Laura

In the Spotlight

A Message from the Curtain Players Board of Trustees

    Our production of  The Secret Garden has prompted a needed conversation, both in our board and also in the Greater Columbus theatre community.  First and foremost, Curtain Players is a volunteer run community theatre where everyone is welcome, wanted, loved, and celebrated. We embrace and practice multicultural casting whenever possible and take pride in showcasing stories created and performed by a variety of voices. This is the goal of Curtain Players, and we hope this is evident in our choice of material and dedication to the craft.  We align with the desire to have a community that promotes diversity in shows to further our connections as human beings.

    One of the primary reasons the musical version of The Secret Garden was chosen is to highlight how exposure to different cultures can influence and change our lives for the better. Being exposed to different ways of thinking and living, to be lucky enough to have your eyes opened by someone else’s lived experience, we believe, is the only way to fully explore who you are as a person and what it means to be fully human. It was the intention of the artistic team to cast the 2 Asian-Indian roles with Asian-Indian actors to cement that influence in the production.

    During the pre-production process, in accordance with our guidelines and values, we promoted the auditions to as many outlets as we are aware of. We were fortunate to have an Asian-Indian volunteer spread the word about auditions within their community. We also have our audition notices accepted on the “Check out local Black and Brown Theatre in Ohio” site.  As Curtain Players has an array of actors of varying ethnicities audition regularly, and with these 2 marketing tools, we had every reason to believe we would cast those roles appropriately. This outreach led to one talented ethnically appropriate actor auditioning. They were offered a role. On further clarification of the rehearsal dates and their schedule, the actor would completely miss the first 5 weeks of rehearsal. They did not accept the role. As we were still missing men to fill roles we put out the request for more actors, but to our regular sources… Could more have been done to try to reach the Asian Indian community at that time? Absolutely.  If we had known other ethnically appropriate resources, we would have gone to them.  In a changing landscape of what is acceptable, we ask ourselves: Do we call actors we know, that are South East  Asian? Why didn’t they audition in the first place?  Would it offend them to ask they play an Indian Asian character?  In hindsight, we don’t know that we would have answered that differently.  In an effort to respect them and their culture, we did not make calls to them.  The decision was not made lightly, nor meant to offend any of the talented actors of color in our community. A third request to our Facebook community could have been worded differently to ask for possible actors. The artistic team felt they were out of resources at the time and cast from the 53 talented actors that auditioned or came forward at the second request. The actors who portrayed those roles did so with the utmost respect for the culture they were asked to represent. It is a deep and sincere apology if this casting felt we were trying to show an appropriation of culture.

    Issues such as this are not easy to resolve. But we learn from this experience and improve. We want to ensure we wholeheartedly increase our  effort  to continue diverse participation in Curtain Players. In just the last few days, direct conversation with individual fellow artists has given us new resources for future shows. We welcome any suggestions on ways and sites to ensure we live up to our standards and to consistently improve in a rapidly evolving and changing criteria.

 The board is working to establish new guardrails, including updating our Director guidelines to require the full board be notified as soon as possible if roles that call for BIPOC cannot be accomplished at scheduled auditions. We also want to continue relationships with other producing organizations and related groups that are willing to do the work of helping each other cast appropriately.

    Each member of the board is dedicated to continuing our path to be an inclusive and welcoming organization for all.

    What we can promise, is that we will continue to promote the desire for diversity in shows we choose to perform that further our connections as human beings.

We will continue to cast an actor in a role because they are the best actor for that part, even if that role hasn't traditionally been portrayed with diversity in mind.

    With our sincerest Thanks to all the artists that have honored us with your talent over our 62 year history,

We submit this as a commitment to the furtherment of an inclusive theatre community.

Curtain Players Board of Trustees