School auditions with color requirements

[Anonymous]

If your school has roles ( not specific historical figures like George Washington ) that have color requirements, how would you feel? This is for a school play btw and the role calls for white students when it can easily be color agnostic. DS who is highly talented is disappointed. We are brown, if you didn’t guess that already.

[Anonymous]

For real? I’ve never seen a “color requirement” on a school try-out in my life. Is this in the DC area?

[Anonymous]

Like what? Example pls???

[Anonymous]

Wow!

[Anonymous]

Nope. I'm surprised any school would even try to stage such a thing in this day and age.

[Anonymous]

That’s seriously messed up.

[Anonymous]

Thoughts from a local theater teacher:

1) yes, some authors and licensing houses require certain roles to be played by certain races. Mamet and Stoppard are known for shutting down productions.

AND

2) in educational theater it is unacceptable to chose one of these shows.


If you want to confirm that your show falls under this category (as opposed to having a director with a racist vision) you can reach out to the shows licensing agency (Google show title and rights, should get you there) to confirm. This may be good info to have before going to administration.

If you tell me the licensing agency I can possibly direct you to an email address or personal contact. I assume you don’t want to name the show for privacy reasons.

[Anonymous]

Uh, what even is “color” these days? Are they also eliminating biracial kids? Hispanic? Asian?

If your child wants to audition for the role, this is definitely a place to encourage them to press the issue, with your full support. There are plenty of Broadway and Shakespearean examples that would provide support for the argument.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Uh, what even is “color” these days? Are they also eliminating biracial kids? Hispanic? Asian?

If your child wants to audition for the role, this is definitely a place to encourage them to press the issue, with your full support. There are plenty of Broadway and Shakespearean examples that would provide support for the argument.

Yeah…one more thing that strikes me as “off” about this story.

[Anonymous]

That has to be a price school - if it’s public, a single complaint to the county/city civil rights office and you have a fired faculty sponsor, a principal resigning and a ton of backpedaling

[Anonymous]

OP here. It’s a diverse Public school in Texas. It is clearly mentioned in the audition notes that the role calls for a white person. Again not a historic character. I can’t wrap my head around, why they would explicitly mention that.

[Anonymous]

umm it worked pretty well (with other color requirements) for Lin Manuel Mirnda??

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. It’s a diverse Public school in Texas. It is clearly mentioned in the audition notes that the role calls for a white person. Again not a historic character. I can’t wrap my head around, why they would explicitly mention that.

Have you talked to the school? That’s crazy.

[Anonymous]

Can you share what role?

[Anonymous]

Is it a show about racial issues that also calls for other parts that are for other racial groups? Something about this story makes no sense.