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| re: I'm tired of 'token' minority performers in the ensembles of Broadway musicals. | |
| Posted by: huskyital (huskyital@yahoo.com) 05:32 pm EDT 10/25/17 | |
| In reply to: re: I'm tired of 'token' minority performers in the ensembles of Broadway musicals. - dlevy 12:37 pm EDT 10/25/17 | |
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| What I think people in the theater should be more concerned about is a theater audience that is almost totally devoid of minority theatergoers. You can go to a Broadway show and see virtually a sea of white. What is the black and Hispanic community doing about fostering a love of theater in their children? Often there are more minority people on the stage than in the audience. This is something that is much more serious than the token number of minority actors on the stage. | |
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| re: I'm tired of 'token' minority performers in the ensembles of Broadway musicals. | |
| Posted by: RelaxnNYC 11:20 am EDT 10/26/17 | |
| In reply to: re: I'm tired of 'token' minority performers in the ensembles of Broadway musicals. - huskyital 05:32 pm EDT 10/25/17 | |
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| I rarely post - mainly a lurker, but I'd like to respond to this. I don't mean to sound harsh, but you're obviously not a POC (and I apologize if you are, you may have grown up in a similar situation as I). I'm a non-black POC. I was lucky. One parent was a classical musician (the other a scientist) and had the means and inclination to take us to the theatre, opera, and orchestra. My (mostly white) HS had a very active and popular theatre program - the football team would regularly participate in the ensemble of the shows "for fun." But this isn't the case for most POC. If the parents don't have a love of theater, why the heck would they foster it in their children (I'm talking about any color parent here LOL)? If you want more diverse audiences, you have to find a way to get them to the theatre, have them fall in love with it, and then have them foster that love in their children. The correlation I'd make is with sports. My parents did not follow sports at all. They made us participate in team sport to be "well-rounded." That was it. We didn't sit around the TV together and watch it. They didn't take us to games. We didn't have favorite teams and we didn't discuss it. Thus, I was not instilled with a love of sports. I grew to enjoy it through friends, conversation, and wanting to be able to join in on the "water cooler" chat. We are lucky to now have HAMILTON making theatre a national topic of interest. Everyone in my office knows what HAMILTON is even if they don't go to the theatre. Everyone wants to see it and everyone has an opinion on it. We need build on this momentum in order to grow minority audiences who will in turn foster an interest in their children. Incidentally, according to the last census, 50.2 percent of children under 5 are minorities (link below for reference). In 15 years there will be a "minority-majority" in America yet the stories we are telling and the stages don't reflect that. We need to start telling more diverse stories and the audiences will come. That, combined with more affordable ticketing and marketing to minority groups. It's kind of a chicken/egg thing as well. If you have more diverse offerings, you'll naturally attract more diverse audiences. If you cultivate more diverse audiences, you'll be able sustain and produce more diverse offerings. It's a two way street. |
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| Link | Minority-Majority |
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| re: I'm tired of 'token' minority performers in the ensembles of Broadway musicals. | |
| Posted by: Singapore/Fling 12:07 pm EDT 10/26/17 | |
| In reply to: re: I'm tired of 'token' minority performers in the ensembles of Broadway musicals. - RelaxnNYC 11:20 am EDT 10/26/17 | |
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| snap snap snap I also would toss out that ticket prices are another barrier. When I go to see a show at Signature on a night when all the seats are $30, I see a much more diverse audience than I see at higher priced theater... especially when the casting on stage is truly diverse, and even more so when the play is written by a POC. "Effin' A" was one of the most diverse audiences I've sat in in a long time. |
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| re: I'm tired of 'token' minority performers in the ensembles of Broadway musicals. | |
| Posted by: whereismikeyfl 08:11 am EDT 10/26/17 | |
| In reply to: re: I'm tired of 'token' minority performers in the ensembles of Broadway musicals. - huskyital 05:32 pm EDT 10/25/17 | |
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| "What I think people in the theater should be more concerned about is a theater audience that is almost totally devoid of minority theatergoers. " This is the best reason there is to feature more minority actors on our stages. |
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| re: I'm tired of 'token' minority performers in the ensembles of Broadway musicals. | |
| Posted by: Singapore/Fling 06:23 pm EDT 10/25/17 | |
| In reply to: re: I'm tired of 'token' minority performers in the ensembles of Broadway musicals. - huskyital 05:32 pm EDT 10/25/17 | |
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| "What is the black and Hispanic community doing about fostering a love of theater in their children?" What is the white theater community doing to create shows that appeal to these communities and then ensuring that these communities are invited and can afford tickets? What is the white theater going audience doing to support shows by and about black amd brown people that don't speak to or from the white experience? I recently worked on a show by and for black theater goers that was warmly received and brought in the black audience, but it was the hardest work the theater had done to get people to come, and most of the white people on staff didn't have the first clue how to do it. And, because the show wasn't about white people and yet was reviewed by mostly middle-aged white people, the reviews by and large didn't understand the show, which left the theater at a loss for how to market to their white base audience. We need more black and brown stories, more black and brown people on staff at major theaters, and more black and brown culture writers. We need theaters that are comfortable having black and brown people sitting in their theater, and we need white people who are comfortable sharing a space with black and brown audiences (which means no shushing or policing reactions). There is hard work to be done to diversify our theater, and it starts with us. |
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| Well said, Singapore/Fling (n/m) | |
| Posted by: dreambaby 06:38 pm EDT 10/26/17 | |
| In reply to: re: I'm tired of 'token' minority performers in the ensembles of Broadway musicals. - Singapore/Fling 06:23 pm EDT 10/25/17 | |
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| n/m | |
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| re: I'm tired of 'token' minority performers in the ensembles of Broadway musicals. | |
| Posted by: teka21 08:59 pm EDT 10/25/17 | |
| In reply to: re: I'm tired of 'token' minority performers in the ensembles of Broadway musicals. - Singapore/Fling 06:23 pm EDT 10/25/17 | |
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| BRAVO! Yes, Singapore/Fling it starts with us. Thank you for the comprehensive assessment of the work to be done. | |
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| re: I'm tired of 'token' minority performers in the ensembles of Broadway musicals. | |
| Posted by: WaymanWong 08:13 pm EDT 10/25/17 | |
| In reply to: re: I'm tired of 'token' minority performers in the ensembles of Broadway musicals. - Singapore/Fling 06:23 pm EDT 10/25/17 | |
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| Thanks, Singapore/Fling. I couldn't agree more. There is much hard work that needs to be done in ALL areas, and on both sides of the footlights. | |
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| ^^^ THIS. (nm) | |
| Posted by: GrumpyMorningBoy 07:01 pm EDT 10/25/17 | |
| In reply to: re: I'm tired of 'token' minority performers in the ensembles of Broadway musicals. - Singapore/Fling 06:23 pm EDT 10/25/17 | |
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| nm means no mangoes | |
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| re: ^^^ THIS. (nm) | |
| Posted by: jeffef 05:07 pm EDT 10/26/17 | |
| In reply to: ^^^ THIS. (nm) - GrumpyMorningBoy 07:01 pm EDT 10/25/17 | |
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| What does ^^^ THIS mean? | |
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| re: ^^^ THIS. (nm) | |
| Posted by: KingSpeed 06:09 pm EDT 10/26/17 | |
| In reply to: re: ^^^ THIS. (nm) - jeffef 05:07 pm EDT 10/26/17 | |
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| It's an Internet saying for "this is what I think too." | |
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