The Beginner's Guide to Racially Conscious Theatre
Ephrata Performing Arts Center Performers in “Ragtime.” (Photo courtesy of Sheri Niven Photography.)
We’ve all heard about it: the community theatre production nicknamed “Whites on This Island” or “White Side Story,” in which a bunch of suburban kids represents oppressed cultures they know nothing about.
With the growth of the Black Lives Matter movement, more and more artists have been sharing their experiences with racial injustice in the theater. While community theatre artists might believe their practice is not at all related to these issues, systemic racism affects theatre of all sizes.
Because Broadway was built on blackface, white privilege, and white-centric shows, every step of the process inherently favors white people. This means that, even if a production is not intentionally racist, there are many ways they can still be harmful to a cast or audience.
While I am not an expert and certainly have not experienced these problems to the extent of many others, this guide is based on my own experiences and the firsthand accounts of people I have worked with.
So, for theatremakers who might not know where to start, here is a beginner’s guide to making a racially sensitive production:
CASTING
Know the consequences of whitewashing
As a reminder of the #1 universal rule, under no circumstances should you cast a white actor in a role meant to be played by a person of color. A white actor playing a black role in blackface, a form of performance built on dehumanizing and humiliating black people. It also takes opportunities away from those who are excluded from many traditional roles and tells the story through white eyes instead of letting someone from a marginalized community tell their own story.
Similarly, for actors, there is no excuse to accept a role of color simply to add something to your resume - there are plenty of other opportunities that don’t take away from marginalized voices in the process.
The same applies to a production team. It’s easy to think you can get away with your team being white as long as the faces on stage aren’t, but all artists should have the chance to use their craft to tell their stories. This is especially imperative for directors, who are in charge of the entire production concept; a white director cannot truly relate to a show about racial oppression.
While being educated enough to accurately represent a culture is a great first step, it’s best to bring in a guest director, assistant director, or dramaturg of that culture.
Know the vocabulary of your casting
I often hear theatremakers are confused about racially aware casting. “As long as it’s not whitewashed it’s fine, right?” Well, that depends on the context. Yes, it is better to cast a performer of color(POC) over a white actor if the role calls for a non-white actor because you are creating more opportunities for POC and they will at least be able to identify with the topic of marginalization.
However, if the role specifically addresses a certain culture, cast a person of that culture. To cast any POC in a role of color that isn’t their own is called erasure, AKA the generalization of all people of color as non-white rather than recognizing different cultures.
Keep in mind how generalization can also manifest when casting shows that aren’t about race. For example, there have been a disturbing amount of productions that have cast an ensemble of villains only using POC. This reinforces the stereotype that these people are dangerous and casts the white people as the innocent saviors who are celebrated for destroying them.
Similarly, casting POC in roles that are intended to be ridiculed paints them as inferior, and revives the destructive origins of minstrelsy in theatre. And, finally, I have seen far too many productions cast POC in the roles of animals, which literally dehumanizes them.
CHOOSING AND CONCEPTUALIZING A PRODUCTION
Choose your show based on your actor pool
In my area, when I see shows like Hairspray that require ensembles of different races, there is typically an overwhelming imbalance - I’m talking 40 kids in the white ensemble and less than 10 in the black ensemble, and sometimes the entire black ensemble was Indian or Latinx kids. Just because you have a few actors of color doesn’t mean you have enough for a full cast. Even cutting kids to make the ensembles more equal is far less uncomfortable than watching an overwhelming amount of white kids on one side of the stage overpowering the five black kids on the other side.
Furthermore, in predominantly white areas, there is rarely one larger population of another race, and more often very small numbers of different races. In shows like Hairspray that are, literally, black and white, kids of other races can feel alienated being thrown to one side. A great alternative is a show like Rent, which encourages diverse casting and addresses marginalization without specifying a specific race’s experience.
I recognize that switching a show may be less flexible if it is done for outside reasons - for example, to pay homage to a certain playwright or tradition within the theatre company. Here are some ways to keep your plan without sending the wrong message:
If you proceed with the show and your current pool of actors doesn’t fit the requirements, open auditions to outside actors that do fit the show.
Concert versions or highlights from the show allow you to do a different mainstage show without abandoning your original one. It also makes it more reasonable to bring in outside actors, and only use your full cast in the one or two appropriate numbers instead of every ensemble number.
Benefit concerts, showcases, or cabarets that feature numbers from past shows or specific composers allow a wider range of performances instead of reducing it to one show that might not send the intended message.
Get input from the people you are representing
If you are a director or any theatre administrator who is doing a show about a culture other than your own, you should clarify that the representation you are showing to an audience is appropriate. For example, I was once in a show that involved racial slurs, and before rehearsals started, the actors of that race were asked if those slurs should be removed.
While the actors opted to keep them in order to show the true harshness of history, preferring to remove them would also have been valid, especially if they would bring up trauma for the actors. Ultimately, someone telling a story about a culture they are not part of can’t assume how the story will affect those who relate, and an administrator should be open to hearing and adhering to the voices they are representing.
Stay away from characters or shows that were written in a racist way
Many popular high school shows actually have racist origins, and choosing these shows over more respectful or authentic ones encourages systemic racism in theatre and prevents the movement towards a truly progressive and inclusive art form. For example:
Peter Pan and Annie Get Your Gun feature offensive portrayals of Indigenous peoples.
Tarzan is about a white man in a world of primitive savages, symbolism for the negative feelings towards black immigration.
Miss Saigon features a classic “white savior” storyline to complement the fact that every Asian role reinforces the stereotypes of Asian women as sexualized and weak.
Even Golden Age shows that were progressive for their time feature insensitivity: Finian’s Rainbow implies that racial tolerance can only be achieved through literal magic and Show Boat stereotypes its black characters.
This leads us to another issue: the majority of shows about racism, especially racism against black individuals, are written by white people, meaning black voices are over-shined by white ones even when discussing their own experiences. Even fan favorites like Dreamgirls and Ragtime had mostly white writing teams, and although they are great at addressing racism, they still adhere to theatre’s ongoing neglect of black creators. Here are some alternatives to those shows that support black voices:
August Wilson’s “Century Cycle” plays.
Charles Fuller’s recently revived A Soldier’s Play.
Shuffle Along (one of the few musicals with an all-black writing team and cast)
The Color Purple (although most of the creative team is mostly white, the cast and original story’s author is not)
Sadly, because of musicals’ higher revenue, it is much harder to find book musicals with an all-black team (and the same can be said for other cultures), but hopefully, this is a fair start.
Do not do shows about race only to give roles to actors of color
In communities that aren’t predominantly white, it is not uncommon for the theater’s recent productions to only consist of shows like Rent, In the Heights, and The Wiz. This, of course, is a wonderful way to allow students to tell stories that relate to them and adhere to their interests.
However, if the reason to choose these shows is that “these are our only options,” you are falling victim to the old belief that POC can only exist onstage in the context of race, when, in fact, most shows are not specifically about whiteness and are only typically all-white because Broadway favored white actors.
Even Hello Dolly, a classic Golden Age musical, received an all-black Broadway revival in 1975, proving that the Golden Age doesn’t have to be performed under the same conditions it was written in. So, don’t be afraid to produce your favorite show, because if theatre is truly about universal stories, then they should be told without exclusion.
REHEARSALS
Prioritize actors representing other cultures
As one of the only POC in most of my theatre programs, I was thrown into any role that wasn’t white. After doing my own research on the culture I was representing, I would wait until the next time my scene was rehearsed to ask my director for suggestions, but eventually, I noticed a trend: there never was a next rehearsal.
My scenes never got a single rehearsal beyond initial blocking, so I would sit at home anxiously researching the culture and practicing my accent for hours while my white friends got called in for the fifth day in a row to rehearse the same “fun white kid number.”
With no help representing my character, the entire burden of representation was on my shoulders. If I did a bad job representing a marginalized community, I felt personally responsible for contributing to a racist production. Something as simple as a one-hour rehearsal to make sure the representation is appropriate is better than leaving the actor to direct themself.
Furthermore, one should also ask themself why they don’t want to work on such scenes. Maybe it’s because they don’t see themselves as a reliable reference, or maybe they find the content that shares their culture to be more enjoyable to direct.
Nevertheless, as the director, it is your responsibility to be an expert and eager resource on the culture you are representing. Failing to address the foundation of the show puts a moral burden on your actors to do that work themselves, and leaves them to do character work that should be the director’s job.
Don’t have your actors play a stereotype
It is unsettling how often I see black actors being told to “act sassier,” or heard directors make racist Asian impersonations when suggesting movements. This attitude implies that they believe POC do not have the same complexity as their white counterparts, and can only be seen on stage in the context of race rather than having their own humane feelings.
While sometimes stereotypes are the fault of the show - many Golden Age shows are written with a dated view of POC - theatre is built on interpretation, so don’t hesitate to rewrite history by adding more thoughtful beats and stronger personality to your characters.
While stereotyping occurs more with shows specifically about race, this behavior also exists when actors of color are cast in roles that do not address race at all. If you have not yet read Cooper Howell’s Facebook post on his time in Frozen, this is an excellent example of how hesitance to cast BIPOC is incredibly problematic. If you believe that casting a POC makes a character seem more “urban” or less relatable, that means you view them as less human and believe their voices should be suppressed.
Finally, know that we all make mistakes, and it is okay to do so as long as we educate ourselves and learn from them. It is also worth clarifying that it is a great idea to address racism and injustice through your shows, and this list is simply a way to do that correctly.
While this is not the full extent of racial sensitivity in theatre, hopefully, this list gives theatremakers a starting point to creating a safe environment for all artists.