Playwright Rehana Lew Mirza argues that those who defend producing The Mikado using yellowface on the basis of its “historical significance” are supporting centuries of imperialism and oppression.
Karena Fiorenza Ingersoll and Deena Selenow provide practical advice for making recruitment, retainment, and casting practices more equitable and inclusive.
Julie Rada shares her process for casting devised pieces, and explores the extreme difference in the way auditions are run when a group is creating together.
Larissa FastHorse explores the issues she deals with as a Native playwright, from finding an agent to what happens when she has to un-Native American a character.
Are Equity tours of a higher quality than non-union productions? Very possibly. There’s a larger talent pool to work with and performers tend to be more experienced. That said, whether or not a tour is a union production has never been shown to have a demonstrable effect on ticket sales that I’ve been able to uncover.
Srila Nayak reviews the American Repertory Theater’s production of William Shakespeare’s The Tempest, and highlights how the production uses music, color-consious-casting, spectacle, and stage-magic.
Pearl Cleage writes about color-conscious casting in productions of A Christmas Carol, and the importance of representation during the holidays and beyond.
A look into how director Mary Zimmerman brought The Jungle Book, steeped in racial contexts of British Colonization and 1960s America, to today’s conversation of what has and hasn’t changed.
We need to stop asking to find space for artists of color and instead give them the space. This starts by looking at what plays we are and are not presenting.
If the play doesn’t explicitly need the genders prescribed to convey the story-do we need to cast the roles as listed then? It is time to start talking about open-gender conversation.
In response to the protest and aftermath of the New York Gilbert & Sullivan Players’ now canceled production of The Mikado, this series addresses the racist performance and casting practices of Yellowface in the American Theatre.