Canadian Theatre Review 193: Casting and Race

“What appears to be new today is both a collective willingness to change and artists’ refusal to allow dominant practices to remain unchallenged. To amplify this moment of transformation and engage discussions of casting practices as they intersect with race, culture, and ethnicity, we have invited a group of artists, scholars, and students to offer their insights. We have prioritized the voices of racialized artists and scholars at various stages in their careers, while also recognizing that lasting change requires the attention and investment of all members of the theatre community. Core questions include: How have previous approaches to casting affected artists and informed the kind of work that has appeared on Canadian stages? What has been done to address problematic casting practices within professional theatres in response to Black Lives Matter, Idle No More, and Stop Asian Hate, among other movements? How, if at all, is this affecting conversations in colleges, universities, and other training settings? How are playwrights, directors, and actors responding to the call for more diverse representation on Canadian stages? And how is the language around casting shifting? The authors gathered in this issue offer diverse, occasionally divergent answers to these questions, but are united in their call for sustainable, meaningful transformation.”

– Mariló Núñez, Jamie Robinson, and Marlis Schweitzer