MR11 said: "A cast list/announcement still hasn't been given to press because they are trying to avoid the backlash as long as possible I suppose?"
Or because people are just going to buy a ticket to see In The Heights, without regard for who is in the cast.
"Think about how awful Kevin's storyline will play with a WHITE actor in the role......"
It's been a while, but I'm drawing a blank. He runs a taxi stand, and his daughter was the first to go off to college... and, what am I forgetting?!
MR11, your concerns are 100% valid. This should be as much about educating the community as it should be about educating/reprimanding the theatre company.
Write an open letter to the theatre company? Contact Actors' Equity to let them know? Get your local newspaper involved? Perhaps a group/service organization that supports latinx artists could help you? Last-ditch effort, tweet at the authors?
I wish you the very best!
@haterobics, Kevin’s main song is called “Inutil” and deals specifically with his relationship with his father and their circumstances as immigrants.
Broadway Star Joined: 8/31/08
Who is white in this production? /Many of those actors are New Yorkers. Whether they found their own housing or not, that is not entirely local Pittsburgh talent.
sing_dance_love said: "@haterobics, Kevin’s main song is called “Inutil” and deals specifically with his relationship with his father and their circumstances as immigrants."
Oh, OK... Even so, the lyrics don't mention a specific place they came from, and Inutili is also Italian for useless, so... it's pretty universal stuff. Usnavi is way more location-specific.
I'm still confused by the marketing images... makes it looks like audiences will see LMM in the lead role.
Swing Joined: 1/8/19
jpbran said: "I'm still confused by the marketing images... makes it looks like audiences will see LMM in the lead role."
Hamilton is playing in Pittsburgh at the moment so I think its safe to assume they are riding on the coattails of that with the show and marketing?
Broadway Star Joined: 5/19/06
MR11 said: "jpbran said: "I'm still confused by the marketing images... makes it looks like audiences will see LMM in the lead role."
Hamilton is playing in Pittsburgh at the moment so I think its safe to assume they are riding on the coattails of that with the show and marketing?"
When you purchase the rights to In The Heights, you also gain the rights to the official logo which includes Lin. Just as Legally Blonde has Laura Bell Bundy and Hairspray has Marissa Jaret.
Swing Joined: 1/8/19
fashionguru_23 said: "Is it bad that I looked at the Twitter photo earlier up in the thread, and saw no one who I had an issue with. Its not like Andrew Keenan Bolger is playing Benny"
This mindset is dangerous and part of the problem. Just because someone "looks" a certain way doesn't hold up anymore in the arts and in shows that are specifically about a culture of people. In addition, the authors expressed that they want the roles cast appropriately.
American Theatre Magazine called it a “whitewashing” and included an email interview with the show’s book writer, Hudes, who stated that “I’m happy for schools and communities who do not have [Latino] actors on hand to use In the Heights as an educational experience for participants of all stripes.” For professional productions, she added, “Casting the roles appropriately is of fundamental importance… You cannot just put out a casting call and hope people come and then shrug if they don’t show up. You may need to add extra casting calls (I do this all the time), go do outreach in communities you haven’t worked with before. You may need to reach out to the Latino theatres and artists and build partnerships to share resources and information. You may need to fly in actors from out of town if you’ve exhausted local avenues, and house them during the run…. When faced with these expensive obstacles, an organization’s status quo sometimes wins because it’s cheaper and less trouble. The Latino community has the right to be disappointed and depressed that an opportunity like this was lost.”
http://www.playbill.com/article/porchlist-artistic-director-responds-to-in-the-heights-casting
I think you just need to calm down. Its a super short run and it will be over before you know it.
It sounds like you didnt get the part.
Broadway Legend Joined: 3/23/17
I can't wait to see MR11 on the streets of Pittsburgh on opening night!
You should also be VERY careful, some of us latinos pass as white.
Calm down, take a breather, and find a new audition. Youre acting like its the end of the world. Its not.
Dont support it, why are you going to ruin a fun time for actors, dressers, stage managers, musicians, lights, props, ushers, box office staff all because two actors are white.
Grow up.
Swing Joined: 1/8/19
_(•_&bull_/ said: "You should also be VERY careful, some of us latinos pass as white.
Calm down, take a breather, and find a new audition. Youre acting like its the end of the world. Its not.
Dont support it, why are you going to ruin a fun time for actors, dressers, stage managers, musicians, lights, props, ushers, box office staff all because two actors are white.
Grow up."
I didn't audition because I'm WHITE, and it wouldn't be appropriate for me to tell this story.
I'm sad to see that you don't care about representation in the arts. Why does the length of the run matter? It could be a one night only concert reading and it would still be wrong.
I guess you also don't care about the authors and how they want their work to be done?
Remind me to never work with you.
If youre white this shouldnt affect you.
Go get your woke points somewhere else.
Swing Joined: 1/8/19
_(•_&bull_/ said: "If youre white this shouldnt affect you.
Go get your woke points somewhere else."
I'm just confused as to why you are so triggered by people caring about representation? That makes no sense to me.....
If only POC cared about representation, little would likely change. Nothing wrong with just doing the right thing.
Why is it that white people are always telling us minorities what is and what isn't racist. If it was SUCH a problem with that theatre group, all the other latinos in the cast would have made it an issue.
You are white. You dont get to say what is againt cultural representation and what isnt.
Jordan sparks, corbin blu were both African americans and joined the broadway cast.
Guess what, white people were in the broadway cast.
Guess what, WHITE PEOPLE CAN BE MEXICAN!!!
This isnt your issue. Dont support it then.
Swing Joined: 1/8/19
_(•_&bull_/ said: "Why is it that white people are always telling us minorities what is and what isn't racist. If it was SUCH a problem with that theatre group, all the other latinos in the cast would have made it an issue.
You are white. You dont get to say what is againt cultural representation and what isnt.
Jordan sparks, corbin blu were both African americans and joined the broadway cast.
Guess what, white people were in the broadway cast.
Guess what, WHITE PEOPLE CAN BE MEXICAN!!!
This isnt your issue. Dont support it then."
So am I not allowed to show support for issues that aren't specifically white? Am I not allowed to March for Gay rights if I'm not gay? Am I not allowed to March for Women's rights if I'm not a woman? It's called SUPPORT and ADVOCACY.
It is MY issue as an artist in the theatre community to challenge and want our theatres to grow and understand.... At the very least they are going against what the authors have intended so that should be reason enough.......
What about what the author said? Do you know agree with this?
American Theatre Magazine called it a “whitewashing” and included an email interview with the show’s book writer, Hudes, who stated that “I’m happy for schools and communities who do not have [Latino] actors on hand to use In the Heights as an educational experience for participants of all stripes.” For professional productions, she added, “Casting the roles appropriately is of fundamental importance… You cannot just put out a casting call and hope people come and then shrug if they don’t show up. You may need to add extra casting calls (I do this all the time), go do outreach in communities you haven’t worked with before. You may need to reach out to the Latino theatres and artists and build partnerships to share resources and information. You may need to fly in actors from out of town if you’ve exhausted local avenues, and house them during the run…. When faced with these expensive obstacles, an organization’s status quo sometimes wins because it’s cheaper and less trouble. The Latino community has the right to be disappointed and depressed that an opportunity like this was lost.”
https://www.playbill.com/article/porchlist-artistic-director-responds-to-in-the-heights-casting
Pittsburgh Hispanic weighing in- as someone who looks way more Charlie Sheen than George Lopez, I must second the response above that lots of Hispanic people look "white." And this isn't an all-Equity cast by far: PMT hands out a small parcel of three or four Equity contracts per production, and uses local non-union pro and semi-pro talent for everything else. But doing ITH in Pittsburgh always seemed like a more odd than offensive choice: the professional theatre scene out here has exactly one (very talented) actor who plays ever Hispanic, Spaniard, Mexican, Puerto Rican and "ambiguously brown" role in town. And looking at that Twitter photo, that looks like the Hispanic community I know. Black, white, brown, Asian and mixed people united by language and location.
Latinx issues are not the same as Asian issues, because even the US government doesn't know if being Spanish counts as a race or not (hence why it's the only legally accepted "ethnicity" rather than race). From the hubbub, I expected to see a bunch of Nordic white blondes and extras from Fiddler on the Roof, not what I saw. If the Pittsburgh area had a bigger Hispanic community of note, it would look more like that photo.
If you don't have the demographic to do a certain show, don't do it.
_(•_&bull_/ said: "If youre white this shouldnt affect you.
Go get your woke points somewhere else."
But I was so close to getting a Bingo!
Broadway Star Joined: 4/17/18
MR11 said: "I'm guessing it's not "very serious" to you because you aren't a POC fighting for representation and roles and instead they are being given to white actors?
Very sad."
lmao. im puerto rican. and I couldn't care less about this. theres bigger fish to try in the world than this. but thanks for assuming my ethnicity
Broadway Star Joined: 4/17/18
_(•_&bull_/ said: "You should also be VERY careful, some of us latinos pass as white."
AMEN.
Swing Joined: 1/8/19
darquegk said: "Pittsburgh Hispanic weighing in- as someone who looks way more Charlie Sheen than George Lopez, I must second the response above that lots of Hispanic people look "white." And this isn't an all-Equity cast by far: PMT hands out a small parcel of three or four Equity contracts per production, and uses local non-union pro and semi-pro talent for everything else. But doing ITH in Pittsburgh always seemed like a more odd than offensive choice: the professional theatre scene out here has exactly one (very talented) actor who plays ever Hispanic, Spaniard, Mexican, Puerto Rican and "ambiguously brown" role in town. And looking at that Twitter photo, that looks like the Hispanic community I know. Black, white, brown, Asian and mixed people united by language and location.
Latinx issues are not the same as Asian issues, because even the US government doesn't know if being Spanish counts as a race or not (hence why it's the only legally accepted "ethnicity" rather than race). From the hubbub, I expected to see a bunch of Nordic white blondes and extras from Fiddler on the Roof, not what I saw. If the Pittsburgh area had a bigger Hispanic community of note, it would look more like that photo."
Thanks for your take. So are you cool with white actors playing Kevin and Camila as they currently are in this production? Also I never specifically stated that the cast wasn't all Latinx, I was commenting that there were white people in it....
Again, white people can be latino. Just because they have softer skin doesnt make them any less of a latino then someone with darker skin.
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