Color Blind Casting

Do I have your attention yet?

No, actually the practice of placing an actor of a given ethnic background into a part not normally associated with that background , (eg Dustin Hoffman IS Muhammad Ali) isn't the flashpoint it once was. It's fairly common practice in a city with theater landscape as culturally diverse as L.A.

So here's from the press release announcing East West Players production of Terrence McNally's "Master Class" to open Feb. 7 at the David Henry Hwang Theatre in Little Tokyo. (Info: (213) 625-7000 or visit www.eastwestplayers.org.)

"East West Players’ production of 'Master Class' will break down the casting barrier with an all Asian American cast, featuring Jeanne Sakata as Maria Callas with Randy Guiaya, Linda Igarashi, Tess Linda, Marc Macalintal, Maegan McConnell, Timothy Ford Murphy, Alden Ray, and Isabella Way."

A bit of background for those who don't know the play. "Master Class" dramatizes an aged and no longer vocally thunderous Callas teaching a master class, and bullying the stuffing out of the poor sods stuck under her tutelage while also reminiscing about her own life. It's a play that folks around these parts remember largely because of the performance of Zoe Caldwell who originated the role and played it at the Mark Taper Forum and later on Broadway (where she won a Tony award).

I did not happen to catch Miss Caldwell because at the time (we're talking 1995), I was a theater goer rather than a theater critic, which meant I had to pay for tickets. And, as I remember, I could not buy a ticket to the Taper production because there were no seats to be sold. As in sold out, forget it, see ya next summer. So a year or so later, when a "Master Class" tour rolled through town, I ended up seeing Faye Dunaway in the part.

But I digress.

Whatever else she was, Maria Callas was not, to the best of my knowledge, Asian American. That fact, of course, makes no difference to director Jules Aaron or the company. Color blind casting is what East West Players _ among the premiere Asian American companies in the nation _ does. The same would probably happen if the company elected to produce "A Raisin in the Sun" or "Zoot Suit." (Don't hold your breath).

My question, then, is not whether EWP should be staging this show, but whether Aaron plans to in any way acknowledge the production's cultural overlay. I'll also be wondering what yet another actor _ any actor _ can make of an Everest role like Ms. Callas.

Guess I'll have to wait 'til February to find out.