Colorblind

Colorblind casting is a great tool for the theatre to use. Not only does it redistribute the roles that are available to actors, but it also gives the opportunity to see shows in a different light. Colorblind casting can also act as a placebo for the issue of doing plays that are racially significant. Performing a play written by the privileged whites, cast with a African American actors doesn't mean we are getting a story of the African American experience.

Thinking of a specific example that I have seen, would be a high school production of the King and I. The leading male character being of Thai decent, was cast with a handsome white male, with golden hair. Of course this is a high school production and it should not be judged as critically as professional theaters, or should they? Think about it, for me personally the first time I ever saw a play was when my sister was in a play in her high school, I actually think, that most people's early experiences with theatre are through the school system. Perhaps your friend is in the play, or a family member etc. and it's still not a ridiculous price to go to the theatre. Shouldn't high school theaters think of their seasons just as much as a professional theatre? Also they have the guise of being kids still, so major issues that could be confronted in a safer space than a professional theatre. 

Ok, with that in mind, back to the King and I, we see this caucasian teen playing a Thai man, with makeup added for a more Thai effect, and the kicker is, the script has a Thai dialect written into the script, which only added to the stereotype to Thai and frankly, all Asian culture. The play just shouldn't have been done, the casting was a terrible idea, and the mockery the young actor was doing, only distracted the entire show, which became comical. But the school and educators allowed this stereotype to happen, though the intention was not malicious,  however this sends a certain message to the students and community members that see the show. This is an idea of this particular race, it is a generalized representation of a culture that can leave a negative connotation to that race.  Imagine if you were one of the few Asian kids attending the school, how would they feel being represented in such a ridiculous way? High schools try desperately to have kids drop stereotypes, when sometimes, we don't even realize the effect a simple play could have. We are perpetuating those stereotypes, and allowing that short behavior to occur. He school should t have focused on doing a big name show, perhaps instead they do a play like Dog Sees God, that confronts being a teenager straight on, and would be appropriate to cast with the students at the school. Of course like I said it just a high school production, but I think we need to remember just how important that early theatre is.

This is one side to colorblind casting, but as I said at the beginning of the post, I do like the concept of colorblind casting and have seen and heard of many productions that were successful. I think moving forward, we need to continue to broaden our horizons and find more stories of, by, and for under represented races and cultures.

The world needs theatre…or does it?

I agree with Maggie in her prompt on the ongoing cynicism and apathy that we currently face in our societies, and our art is a reflection of the societies we live in. How do we combat that and bring on a new wave of change? Honestly, I feel that there is only so much theatre and art can accomplish, art is the beginning of a conversation, a jumping off point to begin change or to simply address that there are issues that need to be brought up or that need to be remembered. Photography, music, theatre etc. evoke empathy within us to make us think, assess where we stand on what the art has to say. What I feel the larger problem is, is that we ingest our art, we feel something, and then immediately move onto something that will evoke feeling again, similar to and addict, we get we need and then we wait for our bodies to tell us the next thing we need to be fulfilled. Our society has become to focused on our own personal experience and not enough in the collective whole that we are a part of. The reason why we are like this, in my opinion, is that the higher powers that be, which actually have the power to truly bring about change do not move forward. We write a song about it, maybe have a charity event, or dump ice buckets on our heads to address that there are troubles in the world and then move on. I think that generations have gotten used to the fact that change can only go so far and that until the older generations die off will we be able to take charge of the societies we want to build. There is not enough emphasis on the future and what will possibly be better for generations to come. The phrase, ‘my opinion doesn’t matter’, rings true in some ways, because we all have an opinion that will be negated and then we will move on to our daily life problems that effects us most.

I suppose theatre could continue as it always has as being the begining of those conversations, however the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, expecting a different result, so we can’t stand still. I think a good direction for theatres to go in, would be to actually pick shows that have a general mission statement.  For example, we are doing this production of, Clyborune Park to expose the race problems we face in our own city of Baton Rouge, now let’s see how everyone involved in the production supports our mission statement. Too many times theatre seasons are chosen to please the public and to give the theatre itself more notoriety, I am not saying that doing theatre for entertainment sake is bad, in fact I encourage it, but let’s have everyone involved be aware of why we are doing that show, perhaps adding more fuel to the fire will help bring art further into the realm of action and away from commentary and awareness.

Switching gears to wars, genocide and horrific events, I actually feel that theatre is probably the best way to keep a certain awareness to the privileges we take for granted. How do you frame it, who do you offend or not offend? The truth is someone will be offended, it is impossible to avoid, and someone will always disagree and have an issue with the work. So my suggestion would be to take these issues on, half verbatim theatre, half neofuturist. Collect testimonies from people on all sides of a given event, lets say the Holocaust; Jews, Germans, Nazi’s etc and have these testimonies ready for performance, numbered 1-20. When the audience arrives they get to pick the order in which the pieces are performed, calling out numbers of the testimonies. The audience has control of the sequence of events, this way, the writer or director is not allowed the artistic choices of how the event is told, instead you are getting facts from these peoples experiences that aren’t framed in a way of telling the audience what to think or what parts of the event to focus on. These are real peoples experiences being told about a real event.

Is Invisible Theatre the only way to bring about change? Sometimes I think so, people aren’t willing to deal with certain issues until they affect them, or if they are put on the spot and called out for their behavior. Not until we have a personal experience to draw from, can we fight for some sort of change, because we haven’t felt it, and unfortunately people aren’t interested in other people’s pain or issues unless we can relate. Empathy is invoked from a distance, we hear stories and watch the news and feel sad, things shouldn’t be that way and then quickly are forgotten when we scroll though our Facebook news feed and see a funny video of a cat.

Social Change

After moving here to Baton Rouge almost five years ago, I have seen a lot of different social community issues than I had up north. Among the major race differences and economic differences, what I have noticed the most is the difference in education, specifically public elementary and middle schools.

Before I started my MFA here I worked with Playmakers of Baton Rouge, doing education outreach and educational tours for the youth of the greater Baton Rouge area. In my time there I had done three separate tours, and the one thing that kept catching me off guard, was the overwhelming lack of funding for the public schools, and the quality of teachers at the schools. When we would go to some of the schools, they had to take the gymnasium and separated classrooms with pieces of fabric, and curtains, grades 2-4 would be in the same room. The schools overall were in bad shape, some in minor cosmetic things but also within areas like the lunchroom and libraries. The teachers, though I know they do all they can, were very rude to the kids, more yelling than anything else going on, the students were always riled up, and had a hard time taking on discipline. In contrast, when we went to the private schools, the facilities were excellent, teachers were orderly and so were the children. I realize the private schools are paid for by outside sources and the tuition paid, but I do not think that justifies the state of the public schools being in such disarray. I went to a public high school and received just as good of an education as the private high schools students.

So, my cause for social change would be to fight for the children and teachers to increase funding in the schools. This is an important cause because I think that we are perpetuating the problem of distinguishing lower and higher class. We aren’t giving the kids the chance to have an equal education, and have an environment that is conducive to a healthy educational experience. In addition, we are giving the teachers more and more hurtles to jump through to do their job; standardized testing has become the main objective for funding these schools, so the tension level is high and the kids are left in the background.

How would I bring about social change?  Oppenheimer lays out an array of tactics, training and overall advice to protestors in training. I think the best ways to tackle this issue would be to do a two-fold tactic approach. The first tactic would be to do a parade; I think this would be a great approach particularly here in Baton Rouge, since the community and culture here already has an admiration for parades, it wouldn’t be an off putting approach to the community. Instead of throwing colorful beads and party favors, they would throw black beads, tee-shirts that say, “Education is a right, that is why we have to fight”, or “Why does my kid loose while you save?” Parents, teachers and students would participate in the parade, wearing all black, and instead of upbeat party music, various chanting would occur, phrases like, “ Fund our future, Fund our schools”. The parade route would go through the neighborhoods of those in legislation and school boards denying the funds in addition we can also take the route through all the neighborhoods with private schools, continuing the chants.

The second half of the protest, if needed, would be a reverse strike, for instance, on Friday afternoon, once school is done fro the day, the teachers setup chairs our side the school, wearing all black and sit outside the school until Monday morning. Through this part of the protest, social media would come in handy; teachers live Tweeting the event, Facebook and Instagram being used to express the message to a broader range of audience. Any of these social media outlets could be used to the schools advantage, giving it national notoriety and perhaps sparking a domino effect in the other schools in America.

How long will this last? I would propose that this happens as many times as it needs to until it is noticed by the powers that be. Perhaps once a month or every weekend until waves of change occur, but since this is an ongoing issue in and outside of our community, these acts of social change may spur a movement that could gain ongoing support, and in result share the weight of this issue.