The casting of the upcoming production of In The Heights at Porchlight Music Theatre in Chicago, in particular the hiring of a non-Latinx actor for the leading role of Usnavi, has provoked a great deal of comment and controversy in that community and beyond. In response, on August 9, Victory Gardens Theatre hosted a public forum, organized by ALTA, the Association of Latinx Theatre Artists of Chicago, “The Color Game: whitewashing Latinx stories.” It drew a full house and an even larger online audience to explore the issues of race, ethnicity, authenticity and representation, provoked by the Porchlight casting and an earlier production of Evita in Chicago; reports from the Chicago Tribune and Chicago Reader on the forum expanded its reach yet further. The event had been preceded by multiple online essays on the subject, including posts by Trevor Boffone, Tommy Rivera-Vega and Jose T. Nateras, as well as two reports from Arts Integrity (here and here) as the situation unfolded, and a commentary by Arts Integrity director Howard Sherman, writing in his capacity as interim director of the Alliance for Inclusion in the Arts.
On Sunday evening, August 14, Victory Gardens artistic director Chay Yew shared, via Facebook, a post that was headed, “Just got this from Lin-Manuel and Quiara.” Readers have noted that it seems to be coming from a single voice, but Hudes’s preface addresses that:
I will be swamped returning from vacation and may not get a statement out, I wanted to forward you my email interview thread with Diep Tran for American Theater at the end of July when this happened. Lin stood behind my comments in this thread then, and I assume that still stands. Here are some of my most relevant comments, cut and pasted for continuity which I am comfortable with them being posted publicly, in the context of “excerpts from her interview with Diep Tran for American Theatre Magazine.”
For those seeking to clarify Miranda’s position, Arts Integrity was in touch with him following the publication of the American Theatre article; he had been on vacation when the controversy over Porchlight’s casting emerged. Responding to an offer to add his own thoughts, Miranda wrote, referencing Hudes’s comments in the the article, “I honestly can’t improve on her words. She speaks for us both.” Additionally, Yew reports that he had received an e-mail from Miranda backing the statement.
Hudes’s full statement, the excerpts from her American Theatre interview, as she provided it to Yew, is as follows:
I am not familiar with Porchlight but based on them being Equity, then I can only assume this is a professional theater company. Within the context of professional productions, casting the roles appropriately is of fundamental importance.
The fact is that creating true artistic diversity often takes hard work. Concerted, extra effort. It takes time and money. You cannot just put out a casting call and hope people come and then shrug if they don’t show up. You may need to add extra casting calls (I do this all the time), to go do outreach in communities you haven’t worked with before. You may need to reach out to the Latino theaters and artists and build partnerships to share resources and information. You may need to fly in actors from out of town if you’ve exhausted local avenues, and house them during the run. When faced with these expensive obstacles, an organization’s status quo sometimes wins because it’s cheaper and less trouble. The Latino community has the right to be disappointed and depressed that an opportunity like this was lost. It can be very disheartening, as an artist and as an audience member.
The sad fact is that even in New York, where we Latinos abound, the theater world often reflects a much more closed system. I’m talking onstage and off.
For decades, the vast majority of Latino roles were maids, gang bangers, etc etc. It’s demoralizing, obnoxious, and reductive of an entire people. It’s a lie about who we are, how complicated our dreams and individuality are.
Chicago has a historic Puerto Rican and Latino community. Its history as a hub of Latino migration is beautiful and robust. I’ve had the honor of working in Chicago numerous times and getting to know a deep pool of diverse talent there. Artists like Eddie Torres founded Latino theater companies to create opportunities where there were none. The Goodman houses a Latino theater festival frequently, and they did a beautiful job casting my play The Happiest Song Plays Last. DePaul recently hosted the Latino/a Theater Commons festival. Chicago is poised to be at the forefront of these issues!
I am proud to have written complex roles for actors of many ethnicities: Latino, African-American, White, Asian-American, Arab-American. I have stumbled at times. But I continue to commit to nuance and specificity as the core of the dramatic impulse, and the gateway to the human experience.
I have been in a lot of rooms where people give lip service to being committed to diversity. But that’s different than doing the hard work that it often involves.
I do not hold these views as strongly with educational and non-professional productions. I’m happy for schools and communities who do not have these actors on hand to use In the Heights as an educational experience for participants of all stripes.
I have had the pleasure of working with directors of many backgrounds on my work. Women and men, Latin@, Asian American, African American, bicultural, and white. I have purposely tried to work with the widest range of directors possible, aesthetically and culturally speaking, and this broad group of collaborators has enriched my vision as an artist.
I have chosen directors based on many considerations: aesthetics, artistic mission, their connection with a given script, their history of excellent casting and designer collaborations.
Rather than demand a particular background for a director of my work, I try to encourage Artistic Directors and producers to consider hiring woman directors and culturally diverse directors THROUGHOUT their season–not just for the “Latino” play or “women’s” play. Directors of color should be hired to do EVERYTHING. They should be directing Shakespeare and Moliere and Ibsen and Cruz. Not just Cruz.
What part of the Latinx population make up the theatre-going audience in Chicago? What part of the Latinx population make up theatre-going audience to Latinx plays? Are shows like “In The Heights” popular with Latinx ticket buyers? I’m asking these questions because I really don’t know. And while we’re at it, how many Latinx actors go through theatre training? Is it a lot? It seems strange to me that you should be commenting on how somebody runs their own business. Because that’s what it is. It is a B-U-S-I-N-E-S-S. If you want to raise money and build a theatre company and an audience-base, then go for it, by all means. But let a man run his own business. He’s not hurting you.
“I’m asking these questions because I really don’t know.”
No, you’re asking these questions because you have an agenda and a point you want to prove. Don’t play coy with your motivations and act as though you’re simply asking genuine questions — that tactic is transparent and weaselly when you go on to answer your own questions a sentence or two later. You are implying there is no Latinx audience nor a large enough pool of Latinx actors to draw from, so no B-U-S-I-N-E-S-S owner should be expected put money into appealing to such a limited audience. What’s more, you seem to think any decisions a business makes is beyond criticism, so long as they’re not hurting anyone.
Your views are very short-sighted, as if casting a Latinx actor in a Latinx role only matters if there is a large enough Latinx audience. White actors abound in theatre. White kids abound in drama clubs and acting classes. I know, because I was one of them. Theatre isn’t something lots of kids of color consider — as a white person, I couldn’t begin to explain why that is, and to try would be beyond presumptuous. But as a white theatre goer, seeing actors of color up on stage is enlightening and so, so meaningful to me. Exposing ALL audience members, no matter what color or background, to the idea that not every theatre actor is white — it has meaning. It’s representation, it creates an AHA! moment for people who perhaps never considered that there may be great Latinx musical actors, brilliant black dramatic actors, superb Asian dancers. The more representation, the less it becomes a revelation and the more it becomes just an everyday thing that the audience no longer notices. And hopefully, the more everyday it becomes, the more minority kids decide to join the school drama club and make their dream of being on Broadway come true.
So a theatre casting a white actor in a Latinx role, in a Latinx play written by Latinx creators is regressive and a total misstep. Talented Latinx actors are not unicorns, and if a theatre wants to do a show that is all about the Latinx experience, they should be prepared to put in the work to fill the roles appropriately. Honestly, I think Porchlight is just making a crass cash-grab by putting on a show created by the hottest talent in theatre right now, coinciding with the opening of THE hottest show in years. They’re riding Lin Manuel Miranda’s wave, but not respecting what he and his partners have been working years to create — interest in Latinx stories, opportunities for minorities to shine on stage, an effort at reaching across the color lines to bring everyone into the theatre, including the stereotypical theatre-going white audience. In Miranda’s world, EVERYONE is invited to play, and the more the merrier. In other words, he is doing the very thing you arrogantly suggest Hudes should do. She and people like Miranda ARE creating their own opportunities with their own works, their own money, their own personal risks.
And now we come to the silliest argument you seem to be making — that theatres shouldn’t have to risk money on doing more outreach for minority actors, because there might not be an audience for actors with diverse backgrounds. May I introduce you to a little show Miranda created called HAMILTON? I think it might just do OK!
Your reasoning that theatres should be immune to criticism for making what you deem market-driven decisions in casting is ridiculous in this post-HAMILTON world. HAMILTON proves audiences will not only accept diversity on stage, but embrace it, celebrate it, and, in what seems to be your most important point: PAY FOR IT.
What part of the Latinx population make up the theatre-going audience in Chicago? What part of the Latinx population make up theatre-going audience to Latinx plays? Are shows like “In The Heights” popular with Latinx ticket buyers? I’m asking these questions because I really don’t know. And while we’re at it, how many Latinx actors go through theatre training? Is it a lot? It seems strange to me that you should be commenting on how somebody runs their own business. Because that’s what it is. It is a B-U-S-I-N-E-S-S. If you want to raise money and build a theatre company and an audience-base, then go for it, by all means. But let a man run his own business. He’s not hurting you.
“I’m asking these questions because I really don’t know.”
No, you’re asking these questions because you have an agenda and a point you want to prove. Don’t play coy with your motivations and act as though you’re simply asking genuine questions — that tactic is transparent and weaselly when you go on to answer your own questions a sentence or two later. You are implying there is no Latinx audience nor a large enough pool of Latinx actors to draw from, so no B-U-S-I-N-E-S-S owner should be expected put money into appealing to such a limited audience. What’s more, you seem to think any decisions a business makes is beyond criticism, so long as they’re not hurting anyone.
Your views are very short-sighted, as if casting a Latinx actor in a Latinx role only matters if there is a large enough Latinx audience. White actors abound in theatre. White kids abound in drama clubs and acting classes. I know, because I was one of them. Theatre isn’t something lots of kids of color consider — as a white person, I couldn’t begin to explain why that is, and to try would be beyond presumptuous. But as a white theatre goer, seeing actors of color up on stage is enlightening and so, so meaningful to me. Exposing ALL audience members, no matter what color or background, to the idea that not every theatre actor is white — it has meaning. It’s representation, it creates an AHA! moment for people who perhaps never considered that there may be great Latinx musical actors, brilliant black dramatic actors, superb Asian dancers. The more representation, the less it becomes a revelation and the more it becomes just an everyday thing that the audience no longer notices. And hopefully, the more everyday it becomes, the more minority kids decide to join the school drama club and make their dream of being on Broadway come true.
So a theatre casting a white actor in a Latinx role, in a Latinx play written by Latinx creators is regressive and a total misstep. Talented Latinx actors are not unicorns, and if a theatre wants to do a show that is all about the Latinx experience, they should be prepared to put in the work to fill the roles appropriately. Honestly, I think Porchlight is just making a crass cash-grab by putting on a show created by the hottest talent in theatre right now, coinciding with the opening of THE hottest show in years. They’re riding Lin Manuel Miranda’s wave, but not respecting what he and his partners have been working years to create — interest in Latinx stories, opportunities for minorities to shine on stage, an effort at reaching across the color lines to bring everyone into the theatre, including the stereotypical theatre-going white audience. In Miranda’s world, EVERYONE is invited to play, and the more the merrier. In other words, he is doing the very thing you arrogantly suggest Hudes should do. She and people like Miranda ARE creating their own opportunities with their own works, their own money, their own personal risks.
And now we come to the silliest argument you seem to be making — that theatres shouldn’t have to risk money on doing more outreach for minority actors, because there might not be an audience for actors with diverse backgrounds. May I introduce you to a little show Miranda created called HAMILTON? I think it might just do OK!
Your reasoning that theatres should be immune to criticism for making what you deem market-driven decisions in casting is ridiculous in this post-HAMILTON world. HAMILTON proves audiences will not only accept diversity on stage, but embrace it, celebrate it, and, in what seems to be your most important point: PAY FOR IT.