Talk:Colour-blind casting

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Theatre Portal
This article is part of WikiProject Theatre, a WikiProject dedicated to coverage of theatre on Wikipedia.
To participate: Feel free to edit the article attached to this page, join up at the project page, or contribute to the project discussion.
??? This article has not yet received a rating on the quality scale.
??? This article has not yet received a rating on the importance scale.

Would not the reciprocal, a white actor playing a traditionally black part, come under this definition? Are there any examples of this occuring? LukeSurl t c 19:56, 23 April 2007 (UTC)

see my addition on this point Neddyseagoon - talk 08:37, 24 April 2007 (UTC)
I'm not convinced by that example. Casting all the white characters with black actors and the black character with a white actor isn't colour-blind, because the colour still matters; I'd call it inverted casting, or role-reversal casting, or something. --Paul A 08:36, 29 May 2007 (UTC)
True, but it's the closest parallel I could think of. Black actors playing traditionally white parts is more common in the period 1970-present than vice versa, and before that "white actors playing traditionally black roles" didn't occur since there were (relatively) so few black actors.Neddyseagoon - talk 10:10, 29 May 2007 (UTC)
The most famous incident I can think of is when Laurence Olivier "blacked up" as the role of Othello.theolimeister (talk) 18:13, 22 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Some other possibilities for discussion

I was the person who requested this article, thanks for starting it! There are several additional things that I think it might be interesting to address, if references are available. Just off the top of my head:

  • The mix in theatre, musicals, television and film. My understanding is that it's most common in theatre and very rare in film, but that might be wrong.
  • The prevalence in different countries. The sources I've seen suggest it was pioneered in the UK, with companies such as the RSC, but I don't have a perspective on other countries.
  • More precision on 'historical' -- several sources suggest that more recent historical figures eg Queen Victoria or Churchill would not be as easily accepted as distant historical/Shakespearean figures.
  • The difference between roles explicitly known to be white eg English kings, and roles with a strong presumption of white race, but which isn't explicitly stated in the text eg Hamlet.
  • Recent criticisms on race grounds eg see http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/20/AR2005052001944.html & http://www.cre.gov.uk/Default.aspx.LocID-0hgnew0bh.RefLocID-0hg01b00100600g003.Lang-EN.htm
  • Other potential criticisms, such as difficulties in understanding family relationships (eg a white child of a black parent might raise confusing suspicions of illegitimacy in the audience).
  • The use of colour-blind casting as a defence of an all-white cast in situations where the people portrayed would tend to be an ethnic mix, eg criticism of The Class: http://blog.washingtonpost.com/tvblog/2006/07/colorblind_casting.html

Espresso Addict 01:07, 30 June 2007 (UTC)