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Post by Deleted on Aug 21, 2017 11:36:50 GMT
Bring back the all female ensemble from time to time. Commission all female new writing. Disagree. I want to go to theatres that reflect the fact that women are half of the human race and part of the world, not those that put them in an all-female ghetto. Gender blind casting works absolutely fine in every situation I've seen it, and for me it actually works better when they just take an approach of people playing people rather than trying to feminise or masculise (is that a word) a role traditionally played by the opposite gender. Of course everyone's different but I think the battle against gender and race blind casting has largely been lost and I'm delighted by that.
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Post by oxfordsimon on Aug 21, 2017 12:54:39 GMT
Going to see a Shakespeare history play and expecting to reflect the world as it now is seems counterintuitive to me.
Those plays reflected the power structures and society of the time of writing as well as those being written about. We cannot wish away the truth that those times permitted little or no power to women of those below a certain social class.
You can absolutely use the texts as a springboard to explore the contrasts between then and now. But changing characters from male to female does have an impact on the structures and the relationships within the play. This does not mean it can't be done or it shouldn't be done. But it must be done with care.
If you are casting a female actor to play a male role as a man then that again needs to be handled with care.
With the Peake Hamlet, I found it poorly presented - at least in the broadcast version. There audiences weren't made aware of the idea that Peake was playing Hamlet as a trans character. Without that key bit of information, I was left very confused as to why someone who was presenting as a female was being addressed as a male. With the Polonia in that same production, it was much clearer as the text and presentation were brought into line with one another. As a result, I will found it very difficult to engage with the interpretation and thus the production as a whole.
Anything is possible with care and thought. And that is all I am asking for.
I think the earlier Globe experiments with all female ensembles (to balance the all male ensemble productions) are something that can be brought back. The success of the Donmar productions show that this approach is very viable in the right hands.
And encouraging new writing that gives the majority of the roles to women is surely a step towards redressing the imbalance that has existed throughout the Western drama. With strong new plays, female experience can be more fully explored and future generations can gifted a broader range of texts to explore.
A balanced approach is surely the best one.
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Post by Jan on Aug 21, 2017 13:13:58 GMT
"Across the season, the body of work will have equal amounts for male, female, it will be gender blind ......".
Imposing a 50/50 split is the exact opposite of gender blind casting - it is making gender a primary basis for casting. Gender blind means casting whoever is best for each part irrespective of gender. In the same way the current RSC Hamlet does not feature race-blind casting, it features casting based on race, white actors were not considered at all for the main roles. Not saying what she's doing is wrong but let's be clear it is a quota-based system based on gender.
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Post by zahidf on Aug 21, 2017 14:19:44 GMT
There is a gender/race imbalance in theatre ( as in society as a whole when it comes to employment/organisations). Some organisation may not quite get it right, but I think they should at least try to address it
I find it hard to get too upset if Hamlet is played by a woman e.t.c. If it doesn't work, then it doesn't work, and i'll watch the next one which will be along in 3 months. Might as well have a go at something different
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Post by oxfordsimon on Aug 21, 2017 14:25:08 GMT
There is a gender/race imbalance in theatre ( as in society as a whole when it comes to employment/organisations). Some organisation may not quite get it right, but I think they should at least try to address it I find it hard to get too upset if Hamlet is played by a woman e.t.c. If it doesn't work, then it doesn't work, and i'll watch the next one which will be along in 3 months. Might as well have a go at something different Do something different only if you have something to say, a point to make, a new interpretation. Doing something different for the sake of being different is not good theatre-making.
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2,349 posts
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Post by zahidf on Aug 21, 2017 15:32:11 GMT
There is a gender/race imbalance in theatre ( as in society as a whole when it comes to employment/organisations). Some organisation may not quite get it right, but I think they should at least try to address it I find it hard to get too upset if Hamlet is played by a woman e.t.c. If it doesn't work, then it doesn't work, and i'll watch the next one which will be along in 3 months. Might as well have a go at something different Do something different only if you have something to say, a point to make, a new interpretation. Doing something different for the sake of being different is not good theatre-making. Most the time its because they do have something they want to say. they may not succeed, but that's different! If Terry has an idea for a femal Othello or Hamlet, I'm sure there is a reason behind it other than gender balancing.
For example, the female malvelio in 12th night at the national earlier this year was superb.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 21, 2017 16:10:24 GMT
Going to see a Shakespeare history play and expecting to reflect the world as it now is seems counterintuitive to me. Those plays reflected the power structures and society of the time of writing as well as those being written about. We cannot wish away the truth that those times permitted little or no power to women of those below a certain social class. You can absolutely use the texts as a springboard to explore the contrasts between then and now. But changing characters from male to female does have an impact on the structures and the relationships within the play. This does not mean it can't be done or it shouldn't be done. But it must be done with care. If you are casting a female actor to play a male role as a man then that again needs to be handled with care. With the Peake Hamlet, I found it poorly presented - at least in the broadcast version. There audiences weren't made aware of the idea that Peake was playing Hamlet as a trans character. Without that key bit of information, I was left very confused as to why someone who was presenting as a female was being addressed as a male. With the Polonia in that same production, it was much clearer as the text and presentation were brought into line with one another. As a result, I will found it very difficult to engage with the interpretation and thus the production as a whole. Anything is possible with care and thought. And that is all I am asking for. I think the earlier Globe experiments with all female ensembles (to balance the all male ensemble productions) are something that can be brought back. The success of the Donmar productions show that this approach is very viable in the right hands. And encouraging new writing that gives the majority of the roles to women is surely a step towards redressing the imbalance that has existed throughout the Western drama. With strong new plays, female experience can be more fully explored and future generations can gifted a broader range of texts to explore. A balanced approach is surely the best one. Except Shakespeare is very often presented to talk about today's world. Random eg would be the NT's Timon of Athens which was totally about the world of now not the world of Shakespeare; it would have stuck out like a sore thumb if they had not changed some of the genders and present a wholly male world of business and politics. I guess it's a sign of everyone responding to things differently, which is one of the things that makes this board interesting. For eg, I have no prob whatsoever with the Maxine Peake Hamlet - it didn't occur to me to ask whether she was 'meant' to be a man or a woman, it's not the most interesting thing about the character for me. In the same way, I don't find it jarring if people of completely different ethnicities are cast as brother and sister, whereas other people find that completely distracting.
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Post by oxfordsimon on Aug 21, 2017 17:13:25 GMT
abby - whilst I can appreciate where you are coming from, I find it deeply frustrating when productions set up situations or relationships which require further explanation to understand where the director was coming from. What happens on the stage should be sufficient in and of itself to allow audiences to comprehend the world and content of the play.
If you ask questions of an audience and don't give them the tools or information to answer those questions then I would argue that the production has failed.
I do find siblings of different ethnicities to be distracting if you see them in the context of their wider family. I might be old fashioned but I like the visuals of a play to make sense with the text. If you set the two at odds, you need to make it clear why.
I have seen productions where it worked and some where it has just taking me out of the world of the play and been a source of frustration.
Some would argue that I should look beyond the colour of the skin of the actor, but I see someone's ethnicity as part of their identity and to ignore that seems wrong to me. Skin colour does not define you but it is still part of who you are.
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Post by Jan on Aug 21, 2017 17:23:20 GMT
I think a lot of the gender-blind and race-blind casting that goes on is to deflect attention from the fact the AD's and directors doing it are overwhelmingly white middle-aged middle-class men.
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Post by kathryn on Aug 21, 2017 18:40:57 GMT
I think a lot of the gender-blind and race-blind casting that goes on is to deflect attention from the fact the AD's and directors doing it are overwhelmingly white middle-aged middle-class men. Well, there is certainly pressure for white middle-aged middle-class men to practice diverse casting. And really, what else can they do? They can't change their race or their age or their class. Changing their gender would be overkill, surely. Other than turning down work - with no guarantee that the person who does take the job won't be just as white, middle-aged, middle class and male as they are - casting is the only immediate impact they can have. Real diversity requires structural change. It's very hard for individuals to effect than kind of change.
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Post by bellboard27 on Aug 21, 2017 18:46:43 GMT
On gender swapping in Shakespeare. In case anyone thinks it is something only developed in recent decades, I was in Washington earlier this year and visited Ford's Theatre (where Lincoln was assassinated). In the museum were some theatre posters of the time. One is for a production on Hamlet on February 16th 1861. The big headline is Hamlet being played by Miss Charlotte Cushman. I had not heard of her before, but clearly she was a big draw as it is clear from her Wiki entry: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlotte_CushmanIn her career she played at least 30 male roles. More about her here (including her Lesbian relationships): www.homohistory.com/2013/02/the-many-loves-of-charlotte-cushman.html
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