Color-blind casting is the practice of

casting Casting is a manufacturing process in which a liquid material is usually poured into a mold, which contains a hollow cavity of the desired shape, and then allowed to solidify. The solidified part is also known as a casting, which is ejected or ...

roles without regard to the actor's

ethnicity An ethnicity or ethnic group is a group of people with shared attributes, which they Collective consciousness, collectively believe to have, and long-term endogamy. Ethnicities share attributes like language, culture, common sets of ancestry, ...

or race. Alternative terms and similar practices include non-traditional casting, integrated casting, or blind casting, which can involve casting without consideration of skin color,

body shape Human body shape is a complex phenomenon with sophisticated detail and function. The general shape or figure of a person is defined mainly by the molding of skeletal structures, as well as the distribution of muscles and adipose tissue, fat. Ske ...

, sex or

gender Gender is the range of social, psychological, cultural, and behavioral aspects of being a man (or boy), woman (or girl), or third gender. Although gender often corresponds to sex, a transgender person may identify with a gender other tha ...

. A representative of the

Actors' Equity Association The Actors' Equity Association (AEA), commonly called Actors' Equity or simply Equity, is an American trade union, labor union representing those who work in Theatre, live theatrical performance. Performers appearing in live stage productions w ...

has disputed the use of "color blind casting", preferring "non-traditional casting". Non-traditional casting "is defined as the casting of ethnic minority actors in roles where race, ethnicity, or gender is not germane". Race-reversed casting is one form of non-traditional casting.

Examples

The Non-Traditional Casting Project

The Non-Traditional Casting Project was founded in 1986 to examine problems of racial discrimination in theatre, film and television. The

is a co-founder.

Debate and "color-consciousness"

In the theatre community, there is significant debate over the concept of color-blind casting vs "color-conscious casting". In 1996, Pulitzer-winning playwright August Wilson, who is black, used his Princeton University address on black culture in the United States "The Ground on Which I Stand" to attack the notion of color-blind casting. In 2017, Associate Editor of ''American Theatre'' magazine Diep Tran declared "color-conscious" to be a preferable term. "Color-conscious means we're aware of the historic discrimination in the entertainment industry ... and we're also aware of what it means to put a body of color onstage.". The idea promotes intentionality and race-conscious affirmative action to avoid racially homogeneous casts, and has been supported widely across the theatre community. In 2018, the ''Harvard Journal of Sports & Entertainment Law'' published the article "There's No Business Like Show Business: Abandoning Color-Blind Casting and Embracing Color-Conscious Casting in American Theatre". The article discussed the implications for US employment law and mooted that color-blind casting has not produced its intended result. "Race is still a determining factor in American society, and it is counterintuitive to argue that problems related to race can be fixed by ignoring race altogether". The Broad Online calls a color-blind casting "a superficial solution to a deeper problem." Popular shows that employ color-conscious casting include: '' Hamilton: An American Musical'', the BBC's ''Les Misérables'', and the film ''

Mary Queen of Scots Mary, Queen of Scots (8 December 1542 – 8 February 1587), also known as Mary Stuart or Mary I of Scotland, was List of Scottish monarchs, Queen of Scotland from 14 December 1542 until her forced abdication in 1567. The only surviving legit ...

'' (in which the black actor

Adrian Lester Adrian Anthony Lester (born Anthony Harvey on 14 August 1968) is a British actor. He is the recipient of a Laurence Olivier Award, an Evening Standard Theatre Award and a Critics' Circle Theatre Award for his work on the London stage, an ...

plays a 16th-century ambassador). In 2017, director Michael Streeter made a color-conscious casting decision for his production of ''Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?'', believing "the decision would add depth to the play".

Edward Albee Edward Franklin Albee III ( ; March 12, 1928 – September 16, 2016) was an American playwright known for works such as ''The Zoo Story'' (1958), ''The Sandbox (play), The Sandbox'' (1959), ''Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?'' (1962), ''A Delicat ...

's estate denied permission for the production, stating the casting "would fundamentally change the meaning and message of the play".

Examples

The Non-Traditional Casting Project

Debate and "color-consciousness"

See also

Notes

References

Further reading