I appreciate where you're coming from, but having an optional, non-speaking (or minimally speaking) Native actor would only make things worse.
There's also, unfortunately, a fallacy in your argument, in that there are plenty of Native actors who can play Native characters in theater. FastHorse didn't write an all-White play because she was concerned about theaters not being able to cast her work, she wrote an all-White play because White theaters are unwilling to tell Native stories, but they will happily produce plays that make fun of White people while bemoaning the loss of Native culture and giving a stage to a Native writer (to me, this is the real virtue signalling). If New York theaters genuinely wanted to tell Native stories, we would have seen an NYC production of "Between Two Trees" by now.
I actually thought we would have seen one by now, The Public, The Vineyard, LCtT 3, even a company like Play Co. - any of them would be the right home for that play in terms of aesthetics and political mission, but The 1492s makes some very difficult-to-digest points about the treatment of Native people by White culture, which I guess none of these non-profits are willing to take a risk on. |
