Race Prompt for Week 10

Oh, the tangential paths I’ve trod as I prepared to write this blog prompt… It’s not surprising that a topic such as “Race” would do that, given the ceaseless resurgence of the term, it’s definition, and it’s agency in societies worldwide. And then we meld that with the world of theatre – tangential paths, I tell you. And it all started with Harvey Young.

Al Pacino cast as a Cuban Tony Montana in Scarface

Young primed us nicely for the idea of “theatre and race” as he shared a personal experience in which he was distracted during a production of The Voysey Inheritance when an African American female actor addressed a white male actor as “father.” He questioned the dramaturgical choices and the implications of that choice for the storyline. He also pondered whether it could have just been the result of colorblind casting. You know, the politically correct endeavor to cast the best person for the job regardless of “race.” It’s a lovely idea, and while it is often employed, the question was raised in class – what if it ends up doing a disservice to the plot? After all, we aren’t colorblind [save the 8% men and 0.5% of women in the world who actually are, but that tangent turned into a silly old rabbit hole so I jumped out quick]. But you catch my drift – we see what is in front of us! All of it. Our brains want to make sense of it, and our brains are smart. If it doesn’t compute, we’ve got questions and then all of a sudden our theatre experience turns Brechtian. We’re often “aware” of the “race” of the thespians that tread the boards in front of us, but Young points out that that’s not inherently a bad thing. He highlights a difference between the awareness of race and racism, and refers to “race” as a “concept…that we know does not really exist and is simply a fiction invented to divide people.” [I snapped my fingers to that comment as I made a hard left to follow a path that would lead me towards the origins of the term “race.” If you’re interested, I offer the article “From ‘Nation’ to ‘Race’: The Origin of Racial Classification in Eighteenth-Century Thought” by Nicholas Hudson and available on JSTOR  https://www.jstor.org/stable/30053821?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents as well as a perusing of Ashley Montagu who has declared “the fallacy of race” as “man’s most dangerous myth.”]

Robert Branch as MLK, Jr. in Kent State Univ's The Mountaintop

Yes, Young tantalized us with the concepts of racial interpellation, racial socialization, and racial habitus that he esteemed essential to embodying race, however we were left high and dry before we saw how it was applied to theatre [I’ll spare you the full tangent here and simply leave it at this - $10, new on Amazon]. Thank goodness that Michael Greyeyes swooped in and saved the day with his dynamic performative keynote address. As he and Chief Bromden escorted us through his pedagogical evolution, we were privy to both his inner dialogue and outward manifestations. Although he had returned to grad school so that he could interact with roles in classical works for which he “would never reasonably be considered,” he instead found himself drawn to postcolonial theory and postmodernism. Thus he was set on his path to “blow up his program” – rock the boat, question the status quo, reject the preciousness surrounding western fine arts curriculum and teach what would best serve the diverse university students that he taught. When he decided to no longer teach ballet, it caused an interesting wave. Like a Jenga tower, he yanked out a foundational piece of movement training that, in the eyes of his colleagues, prepared the students for Restoration drama. Greyeyes’ position was basically, “I didn’t choose to pull out that particular piece for no reason!” As he’s moved further away from the “false light of the moon,” he’s been awakened and defogged – a reference to a quote from Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, “The stars up close to the moon were pale; they got brighter and braver the farther they got out of the circle of light ruled by the giant moon.” [Immediate thought as I finished this article: Grass Dancing for Daily Practice = rabbit hole.]

Zoe Saldana in "blackface" for Nina Simone biopic

Patricia Ybarra utilizes Quiara Hudes’ “Elliot Trilogy” to walk us through a methodology to read Latinx plays. She states that the themes and tropes of cosmology, affect, family legacies, a quest for belonging, and hardships encountered in the barrio are common throughout many Latinx dramas. Hudes’ plays are no different according to Ybarra, so she explores how important community and vertical relationships are while also using North Philly [shout-out to the City of Brotherly Love] to represent a “true north” where the characters decide to return to in order to make community and reimagine “the self.” Ybarra notes that in her staging of Water by the Spoonful, she took care not to make the scene where Odessa spoons water onto the floor too poetic because her goal was to show ritual as ordinary. A good summary of this article might be that it is of utmost importance that the Latinx traditions and cultural nuances be seen as ordinary and ever-present within the context of Latinx culture.

Things began to feel especially impactful (as if they weren’t already) when Brian Herrara got our wheels turning about casting again. Alas, this topic that Young got us ready to receive at the beginning of the week was now here and packed in a neat little educational package…well, actually five neat little educational packages. Herrara’s 5-university college tour to view productions of In the Heights served the purpose of investigating the question of culturally conscious casting and more specifically the question, “Do we have the actors for that?” And by the word “we” he’s especially referring to university theatres. The dangers of pan-Latinx casting and assuming “automatic authenticity” are cautioned against on account of the vast and wonderfully unique differences among Latinx ethnicities. In a university setting where the casting pool may not always be sufficient to fill roles for Latinx characters, Herrara maintains that careful adherence to linguistic fluency, cultural competence, and creative coalition can lead to a successful production. Although casting is a rigorous job that’s altogether artistic, pedagogic, and ethical, ultimately the appearance of authenticity lies in the eyes of the beholder. You can bring the audience to the proverbial water, but you can’t make ‘em drink it if they don’t like the taste.

Jonathan Pryce in "yellowface" for Miss Saigon

Mark Lew’s blog tackles the topic of “race and theatre” from a different angle. As co-director of the very successful Ma-Yi Writers Lab, the largest collective of Asian-American playwrights ever assembled, he questions whether ethnic-specific writers’ groups are even necessary any more and then immediately answers his own question in the affirmative. He speaks of an anthropological gaze that pigeonholes writers of color into a culturally biased lane that restricts them to driving at the speed of “family history drama.” A great quote that stands out to me is, “Inside the Lab: inter-dimensional time travel. Outside the Lab: ethnic family dramas only, please.” He states his disdain for the lack of diversity in theatre and offers a number of scenarios that would increase the representation of people of color in theatre. Oh, and after an entirely too long a list of recent examples of yellow face, he shares that he despises it…unless you’re talking about David Henry Hwang’s political satire of that same title. Check out this article about Hwang’s Yellow Face for another interesting read: https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2014/may/12/david-henry-hwang-miss-saigon-yellow-face-racial-casting

All right folks, we’re doing choose your own adventure this week. Choose from one of the following to delve into for this week’s prompts. Or you can be like me and follow all the tangents. Feel free to really share and engage with each other in the conversations that our 50-minute classes felt way too short to accommodate this week. Happy musings!

Herrara speaks about coalitional casting beginning on page 31 of his article. Have you ever seen this “non-minority ally” approach in action? What did it look like? Did it serve to leverage the “privileged ubiquity of whiteness”? Do you think, like Herrara, that the coalitional casting approach can effectively balance out “privilege to amplify awareness of racial and ethnic inequality rather than efface it” OR do you think it’s a bunch of hogwash? If hogwash, what about it turns your nose up? What alternatives would you suggest when people of color are not available in the casting pool? (Let’s talk university level.)

OR

What are your thoughts on this “anthropological gaze” that Mark Lew speaks of? What do you make of the ethnic family dramas “lane?” Are culturally specific theatre companies and initiatives such as the Hispanic American Arts Center and Ma-Yi Theater still necessary? On whom do you feel the responsibility lies for creating more opportunities for persons of color to be more represented, and more accurately so, in theatre? Actors? Educators? Playwrights? Reviewers? Production Staff? Casting? Expound!