Here Here to color blind casting! Unfortunately not all see eye-to-eye with this. Last year a judge at one act had a problem with our mixed race family for The Miracle Worker. One year a teacher told me that she talked her predominantly African American cast out of doing Grease because the audience would expect a blond Sandy, etc. I wouldn't think twice about casting him as Jonathon. At the high school level we should be creating as much opportunity as possible.
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Rosemary Milsap
Drama Teacher, Dir. of Cedar Theatre
Athens GA
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Original Message:
Sent: 02-09-2015 08:03
From: Ben Martin
Subject: Black male as Jonathon Brewster
No sweat. I'd play it exactly as written and let the audience laugh because of the complete LACK of resemblance. He can still get angry about it and thus his later actions still make sense. Colorblind casting works. Especially in older shows. I once cast the family in Man Who Came to Dinner with a father who was African-South Asian-Native American, a mother who was Irish American with flaming red hair, a WASP daughter, and an African American son. Oh, and one of the servants was white and one was black. Needless to say, our favorite production picture from the show was the "family portrait." Have fun with it and use it as a teaching tool, as well.
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Ben Martin
Past Board Of Trustees
Missouri Aliiance for Arts Education
Lee's Summit MO
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