Color-blind casting

==The Non-Traditional Casting Project==

The Non-Traditional Casting Project was founded in 1986 to examine problems of racial discrimination in theatre, film and television. The Actors' Equity Association is a co-founder. ==Debate and "color-consciousness"==

In the theatre community, there is significant debate over the concept of color-blind casting vs "color-conscious casting". In 1996, Pulitzer-winning playwright August Wilson, who is black, used his Princeton University address on black culture in the United States "The Ground on Which I Stand" to attack the notion of color-blind casting. In 2017, Associate Editor of American Theatre magazine Diep Tran declared "color-conscious" to be a preferable term. "Color-conscious means we're aware of the historic discrimination in the entertainment industry ... and we're also aware of what it means to put a body of color onstage.". The idea promotes intentionality and race-conscious affirmative action to avoid racially homogeneous casts, and has been supported widely across the theatre community. In 2018, the Harvard Journal of Sports & Entertainment Law published the article "There's No Business Like Show Business: Abandoning Color-Blind Casting and Embracing Color-Conscious Casting in American Theatre". The article discussed the implications for US employment law and mooted that color-blind casting has not produced its intended result. "Race is still a determining factor in American society, and it is counterintuitive to argue that problems related to race can be fixed by ignoring race altogether". The Broad Online calls a color-blind casting "a superficial solution to a deeper problem." Popular shows that employ color-conscious casting include: Hamilton: An American Musical, the BBC's Les Misérables, and the film Mary Queen of Scots (in which the black actor Adrian Lester plays a 16th-century ambassador). In 2017, director Michael Streeter made a color-conscious casting decision for his production of ''Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?'', believing "the decision would add depth to the play". Historians Zareer Masani and David Abulafia criticized the BBC's use of color-blind casting for the King & Conqueror series, which features a racially diverse cast, including black actors playing roles such as the Mercian nobleman Morcar. ==See also==