Unit 11 - essay

on
blind casting in king Lear (black daughter still fair skinned)
cast of Hamilton ?

For the essay
What's it like being a black actor in London / the theatre industry?
Why are there less dark skinned black actors in the main cast?
Is it hard to get main roles as a dark skinned actor?
What is your main source of income (theatre or film)?
What is your main source of income (acting or daily job)?

Extras
What did you do to get here?
Are they with agency?
black hollywood - research BBC 2/4
Dear white people - show

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/shakespearean-black-and-ethnic-minority-actors-still-only-getting-minor-roles-a6816941.html

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-coventry-warwickshire-40802072

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sidney_Poitier
Black Hollywood
Young vic - Artistic director: Kwame Kwei-Armah

Michael Douglas


Hamilton interview

loose quote from giles 'being a black actor is exactly like being a black person, it's hard to get anywhere, but things are changing.'

General notes

  • believe in yourself
  • take time to understand yourself (your style)
  • productions are a team effort (not only the cast but backstage as well)
  • zone into what you are doing
  • love and respect everyone
  • enjoy the art of pretending
  • what do I want?
  • don't please people, please yourself
  • why do we do what we do?
  • one has to know how to take rejection
  • there is a lot of movement/physical attributes to the industry
  • source of motivation = love of acting, life itself
  • time is precious
  • blind casting, its up to the producer if blind casting is or is NOT important in a production (example: my own experience - hairspray (Brentwood)
  • be yourself
  • enjoy telling stories
  • don't be complacent with where you are now
  • don't focus on the future (be in the present)
  • being a black actor is just like being a black person (there will be discrimination)

ESSAY

 Does ethnicity have an effect on the over-all feel of a production?

In this essay, I will be discussing the controversial nature of theatre in the aspect of ethnicity. The research I will be using will include educational books and websites about the history of theatre, T.V. shows that show majority/sparsity of ethnic minority actors and I will also be talking to some of my friends in the industry to gather their thoughts on the subject. I aim to show the different opinions on ethnicity in the acting industry and answer the question: does ethnicity have an effect on the overall feel of a production? Although the when and where or the origin of Theatre is unknown, many people believe that the storytelling aspect of theatre originated in early civilisations (such as the ancient Romans/Greeks)[1]. In this time theatre was used to tell stories of the origins of the world or to tell myths and legends about the gods or heroes. Even though these times in history didn't have inequality in casting according to race, there were still gender inequalities around the arts in this time. For example, women were not allowed to watch or be apart of plays. Another crucial time in theatre was the beginning of the 17th century, this was the beginning of the 'Shakespeare era'. During this era the inequality had spread to people of colour, this is because the 17th century is when slave trade was beginning to thrive. During this time, people of colour were not given roles at all, even if the roles were to portray a coloured person. I found this out by doing some research into the earliest black British actor, I found out that the earliest black actor in Britain was born in the 20th century. Even in America, in the early 1600s, the slave trade was starting to thrive, it wasn't up until the late 1900s that black people were able to join in american theatre and television. Blackface was a very popular practise in the 1800s when slave trade was still at large. This allowed white to portray stereotypes of black people such as the 'Happy-go-lucky darky on the plantation'. What they did was painted their faces black and also painted red around their lips to simulate the dark skin and large lips of black people. In these eras, it was mainly racism that leads to the exclusion of the black people. T.V./film can be very different from theatre, for example, the T.V./film industry has been split into multiple different genres (according to ethnicity). Sometimes people say it's because only one kind of people would understand it, other reasons may be that it's for the culture or that it just works around stereotypes and if anyone were to make fun of it, it would be 'racist'. Theatre, on the other hand, allows everyone to empathise with every character because its ore immersive seeing the action live (even though this is beginning to change slowly as more ethnic creators join in the theatre industry). An example of where I've seen this is in college, my group of friends were talking about a film which we assumed everyone had watched, because we are all black. We were debating whether it was the best 'black' rom-com film. then when one of us said that he hadn't watched it, everyone began to make a big deal saying things like 'Are you not black?' and 'it's for the culture'. This is a very good example of how black people get separated when they are either creating something or being casted into something. That is why things that are deemed as 'urban' or 'soulful' usual consist of a majority of or an equal balance of BAME (black, Asian and minority ethnic) actors. Something I found that says ' ethnicity doesn't have an effect on the overall feel of a performance' is blind casting. Shows like Hamilton and King Lear show this. For example, Anita-Joy Uwajeh, a black actor, plays Cordelia (one of King Lear's three daughters) even though the king and his other daughters were played by Caucasians and in Hamilton. George Washington is played by Dom Hartley-Harris. Another reason for ethnicity not to matter to the quality of a production is that some productions are told in many different ways. Take Romeo and Juliet for example. There are many different renditions of Romeo and Juliet, including Gnomeo and Juliet and Romeo + Juliet (which is a 'gangster' version of the play). Even though stereotypically, gangsters are black, the cast is predominantly white. This shows how some producers/casting directors don't stick to stereotypes when telling a story especially ethnic stereotypes. While researching I decided to speak to some people I know in the profession of performing arts. I wanted to get a feel as to how people on the inside of the industry felt about the fairness, on an ethnic level, of the industry. The first person I decided to speak to was Micheal Douglas, a friend of mine who bears the same name as a world-renowned actor. He explained to me that life as a black actor in London is 'competitive, mainly because the parts for a black male are still quite slim in terms or variety'. What I could gather from this is that casting directors often cast certain roles, including boyfriends, thugs and bouncers (as explained by Michael), with colour in mind. This shows that people do believe that the type of people being cast (ethnically) does affect the overall feel of a product. Michael then went on to explain how dark-skinned actors, for years, have been perceived as aggressive/'not beautiful'. It was only after a wave of African culture hitting the performance industry (including music) that dark-skinned actors were given a way into the industry without playing a stereotypical role (such as a slave or an immigrant). I found this to be very true because growing up watching iconic films, for example, psycho or the wizard of Oz, there were barely any black cast members. Even Disney did not have a BAME princess until 1992 (starting with Jasmin). When I asked Michael if he thought it was hard for a BAME actor to get the main role in a production, he replied ‘No, but it would be hard to progress past stereotypical roles’. I think that this again fuels the argument that ethnicity does have an effect on a production, especially when it come to stereotypes. Another person that I had a short conversation with is Giles Terera who has a long history of acting experience. The one thing that Giles said on the subject was 'Being a black actor is exactly like being a black person, it's hard to get anywhere, but things are changing'. This showed me that people, the general public, still see BAME people (whether they are actors or not) as their stereotypes. I came to this conclusion because casting directors choose actors based on not only the actors ability but also how a production would sit for an audience. This means that some audiences care about who plays which character in productions because other people would look weird/racist playing some roles, including immigrants or slaves. In conclusion, I believe that there are some productions where ethnicity is an important factor in the overall quality of a piece, especially if they are of historical importance. For example productions such as '12 Years A Slave' and 'Hairspray'. But other productions can be casted in anyway, shape or form and still give the same impact, Romeo and Juliet for example.

Bibliography

Theatre History Resources, Classical theatre. Fragrance x Library, Available at:

The National archives, Britain and the Slave Trade. Available at:
www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/slavery/pdf/britain-and-the-trade.pdf  (Dec 15th 2018)   

 Blackface, Wikipedia, Available at:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackface (Dec 15th 2018)

 Ringgold, C. (2018), What Is The Chronological Order Of Disney Princesses? Quara, Alailable at:
https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-chronological-order-of-Disney-princesses (Jan 13th 2019)

 Gallagher, P. (2016), Shakespearean black and ethnic minority actors 'still only getting minor roles' - 'I genuinely think that British Classical theatre is recognising there is an issue with diversity'. Available at:

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