Think about
the musical West Side Story for me.
Not ringing a bell? Ever heard this song before? Or this one? Or this one (or at least
seen Anger Management)? There it is.
Now, think
of Maria, the beautiful Puerto Rican girl who falls for WASP Tony. Maria’s
speech is rich with trilled Rs and bits of colloquial Spanish. Latin beats are
resonant throughout Leonard Bernstein’s score, and are fully present in the
songs that she sings. So naturally, Maria should be played by a Puerto Rican
(or, at the very least, a Hispanic), right?
Enter
actress Natalie Wood, born from Russian immigrants and blessed with Western
European looks, a movie star who is arguably most famous for her portrayal as…Maria
in the 1961 movie version of West Side
Story.
Okay, okay.
But that was 1961. It was pre-Civil Rights movement, and it’s a wonder that a
musical (and movie) with such strong racial themes, and its lesson of
tolerance, was even made.
Cut to 2014.
Me, attending an audition for the musical In
the Heights in Anaheim. If you’re not familiar with the musical, the show
takes place in New York’s Washington Heights neighborhood, home to a diverse
group of Hispanics from various Latin cultures. The musical deals with the
struggle of identity, of what traditions you accept as your own and what
traditions you start on your own.
So, in other
words, race is a fairly important part of the show.
To my
surprise and pure amusement, I walked into the lobby of the rehearsal studio
seeing a whole lot of Aryan faces, a few looking vaguely ethnic enough to maybe
pass as Latina, and maybe one or two real
Latinas.
Cue a text
to one of my friends, who I had texted earlier with worries that my presence
(as a biracial African American-Caucasian) might come off as offensive: “Lolz,
lolz, LOLZ to all these white girls here.”
I was simply
baffled that these girls thought that they were right for a show that literally
has no white characters – not to mention that, dressed in short cocktail
dresses, teetering in high, high heels, and hair perfectly curled into gentle
ringlets, these girls looked more suited for 90201 rather than el barrio of Washington Heights.
But I
thought back to the conversation I had earlier with my friend.
Who was I, a
mixed girl showing up to audition for characters whom are explicitly of a race
that I am not a part of, to judge?
Because I am
mixed, I am blessed with the gift that is “racial ambiguity.” Most people, upon
first meeting me, do not know what race I am, and this means I am able to submit
myself for a multitude of ethnic roles. I’ve been to Puerto Rico, and the natives thought I was a native. So I
figured I would have no problem walking into that audition convincing the
auditors that I was Hispanic.
And I didn’t.
But where is
the line? A girl with blonde hair and blue
eyed would look completely out of place, but a girl with dark hair would not,
necessarily. All of those girls that I scanned over with such contempt could
have Latin blood running through their veins for all I know, and maybe those
genes just aren’t visible ones.
On the flip
side, however, it’s always disheartening to see roles that are meant for a
certain race taken by those who aren’t of that race, particularly when it’s
roles that are meant for people of color and are taken by those who are not. Of
course, it is sometimes a matter of who comes out to the audition (and more
importantly, who doesn’t), but the representation of POC is so small in the
theatre. Ethnic ambiguity is a blessing for the actors who have it, but it can
be another restriction of parts available for those who don’t.
It’s
certainly not a black and white issue (pun completely intended) – who is really
at liberty to limit an actor’s freedom of artistic practice (within reason,
of course)? But at what (and who’s) cost comes that freedom?
Anyway, I
hope that I get the opportunity to channel my inner Latina on the Los Angeles
stage this summer. But, if I do, I will remember and honor the culture that I
am representing, even though it is not my own.
UPDATE:
I got a
callback for a part that requires lots of Spanish. ¡Ay, Dios Mio!
No comments:
Post a Comment