Email I just sent to Theatre@First
Subject: Never After casting
First of all, I'd like to commend Theatre@First for a tremendous production. This was by far the most accomplished and professional Theatre@First production that I've seen. Congratulations are due to all for pulling off something so large and so far outside the scope of previous productions with such aplomb.
That said, I do have a major complaint about the casting. I was shocked and dismayed to see that the only speaking part given to a person of colour was that of the evil fairy. This casting choice played very clearly into the stereotype of the "angry", "bad" black person causing trouble for the "nice" white people. Given that the major theme of the show was battling against stereotypes, I thought this was a particularly poor choice.
I'm assuming (read: desperately hoping) that this was not a conscious, deliberate decision; however, I do not feel that "cluelessness" is an excuse for making racist casting choices. I also hope that, in future, more care is taken to raise awareness among the Theatre@First community of the power such choices have to reinforce (or fight against) damaging stereotypes.
First of all, I'd like to commend Theatre@First for a tremendous production. This was by far the most accomplished and professional Theatre@First production that I've seen. Congratulations are due to all for pulling off something so large and so far outside the scope of previous productions with such aplomb.
That said, I do have a major complaint about the casting. I was shocked and dismayed to see that the only speaking part given to a person of colour was that of the evil fairy. This casting choice played very clearly into the stereotype of the "angry", "bad" black person causing trouble for the "nice" white people. Given that the major theme of the show was battling against stereotypes, I thought this was a particularly poor choice.
I'm assuming (read: desperately hoping) that this was not a conscious, deliberate decision; however, I do not feel that "cluelessness" is an excuse for making racist casting choices. I also hope that, in future, more care is taken to raise awareness among the Theatre@First community of the power such choices have to reinforce (or fight against) damaging stereotypes.