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Abstract

This dissertation’s title revises a line from the poetry of Langston Hughes to root it in an on-going discussion of racial justice and creative responses to repressed ambitions within the commercial theatre communities of New York City and London. The motivation for this research project was a desire to consider how casting has been used in the United States and England to deliberately advance dialogue on racial issues. I argue that casting practices and the historical exclusion of Black theatre professionals have had social, ethical and political impacts which have affected the commercial landscape of London’s West End and New York’s Broadway. As the focus is on how casting practices are structured by and intervene with cultures of representation, this dissertation is organised around the theoretical concepts of representation and intersectionality to increase the depth of the argument. These concepts are foundational to my thesis and will be referenced throughout the document.

Alongside the argument that the systemic exclusionary employment practices of commercial theatre in London and New York have contributed to social, ethical and political discourse in the United States and England I explore the following associated questions:

· What are the causes and ramifications of the casting disparities found in London and New York commercial theatre?

· How have productions which employed diverse casting practices contributed to society’s discussion on systemic racial injustice?

· What role does/should the audience play in determining the success of ‘non-traditional’[1] casting efforts?

While a growing body of scholarly research exists pertaining to diverse casting practices, the focus primarily tends to be on productions of Shakespeare plays, a specific country or region, or is concentrated on the twentieth century. This thesis contributes to the field of theatre studies through a comparative analysis of New York’s Broadway and London’s West End casting and hiring focusing on Black professionals in commercial theatre. I have confined the scope to approximately 40 years, starting in 1985, when non-traditional casting was first defined in contemporary terms and chose Broadway and the West End because of their similarities and frequent cross-over productions. Therefore examples in this dissertation primarily come from artists who perform in and audiences who attend major commercial venues. The West End, an area of central London, England, is used to refer to mainstream professional theatre staged in the large theatres of London. I am defining Broadway in New York City as theatres with 500 or more seats in the Theatre District, Lincoln Center and midtown Manhattan.

Acknowledging that people of South Asian origin, Latinos, Native Americans, women, the LGBTQ+ community and persons with disabilities have been subjected to exclusion and discrimination in casting and also have been celebrated in award-winning productions that employed innovative casting, a comprehensive study of the various types of casting practices across all ethnic groups and in all performance areas is beyond the scope of this dissertation. While the histories and experiences of various groups across performance areas such as cinema, television, opera and dance deserve rigorous scrutiny, the focus of this research is on Black theatre professionals in commercial theatres on Broadway and the West End. A contemporary investigation into the casting, hiring, promotion and retention of these two world famous locales as well as their tendencies to cater to predominantly wealthy, white audiences despite changing demographics has yet to be undertaken in depth and adds to existing scholarly investigation. This dissertation aligns itself with and contributes to research conducted by Ayanna Thompson (2006), Brandi Catanese (2007), Angela Pao (2010), Lennox Goddard (2016), and Farah Karim-Cooper (2023) adding new knowledge to the field of study of casting practices and the representation of Black theatre professionals at all levels in commercial theatre spaces in the United States and England.

Analysing the London and New York theatre scene from 1984 to 2024 allows for a critique of racial prejudices within commercial theatre on both sides of the Atlantic in hisorical and contemporary contexts. Utilising detailed analysis of selected successful and ground-breaking West End and Broadway productions as well as research gleaned from a range of sources including academic journals and books, theatre reviews, news articles, interviews and historical archives, this project employs a variety of different research approaches, generating both qualitative and quantitative data. Case studies of productions which ran on both Broadway and the West End are employed to investigate how unconventional casting has impacted social discourse, the ramifications of those debates and how casting is used to advance issues concerning representation facing society. The focus is on what casting practices reveal, attempt and achieve when employed for the inclusion or exclusion of Black theatre professionals and the ramifications of those choices. The underlying aspect of my argument is that casting practices used to address issues of inclusion and diversity as a response to historical omission and exclusion illuminate problematic issues impacting commercial theatre.

The classification prioritises theatre studies, followed by race, social conditions, employment practices and sociology. The submitted wording has been retained, with possible spelling, grammatical, stylistic and consistency issues marked in bold rather than corrected.

[1] Defined by Actors’ Equity as ‘the casting of ethnic and female artists in roles in which race, ethnicity, or gender is not germane to the character’s or the play’s development.’

Publication Type:	Thesis (Doctoral)
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor H Social Sciences > HT Communities. Classes. Races N Fine Arts > N Visual arts (General) For photography, see TR N Fine Arts > NX Arts in general
Departments:	Doctoral Theses

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