Effects of Colorblind Casting

Sheridan Wilson

Prof. M. Fort

ENGL 1411

15 April 2017

Effects of Colorblind Casting

        You look in the mirror and you see yourself. You see your skin color, your height, and your gender. You take it all in and you conclude that this is you, and you accept it as you are about to head out of the door to watch your first theatrical production, Hamilton. You know that this show is supposed to be about Alexander Hamilton, one of our Founding Fathers, and you are filled with excitement. You can feel your stomach tighten as you arrive at your destination. You can see the bright lights of the stage and you can feel the warmth of all the bodies that are gathering into the theatre. You take your seat and the lights go down. When the show starts, you see a Puerto Rican man take the stage, and you then become confused. The show continues and you come to find out that the Puerto Rican man is portraying Alexander Hamilton.

        The Broadway show, Hamilton is one of the most popular running shows right now. Not only has the director, Lin-Manuel Miranda used new and unique ideas with the sound by using rap music, but he has also made the look of the show more colorful by casting almost every shade but White. Many people believe that the casting of this show is brilliant, for they think that anyone deserves the chance to represent any character if it makes the show better. What I ask though, is why does misrepresenting our Founding Fathers make the show better? We all know the wonderful things our Founding Fathers had accomplished, but they were not accomplished by Puerto Rican men. These huge feats were accomplished by White men who had a dream for their new land they called home. So, does it make a lot of sense to have a Puerto Rican man play the nonfictional character of a White man named Hamilton who fought for the rights of the people in America?

        Another argument I hear is that it is unfair that only White people can portray Hamilton, or that only Black people can represent Martin Luther King Jr. People believe that we should not take away these rights from people. For example, Leslie Odom Jr, a Black actor plays Aaron Bur, a White man in Hamilton. Many say it is wonderful that he has this opportunity to play the nonfictional character of a White man. What I find wrong with this thought though, is that color and culture had a big role in history. Black men and women were slaves at the time of the American Revolution, so White men were the ones who oversaw taking the steps and actions to free America, which means that Aaron Bur (if casted accurately per history) would be played by a White man.

        We see a lot of White actors and we are even seeing more Black actors, but what about the races that we do not see in Theatre? I mean it is true that we do not see a lot of Asians in Theatre, nor do we see a lot of Hispanics acting. It is also true that there are not many roles in shows for Asians, nor is there a lot of shows about the Asian culture. This may cause these races to not pursue theatre if they do not see a chance, nor if they do not see other people like them pursuing the hobby either. Because this is a problem many directors think it is a good idea to support the minority groups by casting them in roles of nonfictional characters with a different ethnic background. There are other ways of solving this problem though, as the Los Angeles Times Author, Don Shirley wrote in his article about August Wilson, a Black playwright in ‘Colorblind’ Casting Has Wilson Seeing Red that Wilson felt that we should be supporting the idea of actors representing and telling their own cultures stories, rather than tell another cultures story (Shirley 2). Now, I know that I just got done stating that minorities tend to not do theatre because there are not enough roles for them, but Wilson also had the answer to that question as well. Wilson was very passionate about Black theatres becoming more popular instead of the idea of putting black actors in White people’s roles (Shirley 1). Wilson’s thoughts play a large role in today’s conversations, for he was one of the first people to bring up the problems with Colorblind casting. The roles for Black people have been increasing, but now it is time to put this into action for our other minorities. It is up to playwrights to start writing roles for the ethnic groups out there who do not have productions written about their cultures.

        Today’s culture teaches us that inequality is to acknowledge someone’s skin tone. Therefore, we have this idea of colorblind casting, because people believe that we should look past the color of skin a person has for the better of the show and for the better of today’s culture. People say that ignoring the skin tone of an actor in nonfictional productions is a good way of moving the world forward into a more cultured world, by ignoring the facts of history. We cannot change the facts of history though, because what happened back then is what made us today. As an American Culture, we should be upset that we are trying to belittle what all we have been through. Today we may not be proud of what we were then, but we can be proud of what we have accomplished. It is important that our directors cast the show as accurately as they can, because the art of a nonfictional show is different from the art of a fictional show. When a director decides, what show he wants to bring to life, he or she is faced with the complex steps of auditioning actors to make the show as just as he or she can for the real characters they are bringing to life on stage. Therefore, a director must take into consideration what the actors look like, so they can represent the characters the best they can out of respect for the characters who once lived. Color does have an impact, as Lavina Jadhwani, a professional director, implies in her website with “Color Conscious Casting: Three Questions to Ask” Jadhwani states in her opening paragraph, “I’ve got a big fat opinion on the term ‘color-blind casting,’ which is that it doesn’t exist. I can’t think of an environment, in real life, where race doesn’t factor into relationship dynamics. And if it doesn’t exist offstage—why do we think we can (or should) create that scenario? I prefer the term “color-conscious casting,” by which I mean that race is acknowledged in, and ideally deepens, theatrical conversations.” Jadhwani, like Wilson, has strong beliefs against the term colorblind casting. This is because they both knew how important culture is and how much of an impact it plays in life. Therefore, colorblind casting does not exist, whereas color conscious casting does.