According to the article, the production was canceled because the director only wanted men to audition for the play (which traditionally only has male characters), and the university in charge of the venue said this went against the university's inclusivity policy. Beckett and his estate have taken legal action against productions that have cast women, which is why the director would not budge. But even if that were not true, this seems to be a weird stance for a university. You could make the argument that Godot's characters could be of any gender, but the article makes it sound like every casting call has to allow everyone to audition for every part, no matter what the role. The venue programmer and university press officer make it sound like if they were doing Romeo and Juliet, for example, they would have to allow a ninety-year-old man to audition for the role of Juliet, which seems a waste of the ninety-year-old man's time because he's never going to get that part.
Someone please correct me if I am wrong, but I am under the impression that many non-discrimination laws have a specific carve-out for actors. It's not age discrimination not to cast a ninety-year old as Juliet IMO. |
