Racial Casting Call Criticized

On Oct. 28, Associate Professor of Theatre Claudio Medeiros sent an email with the subject line “Invitation to African, African-American and Latino Women” to nearly 100 recipients, soliciting female students of color for the part of Elizabeth in Sarah Ruhl’s play “In the Next Room.” The role of Elizabeth, according to Medeiros’ email, is a wet nurse hired by a white couple to care for their newborn child, and was advertised to women of color through an email addressed to the Alianza and African American Alliance email list and to some individual students of color in addition to Dean of College Shirley Collado and Assistant Dean of the College Jennifer Herrara.

Within 24 hours, students and faculty began to “reply all”, creating a string of emails expressing both outrage at the “invitation” and, more broadly, a conversation around the acute frustration of being a student of color on this campus.

“I am declining your invitation to audition, as I am not interested in playing ‘Mammie’, a wet nurse, or a slave, and the prospect of being casted in a part with the ‘only fulfilling sexual experience in the entire show’ while being the object of a white male character’s ‘jungle fever’ are anything BUT appealing to me,” wrote Missan DeSouza ’14 in one of a series of email replies obtained by the Campus, referencing the role description in Medeiros’ email. “So please, in the final year of my Middlebury experience, I would appreciate if the theater department only think to solicit me for roles that are fitting for EVERYONE to be casted in, if it is that my creative contribution is truly valued.”

As more and more students began to respond to the Theatre Department’s “invitation” and the conversation veered away from the invitation to audition for this role and towards a broader conversation regarding race relations at the College, Assistant Professor of Dance Christal Brown responded.

“Criticizing the efforts of the Theater department without taking a class, speaking to [Medeiros] directly, or reading the play for yourselves is as irresponsible as perpetuating stereotypes,” Brown wrote. “I believe the retort to this invitation is convoluted and mis-directed.”

“While I understand that at times the frustration and responsibility of being a minority on this campus can be consuming, I urge you to address the issues that present themselves as incongruous directly so that the response is not counterproductive.”

Students continued the conversation over email and over Facebook, where it caught the attention of Collado. A forum moderated by Collado was held on Thursday, Nov. 7 to discuss student concerns around the email, and the conversation that unfolded stemmed from Medeiros’ email but quickly began to speak to the experience of minority students on campus.

“Classrooms at Middlebury are very exclusive…. Across any department, in any classroom, its apparent,” said Tim Garcia ’14 at the forum. “Often it feels like there is an extra burden if you are of color within the classroom, because you are asked to be an expert, play a role that other students aren’t.”

“Being a student of color at Middlebury is like taking a fifth class,” added Debanjan Roychoudhury ’16.

Medeiros’ email has since been referred to as “the straw that broke the camel’s back” and “the drop that made the glass spill” in terms of what Assistant Professor of Dance Christal Brown called a “powder keg issue” on campus.

“We’ve seen all of these issues relating to race that keep bubbling to the surface, but we’re not addressing the deeper issues:  individual responsibility, communal investment and a holistic view on what it means to be a human being working towards something that is not yet realized,” said Brown in an interview.  “Change is not something that happens quickly, and in the midst of change people get their feelings hurt. If we continue to tell people to just get over it and keep going before we get through it, then we’re going to have a lot more anger.”

“That’s what the email was about. People have been told to ‘get over’ things — and this was only one of all those things. It was a powder keg. It didn’t have anything to do with theater.”

Medeiros denies that he was typecasting because the email was an invitation to audition and did not guarantee a part in the show, and added he was caught off guard by the flood of negative responses he received.

“I was totally, totally shocked. But not surprised, in retrospect,” Medeiros said. “My intention was so clear in my mind and in my heart, and then the reaction — I didn’t even imagine it. I did not know there was all this tension around campus, about race, about Chance the Rapper or anything. I didn’t know any of that was going on when I sent the message.”

While exactly how many students of color are Theatre majors is unknown and the College does not provide public data on major preferences by race, Medeiros maintains that the number of women of color who audition for productions has been historically low, which prompted  his invitation to audition for what he termed a “feminist and empowering role.”

“In casting a show, the question might be, does it matter what race the character is? And in this case, the answer was absolutely yes. It would change the role dramatically to have a white woman play that part. It is therefore important to try to honor the intent of the playwright,” Medeiros added.

“I think there are students on this campus who want to see more of their experiences in the curriculum, in their classrooms and among the faculty.  The reaction to this email and production in the Theatre Department is signaling to us that we have more work to do,” Collado said. “I think students also heard the need for them to keep pushing the boundaries of what is expected of them even if it puts pressure on the institution to change.   I see these tensions as good for the future of the College. It is the only way we will address the natural tension that comes with becoming a more diverse campus.”