Making A Mountain Out Of A Mole

If you have ever read something that angered you so much that after you read it you wanted to take your computer and bash yourself to death with it, you will understand how I felt after I read the following paragraph:

IN HARTFORD CONNECTICUT, THE MAYOR IS PUERTO RICAN. BUT IN THEATERWORKS PRODUCTION OF MY PLAY IN HARTFORD -- THE 2 LEAD PUERTO RICAN CHARACTERS ARE PLAYED BY WHITE ACTORS. THE PLAY WAS CAST IN NYC & CONN, AND IF YOU LOOK AT THE BREAKDOWN HERE, YOU WILL SEE THAT NOT ONLY DID THEY NOT CAST LATINOS, THEY DIDN'T EVEN SEEK LATINOS FOR THE 2 LATINO LEADS!!! IF THIS DISTURBS YOU, PLEASE REPOST. NOTHING AGAINST THE ACTORS CAST, BUT THIS IS INDEFENSIBLE BULLSHIT. PLEASE SHARE MY HEADSHAKING ANGER. THANKS! STEPHEN

I got angry right off the bat because it was all in CAPS.  I hate that shit. It is supposed to looking like you are yelling and it does and I don't like being yelled at.  When I get yelled at, I get angry.

I was already angry and then I got pissed because I had no idea what the fuck the Mayor of Hartford had done and then after reading that damn thing, like 3 times, I realized that the fucking Mayor of Hartford hadn't done shit.  It was confusing.  If you yell at me and you say some confusing shit, that is going to make me angry and piss me off.

When I finally got past the confusing yelling, what I saw was that a playwright was not happy about how one of his plays was cast.

Having been involved in many projects over the last 4 years and having worked with many playwrights the first thing that came to my mind was that this was only one side of the story.  Everyone involved in the process of creating a play is a human being.  As humans, when the shit hits the fan, we all have our side of the story.  Producers, Directors, Designers, Actors, Run Crews, the fucking Janitor that cleans the rehearsal room you rented, all of us, have different points of view on any give production.  When shit goes south, everyone says their piece and unless you have all of those pieces, you really shouldn't make a decision or take a side.  Especially when the source is using Facebook as a way to trash a production of one of his scripts.  (Facebook, really?)

I wondered why this playwright had felt the need to go to such a public route.  I mean, if he felt this strongly about the way those roles where going to be cast, would he not have made that clear in his contract.  Had the producers violated an agreement he had with them? If that where the case, why wasn't he suing them?  Why wasn't this an article from a blog?  What the hell was going on here?

I figured there was more to this story and I would wait until...OH, FUCK!!!

That "Oh, Fuck" right there was when I realized that this playwright wasn't just pissed about how his play was cast but that Latino actors weren't cast.  It was at that moment that I had to remind myself that I do not have money to buy a new computer.

You see, because I see myself as a theatre artist first and Mexican/Latino/Hispanic (I never know which one I am supposed to be) Male second,  I was lost in my imagination trying to figure out how all of the people in this process had gotten to the point that the playwright was blasting people on Facebook that it took me a second to factor in the Latino Component.  It took me a second to realize that I was going to be on the other side of the coin on this one.

I figured that a lot of Latinos would stand with STEPHEN and his obnoxious, tactless status update.  Without knowing all of the details, this would be the cause of the day.  Latinos the world over could sit at their Ivory Desks and cast themselves yet again in the role of the victim.  Yet again, the man was out there to hold us down!  And in a town with a Puerto Rican Mayor?! How dare they?!?  LA RAZA UNIDA, JAMAS SERA   VENCIDA....

Wait, wait, wait....Give me a fucking break.

I've said it before and I will say it again, before you take a position on these things you have to know the whole story.  Also, as always, it is best to consider the source.  At this point, earlier today, all I knew is that a playwright was pissed.  I mean, PISSED.  That in and of itself was not going to be reason enough for this Muchacho, to get involved.  I figured I would try to not get caught up in the Facebook, Twitter wars that soon followed and wait until I got more information.

So I went to work.

When I came back from work.  I read some more articles and this is the conclusion that I have come up with:

The playwright, who is not Latino, didn't even know who was cast in his play until last week when HOLA (Hispanic Organization  for Latino Actors) informed him of who was cast.  It was then that the playwright went to the producers for answers.  Not before he signed a contract where he could have added a "Cast Me Some Latinos Or Else!" Clause.  Not during the auditions or callbacks or anytime in between did it seem like there was a legal agreement that said, Cast Me Some Latinos Or Else!  This is important because if you are going to blast a theatre company for not casting what you wanted, you better have made sure to tell them what you wanted.  If you didn't, you can't really get pissed at them for casting who ever they cast.  Especially when you don't know who the fuck was cast until some Latino Actors Rights Organization comes knocking on your door.

When you wait that long you risk coming off as the Non-Latino playwright who got called out by some Latinos and so you are starting some shit with your producers because you don't want people to get all pissed that there aren't any Latinos in your play.  I could see why a Non-Latino playwright wouldn't want to anger Latinos when he is trying to make money off of his play about Latinos, don't get me wrong, Make Yo' Paper BooBoo.  But understand that this shit looks more like you are covering your ass and less like you are a supporter of the plight of the Latino Actor.

Anyways, after this playwright, contacted his producers, and his producers told him that his director cast who he cast because they didn't have enough time to cast anyone else, the playwright got even more pissed off because he didn't like the answer.  Why, he didn't like it, I don't know.  What I do know is that sometimes as a director you DON'T have enough time to cast people.  Sometimes, you have to pick up the phone, find the names you trust, start making calls, and hope you fill the fucking role.  That is perfectly believable to me.

I've cast that way.
You've cast that way.
You've been cast that way.
Admit it.
Come on.
Admit it.

What we have here is not a call to arms for the Latino Theatre Community?  Instead, what I see, is a playwright that got called out on some stupid shit, which compelled him to pass the buck before this thing made him look bad.

Its theatre bullshit.

It is not cultural, social change bullshit.

I am all for calling out injustices to the Latino Community of Actors or Citizens.  This is not one of those times.  Instead of achieving anything of consequences for either of those groups, we risk looking like a bunch of malcontents.

As the Fresh Prince of Belair once said to his cousin Hillary,  "You're making a mountain out of a mole, Hill.".