Of the theatre companies I'm discussing, this is the one I most wish I could bring myself to name. Lately, I have been heavily involved in writing plays. I make no secret that I really want to write something that all the local community theatres would want to do. I would love Theatre Company C to come to me and ask if they could do one of my plays. I would love to say to them: "Sure . . . however, these lead roles are to be played by minorities . . . I will not agree if you intend on an all-white cast."
By the way, I understand that it is very rare when an author can make those sorts of demands. I understand that "Hairspray" makes an interesting demand: if a theatre company wants to put on "Hairspray", they must agree that they will not darken the skin of actors in order to play the african americans. When Theatre Company B wanted to put on "Hairspray", this meant that they needed to find african americans to play those parts.
Anyway, Theatre Company C . . .
I first encountered this bunch during auditions for "Noises Off". They explicitely wanted people that could do English accents, and during those auditions I was amazed at how many bad English accents I was hearing! I would go further: one man, who appears to be a "regular" with their company, read for an important part. I think he actually got the part, but it didn't take me long to notice that he read the part completely wrong. This was confirmed when I saw a review of their performance: the reviewer remarked that he felt as though the people putting on this show didn't get much of the humor. During the audition, I did see one man that was VERY good. His name is Tom, and I would encounter him later.
I very quickly got my "sorry" e-mail after the audition. Oh well. I left open the possibility that I sucked. It's just as well, though: if I had gotten a part, I wouldn't have auditioned for "Godspell" and I would never have met Theatre Company B.
Later that year, I was in another play and I was working with Tom. I have to admit: I've learned a LOT from him, and I'm consistently impressed by his work. Tom had only recently returned to acting, and he really enjoyed working with Theatre Company C and "Noises Off".
Then came the audition for "Enchanted April". There are maybe four men in the play. At the audition, there was only me and one other man. The other man, who, by the way, was white, was absolutely terrible. His reading was flat and he seemed to miss major parts in the dialog (like noticing that the character is getting angry). Two other people remarked that I was an order of magnitude better than him. One of those people, by the way, was a woman named Cathy. She and I were called up to do a scene together, and I think we blew away everyone else at that audition.
Both Cathy and I got the "sorry" e-mail. One day I ran in to Cathy and she asked if I knew who they cast, because she felt everyone else at that audition was terrible.
The other man, by the way, got a callback and got a part in the play. They chose the worse actor. Why? I can only assume that skin color was more important than the quality of performance. Here's the best part: they needed a couple more men for the play. They started courting Tom to see if he would take a part. In other words . . . they didn't have all the parts filled, but they rejected me anyway. In other words, they didn't even know that they could fill all of the parts, but they knew one thing: they absolutely positively didn't want me!
This wasn't a case of "we have four parts, let's fill it with the two that auditioned and then find people to fill the rest of the parts". This was "let's reject that brown guy -- not even send him a 'maybe' in case we can't fill all the parts, but tell him 'no' -- and thne hope we can fill in the rest of the parts." Community theatre is supposed to be about working with what you have, but clearly they had a difference of opinion.
By the way, a little pet peeve: the rejection e-mail was sent with the abbreviation of the theatre company in the subject line. I get tons of junk mail and when I see a minimal subject line like that, I usually assume it's something about buying medicines from another country. I replied to the e-mail pointing that out, which I do hope irritated them.
The next year, by the way, Cathy and Tom performed together. Cathy's performance was SO amazing that she has become a bit of a hot property. After that, Theatre Company C certainly welcomed her to another of their performances . . . I wonder if they remember rejecting her previously.
With "Enchanted April", I have no doubt at all that I was rejected because of my skin color. Remember that the other man was terrible, yet he was selected. I understand the resulting production was good, but apparently the sets were a bit lacking. After all, the audience can use their imagination with sets but can't be expected to handle someone with brown skin playing a white man. Further, by choosing the inferior actor, they were willing to sacrifice the quality of the show in order to hold on to their skin color bias.
I've only been to one performance of Theatre Company C. Tom was directing a version of "Vagina Monologues". I was thrilled to see a multi-ethnic cast for this show . . . but "Vagina Monologues" is a special case. I'm still on their mailing list, but I refuse to go to any of their auditions and aside from that one play I will not waste ticket money to go to one of their shows. I'm sure they don't miss me. Maybe I'll hear from them if they want to perform one of my plays in the future . . . and then I'll have a few choice words for them.
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