Casting youth/Developing identity: Casting and racial and ethnic identity development

ABSTRACT

This essay explores how casting in youth-based applied theatre coincides with an important period of racial and ethnic identity development for adolescents and young adults. Using theory from developmental and educational psychology, the essay suggests that youth experience a spectrum of readiness to explore their racial and/or ethnic identity, and consequent representation, in performance. To ground this suggestion, the authors trace their experience casting, and being cast in, a multiethnic production of Rhinoceros. To conclude, the authors propose several ways directors can signpost casting goals to support youth in positive racial and ethnic identity development.

Notes

¹ This is sometimes called color-conscious casting. However, I prefer to identify it as a “Welcome Table” approach to casting, following the work of Daniel Banks (2013), which I will discuss further in the second half of the article. For an overview of color-conscious casting, see Harvey Young’s Theatre & Race (2013). For a comprehensive study of multiracial casting practices in US professional theatre, see Angela Pao’s No Safe Spaces: Re-casting Race, Ethnicity, and Nationality in American Theater (2010).

² This case study is the result of an open-format rehearsal process in which participants constructed varying forms of knowledge over five weeks of semi-public rehearsals. The open process was orally communicated to the cast and it was understood that rehearsal work was not a private endeavor, but rather a resource for group and individual learning.

³ Here, Prendergast and Saxton use Richard Schechner’s term “integral audience,” which he theorizes in Performance Theory (2003, 220).

⁴ I use the term “politically conscious productions” not to invoke a partisan agenda. Rather, I am interested in creating theatre that responds to broader social realities, which is a goal of applied theatre practice.

⁵ For a comprehensive account of race and racism in the US, see Michael Omi’s and Howard Winant’s, Racial Formation in the United States (2015).

⁶ For an overview of the many ways performance intersects with race and racism, see Harvey Young’s Theatre & Race (2013). An additional key text to consult is Harry J. Elam, Jr., and David Krasner’s African American Performance and Theatre History: A Critical Reader (2001).

⁷ In so doing, I do not mean to minimize additional domains, which shape identity formation among youth; nor do I mean to negate intersectional approaches to identity. Rather, my focus on race and ethnicity from Tatum’s developmental approach is intentional, as it allows me to think about casting in relationship to a range of biological and social changes youth experience.

⁸ Fordham theorizes the concept of “racelessness” in her oft-cited article “Racelessness as a Factor in black Students’ School Success: Pragmatic Strategy or Pyrrhic Victory?” (1988). This concept has overlap with a similar strategy, “Acting white,” which Fordham and her colleague John U. Ogbu examine in their landmark study, “black Students’ School Success: Coping with the Burden of ‘Acting white’” (1986).

⁹ I do not mean to convey college as a totally harmonious experience. Predominantly white universities can exacerbate the need for people of color to come together, due to new encounters with racism on campus.

¹⁰ It is important to note that my directorial approach employs key applied theatre practices, such as the creation of performance “with an overt political intent,” directing as facilitation of “a collective approach,” and an emphasis on the “audience as an important and active participant in the creation of understanding” (Prendergast and Saxton 2016, 11).

¹¹ The designers for the production included: Zachary Beattie-Brown (sound), Johnmichael Bohach (props), Gianni Downs (scenery), Annmarie Duggan and Jessie Smith (lighting), Minjee Kasckow (costumes), Jessie Smith (projections), and Venise St. Pierre (masks). Photography by Vince Noe.

¹² In addition to ethnicity, Banks (2013) foregrounds gender and ability as important factors to consider when casting from a “Welcome Table” approach.

¹³ Because this scene includes a number of characters and overlapping conversations, this excerpt is edited to highlight the conversation taking place between Jean, Bérenger, and the Waitress.