What to do about ITH professional production with non POC in lead roles? — Page 2

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?!

@haterobics, Kevin’s main song is called “Inutil” and deals specifically with his relationship with his father and their circumstances as immigrants.

Updated On: 1/8/19 at 11:52 AM

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.

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?

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 can't wait to see MR11 on the streets of Pittsburgh on opening night!

_(•_&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.

_(•_&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.....

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.

_(•_&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!

_(•_&bull_/ said: "You should also be VERY careful, some of us latinos pass as white."

AMEN.