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Nontraditional Casting
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19568 |
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Section : |
MODERN THOUGHT
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| Issue
Date : |
11 / 1991 |
5,729 Words |
| Author
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David H. Ehrlich
David H. Ehrlich, an avid theatergoer, is an independent
writer based in Washington, D.C. He has previously written
numerous essays for The World & I. |
-In 1978, Joseph Papp formed a black and Hispanic company to perform Shakespeare at the Public Theater and in Central Park and met with decidedly mixed critical reaction (see THE WORLD & I, May 1986).
-In 1981, in a production of Romeo and Juliet in Washington, a young black actor playing Paris, the suitor who promotes himself as an alternative to Romeo, was spurned by a white Juliet with a vehemence that intimated clearly, "Go away, nigger. I don't want you."
-In the 1989-90 season, the Shakespeare Theatre at the Folger cast a woman in the traditionally male role of Falstaff in The Merry Wives of Windsor. She was a smash--all who saw her loved her.
-In the summer of 1990, Denzel Washington was generally praised for his New York portrayal of the title role in Richard III, although one critic, who did not like Shakespeare in the Park's production, sniffed that "at least it was mangled democratically."
-During the 1990-91 winter season in Washington, Arena Stage cast a Hispanic actor with a pronounced accent as Doc Gibbs in Our Town and gave both Gibbs and his neighbor Sam Webb one black and one white child.
-During the same season, the Shakespeare Theatre at the Folger cast Andre Braugher, a black actor, to play Iago in Othello.
-In the spring of 1991, various productions of Shaw's Pygmalion were cast unusually: Black actors played three roles that have always been considered white: Colonel Pickering, Eliza Doolittle, and her father. Reviews were mixed but generally favorable.
All these are instances of a trend that is becoming increasingly institutionalized in theaters around the country. It's called nontraditional casting. Although the casting of the Broadway production of Miss Saigon was a major bone of contention among many groups, these smaller-scale attempts to correct centuries of racial discrimination on the stage have received far less attention.
The promoters of nontraditional casting have two objectives: first, to broaden the employment of nonwhite actors (and backstage and front-office personnel as well) everywhere; and second, to erase--once and for all--from audiences' minds their traditional notions about the casting of standard
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