honest, and admit they find her looks distracting as an "other." It would bring me no joy, but would at least restore my faith in a discussion on race leading toward the right direction. The idea of all that is Caucasian to be the "norm" is so deeply promoted and embedded in all of us, it's a sad day when we can suspend disbelief enough to learn compelling things, look at mythical lands, and render musical storytelling effective, even more real than reality, but we can't see an Asian actor, an "other," inhabiting something/someone "normal."

It's no mystery to me that the Asian community's anger has long been brewing. I'm offended by those who think this isn't a problem. If there is a group who is still consistently cornered into a set mold created by people who think it's where they belong, it's the Asian community.

I do feel sorry for the creative team members at the center of this controversy because I feel their hearts were in the right place and this issue is much deeper, complex, and carries many years of accumulated baggage and resentment. I expected to see "racist" hurled about mindlessly, which is often the standard, knee jerk response. I'm impressed by the lack of that word in discussions of this across the net. And I'm even more impressed by the controlled anger response most have adopted across the board, whether Asian or not.

More power to the Asian community and may their anger effectively assert it isn't OK to shrug one's shoulders at an entire community and that hoping it all goes away by way of the ambitious explanations given is doing just that.

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Updated On: 7/25/12 at 08:35 AM

Thank you, My Oh My. A very measured and thoughtful response. Anyone who doesn't think this (under-representation of Asians in theatre) is a problem needs to wake up. How many roles and shows are opened up to Asian actors? How many shows need specifically white and black actors? How many require specifically Latino actors? I tell you, many more than King and I, Flower Drum Song, Miss Saigon, and maybe Millie and Anything Goes (and even these roles sometimes go to Latinos or other ethnicities). So when there's a show that's said to be set in China but has Asians as the minority in the cast, there is reason for concern.

I wonder if there are Caucasian roles in Chinese theatre, and if they ever cast them with Asian actors...