Coffee black and egg white..

If you know what lyric my title is from, bonus points for you. I hope you all read my review of Next to Normal. Shame on you if you haven't! After seeing a really great show, I always get the sudden urge to perform again. It's like a drug, and all of a sudden all I can think about is being on stage. Well, after seeing Next to Normal, I kept visualizing myself playing Natalie. I think it's a great role, and I would love to play that part. Then, I was slapped back to reality. Natalie is white. The whole family is white. Even the other two characters not in the family are white. What's a black girl to do? Well, I can hope that someone decides to put on an all black production of Next to Normal or that someone decides to do the unthinkable, color-blind casting!

Color-blind casting tends to cause quite the controversy. Here's an angry letter to The New York Times about Phylicia Rashad's (yes, The Cosby Show mom and stage veteran) casting in August: Osage County. It has also been done to much acclaim. David Oyelowo was the first black actor to play an English king in a major Shakespeare production, and his performance won him the Ian Charleson Award. I've been on the fence about the issue in the past, but now I really feel like it should be done more often. I'm already suspending my disbelief when I sit down to watch a movie, play or musical. What's the harm in accepting, for the sake of art, that a black woman gave birth to white children?

As a writer, I'm going to try and make sure that I don't write characters with a race in mind unless it is imperative to the story. I think far too many writers do that. Grey's Anatomy, which boasts a very diverse cast, was created with nobody's race in mind. The actors were chosen on the basis of talent, which is the way it should be. Talented people shouldn't be sidelined from playing great roles because of their race. Some groups have taken action. East West Players is an Asian American theatre group in Los Angeles. George Takei of Star Trek fame starred in their performance of Equus a few years ago. Last year, an all African American production of Tennessee Williams' Cat on a Hot Tin Roof hit Broadway. I applaud these productions, but I'd love to see more productions with extremely diverse casts and complete color-blind casting.

On a lighter note, my good friend Mike Contino, author of the blog Making Things Happen, and I were discussing about color-blind casting, when he had the great idea of composing a list of shows that would be extremely awkward if casting was color-blind. I laughed out loud, and we created this list.

The Most Awkward Shows to Cast Color-Blind (in no specific order)

• The Color Purple - Oprah might get a little pissed if that ever happened.
• Fiddler on the Roof - Obviously, the roles in this show don't have to be played by Jewish people, but something tells me some Jewish people would be angry if they were played by people who didn't even look remotely Jewish.
• The Civil War - This needs no words.
• Anne Frank - Again, no words.
• Porgy and Bess - Considering the characterization of black people is pretty racist in this opera, it might be even more awkward if people of another race gave a crack at this show.
• FELA! - This hasn't even hit Broadway yet, but it's a show about Nigerian activist and musician Fela Kuti. Fela, one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, is known for creating the musical genre Afrobeat. If other races were cast in this, then maybe people would realize that Africa is not solely comprised of black people. Then again, people might be too preoccupied by other races dressed in traditional African garb with paint on their bodies doing traditional African dances to care about my latter statement.
• Anything by August Wilson - Wilson's ten play play series is about the African American struggle in the 20th century. I guess that means when he wrote them he only envisioned black people playing the roles, but who are we to know that for sure?
• Parade - Seeing as they all suspect the black guy of murder because they're all racist, the show might not make sense with anyone other race in the part.
• Miss Saigon - A starring role for an Asian woman on Broadway. There is no way you can take that away from them.
• Hairspray - It might get a little tricky to pull this off during the segregated school dance scene.

I hope you all feel sufficiently awkward. Got any more that might be really awkward? Comment!

Peace,

Kim