Race

[jssangel]

So - one of the projects I am working on now has 10 people in it - all people who were involved before I was hired. Almost everyone is playing multiple roles. It's a story being told by people in the "future", about the past (early 30's Eastern Europe

Comments

[glendaglamazon]

Wow, what an interesting situation. My instinct is to allow the actor to play his original parts. You aren't casting fresh, so you can't take this into account from the starting point. He has done a lot of work, and he continues to want to play these roles. While I'd agree with your inclination to remove one more representation of black-man-as-criminal in the popular narrative, I would say that depriving this actor of his creative work isn't the way to go about it.

[jssangel]

It's a bit of a thing, isn't it?

Ironically, at the same time I am directing an MLK celebration, which has its own mix of challenges - the clash of the string quartet and jazz ensemble makes the Jets and the Sharks look like pikers!

[glendaglamazon]

Heh, I can imagine the throwdowns! Must be quite a cacophony!

I am interested to see other people's responses, as well as to hear what you did.

[cricketk]

I lean strongly towards letting the man play the original roles.

The child molester role (as you've described it) is the more interesting and challenging role to play. As an actor it would be strange if he didn't want it.

There's also that 'he was there first' feeling that I have. He's already put a lot of time and work into the original roles. Asking him to start over from scratch seems disrespectful.

I get that this is your artwork as well and that you have been actively working against portraying "black man = criminal". I get that it would be a betrayal of your principles to allow an event that you are involved in to say "black man = criminal". You deserve consideration just as much as anyone else.

I think that you have a real person asking you for something specific (namely, not to mess with the casting), vs a statement about the world that you want to make. I lean heavily in favour of the person.

[jehnt]

Hmm, well, I think you did your duty with mentioning it to him and explaining how you felt about it. If he didn't want to change roles, though, I'd let him keep the ones he already has. So even if he is still playing these parts, everyone is aware of the possible effect they will have on the audience. It's quite a bit of a conundrum, though, I agree. But I'd lean against devaluing the actor's work, especially since he seems to feel strongly about it.

[melodyunity]

I guess the ideal response would be to add another actor of color to the cast and give that person non-criminal scenes to play, but you said the cast was set. Hmm.

That's a pickle. I think you're right to want to want to get rid of any skeevy racial implications, but I can totally understand why that actor wants to keep those parts. They sound like morally complex characters, and like they'd be both fun and challenging to play. And, really, the problem isn't that this actor is playing those characters; it's that he's the only black guy in the cast, so any parts he plays is going to come across as racial commentary.

Did any of that make sense?

I guess I'd let him keep the parts. He's invested a lot of work into them already; taking them away now wouldn't be fair to him.