(no subject)
I think there is a good chance I will someday be starting my own community theatre company. I would need to raise money in order to get a venue . . . I have crappy credit, so I'm not going to be signing for any mortgage.
The deal with this theatre company is that it will practice true color-blind casting. One of the guidelines for ANY director wanting to put on a play as part of this company is that unless it is important to the theme of the play, race cannot be used as a criteria in casting. We will be free to cast a black woman as Blanche in "Streetcar". But we will allow for something like "Hairspray", where the whole theme of racial segregation would be lost if we cast a black woman as Velma.
This would be good, but not enough. I know how discouraged I have been trying to break in to community theatre, to the point where I'm basically walking away. If this is how I feel, how many extremely talented minorities have already walked away? We would need to put special effort into recruiting minorities. What would be the point of having a policy of color blind casting if only white people turn up for the auditions? We can, then, pride ourselves in having a much larger pool of talent than most other community theatre companies (at least, in this area).
So, how is this done? I have no idea.
I don't have the money. I don't know how to get the money. I don't know how to do the community outreach, to find minority talent. I don't know what issues would be involved in changing plays to allow for minority actors (cast a black man in "Streetcar" and some lines that refer to him as Polish would have to be changed). I'd call these all "obstacles".
The deal with this theatre company is that it will practice true color-blind casting. One of the guidelines for ANY director wanting to put on a play as part of this company is that unless it is important to the theme of the play, race cannot be used as a criteria in casting. We will be free to cast a black woman as Blanche in "Streetcar". But we will allow for something like "Hairspray", where the whole theme of racial segregation would be lost if we cast a black woman as Velma.
This would be good, but not enough. I know how discouraged I have been trying to break in to community theatre, to the point where I'm basically walking away. If this is how I feel, how many extremely talented minorities have already walked away? We would need to put special effort into recruiting minorities. What would be the point of having a policy of color blind casting if only white people turn up for the auditions? We can, then, pride ourselves in having a much larger pool of talent than most other community theatre companies (at least, in this area).
So, how is this done? I have no idea.
I don't have the money. I don't know how to get the money. I don't know how to do the community outreach, to find minority talent. I don't know what issues would be involved in changing plays to allow for minority actors (cast a black man in "Streetcar" and some lines that refer to him as Polish would have to be changed). I'd call these all "obstacles".