There is a shortage in excellent opportunities for ethnic minority and disabled actors, so let’s stop talking about change and give quotas a try, says Lyn Gardner.
We know that we have very little diversity in theatre and that things are very slow to change. At the Act for Change meeting at the National Theatre in London last week, Adrian Lester called the lack of diversity “embarrassing”, suggesting that if the industry won’t change of its own accord to genuinely reflect the cultural diversity of the UK, then it must be publicly shamed into doing so.
That means talking loudly about those directors who won’t cast black or Asian actors in Chekhov, the casting directors who “don’t know” any disabled actors, and the artistic director who differentiates between directors and “black directors”. Oh, and if as some claim, it’s just too difficult to make change because of the repertoire and all those classic plays, what about doing what Cush Jumbo suggests, and simply putting on some different plays telling different stories from the ones that dominate our stages?
Or what about introducing quotas? After discovering that only 35% of the plays it has produced in the last seven years were written by women...Keep reading on The Guardian
We know that we have very little diversity in theatre and that things are very slow to change. At the Act for Change meeting at the National Theatre in London last week, Adrian Lester called the lack of diversity “embarrassing”, suggesting that if the industry won’t change of its own accord to genuinely reflect the cultural diversity of the UK, then it must be publicly shamed into doing so.
That means talking loudly about those directors who won’t cast black or Asian actors in Chekhov, the casting directors who “don’t know” any disabled actors, and the artistic director who differentiates between directors and “black directors”. Oh, and if as some claim, it’s just too difficult to make change because of the repertoire and all those classic plays, what about doing what Cush Jumbo suggests, and simply putting on some different plays telling different stories from the ones that dominate our stages?
Or what about introducing quotas? After discovering that only 35% of the plays it has produced in the last seven years were written by women...Keep reading on The Guardian