Is a white person playing a role

[PalJoey]

Color-blind opera casting: Noah Stewart as Pinkerton with French soprano Anne Sophie Duprels as Cio-Cio-San in the Opera North production of Madama Butterfly:

[PalJoey]

And for Robbie--Noah Stewart showin' a little cleavage and some LEGS:

[givesmevoice]

[aaronb]

I played the Scarecrow in an all-white version of THE WIZ in high school. I thought that was pretty offensive.

[aaronb]

Also My Oh My--race and racism is far more complex than thinking people of other races are inferior to you.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

That's silly. The Wiz isn't about race.

Most of the Sharks in the original Broadway cast AND the movie were not Hispanic.

Well, then, there's no reason to ever cast Latino people in Latino parts. Case closed!

[Kad]

Considering when the movie was made, we're frankly lucky we even got Rita Moreno.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Exactly! So maybe you can just enjoy that fact and stop with the PC whining!

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Also, My Oh My's views on racism are pretty much nonsense.

[givesmevoice]

asking this is pretty much saying youre obsessed with color

And saying that you don't see color or races usually means you're white and never had to be concerned with how your color affected your daily life.

[LizzieCurry]

http://ted.coe.wayne.edu/ele3600/mcintosh.html

[EricMontreal22]

Yeah, the era that the movie was made (look a few years earlier to The King and I) don't prove the point. I still think it's more or less fine for a mainly white school to do West Side Story--but for a variety of reasons I think it's different when it is a school. (And yet, I wouldn't want to see a school do an all white Ragtime, or Showboat, so I know my thinking is kinda hypocritical.)

[givesmevoice]

Lizzie, I would like your post if I could.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

asking this is pretty much saying youre obsessed with color

[DEClarke]

I guess it depends on intent?

When I was a kid my local community theatre did Arthur Miller's THE CRUCIBLE. They held auditions for four days and only anglos auditioned. They had already paid for the rights, so they had to produce anyway. Tastefully, in a way that the audience couldn't tell, they used make-up to make the actress playing Tituba look like she had dark skin.It was a great shock to everyone when they saw her out of make-up.

In that case, no offense of malignant feelings were intended. The company just did the best they could with what they had to pick from. It played well, and no one was upset.

So, I guess it all comes down to intentions...

[LizzieCurry]

No. It doesn't.

Holy crap.

[Patash]

Lizzie Curry, how would you suggest that school handle the casting of The Crucible? And please don't be so naive as to simply say "just cast a black person in the role".

If there is no one fat who auditions to play a fat role, they pad him. If no old man auditions for an old man play, they make him up for the role. If there is no one who is blind to play Helen in The Miracle Worker, they "pretend". It's kind of sad that people make skin color a bigger issue than any other physical difference.

[givesmevoice]

Did you really just use the word anglos? Maybe that's just my personal distaste showing, but...

[EricMontreal22]

Wait, so people who could not speak English auditioned for The Crucible? (Or at any rate, they were expecting non English speakers to audition?) I am so confused.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

It's kind of sad that people make skin color a bigger issue than any other physical difference.

You know who started that? White people!

[LizzieCurry]

I knew there was a reason I'd stayed away from this thread for 3 pages.

[darion]

No it doesnt GIVESMEAVOICE, it means Im not obsessed with race, dont see slights where there arent and dont judge a person, good or bad by their race.
tell me, did you have a problem with the black Streetcar Named Desire?

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Ooh, it's almost time for someone to bring up a white Effie!

[Mattbrain]

I heard of a production of Parade where Jim Conley was played by a white person.

[GavestonPS]

As this thread appears to pertain to current attitudes towards race in the theatre (and opera et al), I don't really see this as a valid example. Perhaps Price was given yellow face make-up forty years ago to play Cio-Cio-San...

I wasn't passing judgment, AC, I was just curious as to the conventions employed.

But I should be clear that in the photos I found, Miss Price may have simply worn lighter make-up on her face. I can't tell whether it was yellow in color; and for all I know, she wore the exact make-up to play Aida. (What I found odd was that she lightened her face and shoulders, but not the rest of her in a costume that displayed quite a bit of flesh. Maybe it wasn't from BUTTERFLY after all!)

IIRC, Leontyne Price paying Butterfly was considered historic. I certainly didn't mean to throw stones at the past.

[PalJoey]

She kinda did it in whiteface: