Black is Beauty’s Heir
While deciding to write this series I very much did not expect to find such a variety of approaches when it comes to racial equity. As I was scrolling through the RSC website before watching any of the shows, I had really high hopes that most of the productions would be diverse and I would have a plethora of material to discuss. Alas, I found that actually, I had a hard time finding a show that was diverse and cast a wide variety of actors - and then it dawned on me. The page on the Equity, Inclusion and Diversity proposed their plan for the years of 2018 - 2022 and all of the shows I had access to were from the years 2014 - 2016. For the life of me I wish I had discovered this before I had started watching the productions I did. Because I did not have access to all the digital theater RSC was releasing especially with shows from recent years, I decided to watch a couple trailers to find out the Board Level Equity, Inclusion and Diversity Committee was making a difference. Sure enough, what I found was rather hopeful. I discovered an interracial Troilus and Cressida as well as an interracial Romeo and Juliet. I even saw a few actors wearing hijabs which is something I as an avid theater goer hardly ever see. I found this to be a perfect segway to my final blog, in which I plan to discuss some solutions for how we can diversify theater moving forward.
Though all three productions I watched were performed on the same stage, all three of the productions had vastly different approaches when it came to casting minorities. While Hamlet had a cast of almost exclusively black people, Love Labour’s Lost only cast one person of color. And though Othello made history by casting their first black Iago, there were no people of Asian decent and very few brown people as well. So what’s the difference and what changes from show to show? Well it all comes down to the production and team original vision of the show.
If you are involved in a theater and wondering how you can increase the level of inclusivity and diversity in theater, there are many ways to increase opportunities for minorities. Putting on a play by a minority playwright telling stories about experiences being a minority, is a great way to diversify your audience. Being careful not to “tokenize” your black actors and being conscious of the role they are portraying is also a great solution into making sure your audience does not further associate black people as villains or outsiders. Hiring a minority director is a great way to open up perspective and provide creative insight that is going to benefit the POCs among your company and production team. Another great way to educate yourself about diversity in theater is to attend workshops about racial equity at your nearest theater festival. At SETC (South Eastern Theater Conference), this year, there were 4 workshops available on how to implement more equity in theater specifying disability, LGBTQ+, and race/ethnicity (1). There are also plenty of people who are currently passionate and educated about racial equity both in the theater and in general specialties who could lead workshops in your theater to educate your team about racial and minority inclusivity. One organization who is dedicated to this work is Conscientious Theater Training (CTT) led by Nicole Brewer, who travels around the world holding workshops on anti -racist theater, using anti-racist theory to dismantle white supremacy culture within theater (2).
If only it were that easy to just diversify the industry and all our problems will be solved. While it’s easy to preach that “We need for people of color in these important creative positions!” there’s a lot more to it than that. And although the suggestions I made above about increasing opportunity do help, true change starts at the grassroots. Theater is often a past time that is thought of as a luxury due to the price of tickets. Therefore, the demographic of people attending the theater and therefore getting involved in the theater are going to be those of higher socioeconomic standing. Because of the structural and historic systemic racism, this population is largely white. Of course, in order for ticket prices to go down, American theaters need to transition to being publicly owned and actually valued by our National and local governments. Prioritizing theater and art education in schools as well as in small communities would be another great way the government could emulate the UK’s model - perhaps with another administration.
In the next three to five years I would love to see the next level of racial equity in theater be taken. While some theaters still need to take that initial leap into creating a more diverse and inclusive space for everyone, other theaters are ready to take this even further by actively implementing anti-racist practices in order to mitigate the racist systems that have have been historically implemented. Something else I would love to see regarding racial equity in theater is more data. Demographics of Broadway is not representative of the larger American theater community which includes hundreds of regional theaters. And while I know great efforts have been made by Actors Equity and the like, there is no data to really back up those efforts or to analyze what steps need to be taken next.
One of the things I love about Shakespeare is that it’s a blank slate. You can do Shakespeare literally however the heck you want and the possibilities are endless. There are virtually no limitations when it comes to how you set, costume, stage or cast a Shakespeare play. This series has really shown me that there are no set of rules in how you can cast a Shakespeare show in terms of gender, disability, or race, and I hope in the future, we can trickle this color-conscious mentality and anti-racist theater practices into the modern theater we put on more frequently in theaters today.
