Playwright Pulls Rights from Clarion University's JESUS IN INDIA Over Casting
By: Jessica Khan Nov. 12, 2015
According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Clarion University has been forced to cancel its production of JESUS IN INDIA after the playwright, Lloyd Suh (pictured, left), expressed his severe discomfort at white actors playing Indian characters in his work. "He felt they should be of Asian descent," Bob Levy, chairman of the visual and performing arts department at Clarion, told the paper.
Suh first asked that the parts be recast, but because he informed the school of his wishes just this Monday (the play was set to open next Wednesday), and due to the lack of Asian or Pacific Islander students on the university's small campus that were interested in joining the production, he ended up pulling the rights.
With a student body of about 5,368 students, only 0.6 percent of students are Asian and no Asians auditioned for the play. The University claims their intent from the start was to honor the integrity of the playwright's work, and the contract for performance rights did not specify ethnically appropriate casting. Despite the University's attempt to give Suh a page in the program to explain his casting objections and a stage speech given by a university representative on the cast's race, Suh rejected any solutions other than removing the non-Asian actors or canceling the production.
"We have no further desire to engage with Mr. Suh, the playwright, as he made his position on race to our theater students crystal clear," Dr. Karen Whitney, Clarion University President, said in a statement. "I personally prefer to invest my energy into explaining to the student actors, stage crew and production team members why the hundreds of hours they committed to bringing JESUS IN INDIA to our stage and community has been denied since they are the wrong skin color."
Rehearsals for the musical version of JESUS IN INDIA had begun early last month. When the students and crew found out the show had been cancelled, "they were stunned," according to theater professor and the play's director Marilouise 'Mel' Michel.
Three of the five characters in the play are Indian, but Clarion had cast two white actors and a mixed-race student of non-Asian descent in the roles.
Senior Kiah Harrington-Wymer, who was set to play a main character in the musical, spent months preparing for the role, which was to be her senior-year capstone project, and was devastated by the news. Harrington-Wymer is of mixed race and has experienced her fair share of discrimination and claims this hurts just as much as any other time.
Suh emailed the play's director on Monday regarding his decision. You can read the letter in full below:
Dear Ms. Michel,
I received your response to Beth Blickers' query concerning the casting in your production of my play JESUS IN INDIA at Clarion. As you well know by now, I have severe objections to your use of Caucasian actors in roles clearly written for South Asian actors, and consider this an absolutely unacceptable distortion of the play.
I consider your assertion that the ethnicity of the characters are not "specified for purposes of the plot/story/theme" outrageous. The play is called JESUS IN INDIA. India is not irrelevant, and I take great issue with the insinuation that you (not the author) are entitled to decide whether the ethnicity of a character is worthy of consideration.
Your citing of "color blind casting" as an excuse for selecting white actors to portray non-white characters is a gross misunderstanding of the practice, and denies the savage inequities that exist in the field at large for non-white performers, both in professional and educational settings.
I have received your further message detailing the poor statistics at Clarion in matters of racial diversity. I contend that by producing this play in this way, you are contributing to an environment of hostility towards people of color, and therefore perpetuating the lack of diversity at Clarion now and in the future.
You may argue that because you are a university and not a professional theater, that you should not be held to the same standards of cultural responsibility as the rest of society. I strongly believe otherwise, and maintain that professional training programs have a duty to prepare students for actual theater practice. That practice includes the rigorous cultural conversation present in the field at large; to excuse your students from that work is to woefully underprepare them for the realities of the profession.
Perhaps you are somehow unaware of the ongoing conversation on these issues that have been occurring in the American theater for decades. In order to provide an introductory context, I will direct you here:
http://howlround.com/search?f%5B0%5D=field_post_tags%3A441
You should know that what you are doing is connected to a very painful history of egregious misrepresentation and invisibility, and is incredibly hurtful. Hurtful to a community for whom opportunity and visibility is critical, and also extremely hurtful to me personally as a flippant denial of Asian heritage as a relevant and valid component of one's humanity.
It hurts me to my core. I couldn't stop myself from crying when I saw the photos and realized what was happening. It is embarrassing, humiliating, and demoralizing to be so casually disregarded.
I therefore insist that you immediately (1) recast the play with ethnically appropriate actors, or (2) shut down the production entirely.
It is incumbent upon me, professionally, personally and morally, to distance myself from this production, and condemn the way it has been cast. I hope you are able to adjust your plans accordingly so that I don't have to make any public declarations against it and pursue other further action in order to make this right.
Yours sincerely,
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