Reading this week about the history of Asian American theatre in the wonderful book by Esther Kim Lee, I've started to wonder about the impetus behind "color-blind" casting and it has presented itself in educational theatre. Now I have witnessed and been a part of many instances of this type of casting. Some were natural, some poignant and some were completely nonsensical. Lee's book, which starts with an examination of the racism and stereotyping of Asians in the majority of 20th century American drama, examine the reinforcement of such beliefs about Asians and how they impacted the presence of Asian representation. Here I remember a much beloved version on Cole Porter's Anything Goes, done by my high school, and the two Chinese converts who wore conical hats and ran an illegal gambling ring on the lower levels of the ship. They were played by two white students who donned exaggerated eye liner and kept their hands firmly pressed together when not rolling dice. No changes to the lines were made in this production to account for the fact that the actors were not Asian, their costumes presented the stereotype in a way that allowed the Audience of Kansans to understand and accept the discrepancy. The next year, my high school put on Once of this Island, a tale of the Caribbean, in which only four of the 120 cast members we're black. The line referring to the "black peasant girls from the village beyond" was changed to "young peasant girls" and the line "a beautiful child the pale color of coffee mixed with cream" was adjusted too: "the color of peaches mixed with cream". I wonder know why the same school and audience could accept painfully stereotypical assumptions of Asians in one show and then require ridiculous adjustments for Caribbean characters. It seems that Lee would sadly frown and nod at this anecdote.
A more successful use of colorblind casting, and indeed more true to the intent of the term, would be I the revival of You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown in which the beloved Peanuts characters were cast regardless of race. Lucy was played by a white actress and her younger brother, Linus, was played by an Asian actor. Lucy's love interest, Schroeder, drawn as a blonde was played by a black man. The actors appeared in the expected costumes from the comic strip and casting became a non-issue.
What is it about a show's casting that makes one offensive and another respectful, or at the least, inclusive? How do we address race in contemporary theatre? Do we bow to societal conventions because theatre is "an illusion of reality" (24), as Lee refers to it, that we must consistently reference in order to be deemed realistic? Or is there something mmore sinister at work, an unconscious refusal to accept progressive views of humanity on stage? There is not clear cut answer, of course, but I have often sat in a casting session perplexed. Does changing the race of a character change the meaning of the show? I have heard many directors make this argument, that including non-white actors into a cast, the play invariably becomes about race. Many directors comfort themselves with this notion of choosing to exclude races so as not to make a play about race. And yet, about the Shakespeare Theatre's 1997 "photo-negative" production of Othello it was stated that "in the race reversing, the company seeks to shatter stereotypes and remind playgoers of the endlessly adaptive nature of Shakespeare's exploration of otherness" (Marks). Why cannot all plays remind playgoers of the versatility of the stage?
Accounts of the many exclusions and inequalities of the theatre like Lee's sadden and embolden me to make a change within my own aesthetic. The theatre has always been, to me, an inclusive place where people are judged by their contributions, not their appearance. Books like Lee's inspire me to continue working toward a theatre at does not view race is such stereotypical terms, a theatre that can be used as a platform to set an example and present the issues still present in society.
Lee, Esther Kim. A History of Asian American Theatre. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006. Print.
Marks, Peter. "The Green-Eyed Monster Fells Men of Every Color." New York Times 21 November 1997. Online.
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