For many, Porchlight’s In the Heights seemed like another chapter in the long theatrical tradition of whitewashing nonwhite characters by casting white actors to play them even when numerous actors of color are available. (The classic example: Laurence Olivier playing Othello in blackface.) But why, others argued, shouldn’t roles go to the actor who had the best audition? “Do you think Jonathan Pryce should be banned from playing Shylock because he is not Jewish?” Sun-Times critic Hedy Weiss wrote in a comment on a story in the Huffington Post. “It is called acting.”
How can the system be destroyed, or at the very least, transformed? “Top down, baby!” said Ilesa Duncan, the producing artistic director of Pegasus Theatre. “We need to open up directing all across the board.” And not just directing: panelists suggested that theaters employ more people of color in other offstage roles: casting, designing, dramaturgy.
But when Muñoz, the moderator, asked how theater professionals could “break the glass box”—if it would be acceptable for someone to write about or portray a person of another race and ethnicity onstage—the panel was stumped.
After the panel discussion, the audience broke up into smaller groups to brainstorm ideas about what various members of the theater community, including critics, teachers, and audience members, could do to promote more equality on Chicago’s stages.
Correction: Quiara Alegría Hudes spoke to American Theatre magazine about the controversy over Porchlight’s casting. “Casting the roles appropriately is of fundamental importance,” she said. “The Latino community has the right to be disappointed and depressed that an opportunity like this was lost.”
