"Color Blind" Casting

      In theatre class this week our teacher brought up the subject of colorblind casting. I'd never heard the term before and was quite interested in the topic when she brought it up. Basically colorblind casting is when a director casts a show with actors that might not have the same ethnicity as the production normally contains. The idea is that they can try to have more integrated casts and give actors more opportunities usually denied to them because of race. 

      At first, this seemed like a great thing to me, but my teacher had mixed opinions on it. She thought that the term "colorblind" had a poor connotation to it. It meant that you would pretend to not see, or ignore someones race, but in truth you can't do that. Why would you ignore part of a person? She thought it was better to be conscious of someone's race, accept it, and work with it to improve the production. 

       I read an article from awhile back that discussed some of the pros and cons of color blind casting. Click HERE to read the article.  

      The article brought up the issue of white people playing roles traditionally played by black people. For instance, in the show Showboat there is a black that sings the well-known song Ol' Man River. Some would argue that the song would not have the same affect if it was sung by a white man. Another example would be the show Ragtime. The show is centered around a black man, Coalhouse Walker Jr. and his black wife, Sarah. Coalhouse's car gets trashed by a bunch of white males because they are mad at him for being successful black man. His wife is also killed because of misunderstandings based upon her race. There is also a subplot about an immigrant and his small daughter. The show is a marvelous commentary on American and it's treatment of minorities. However, the entire plot is centered around problems based upon their race. A white man could not possibly play the part of Coalhouse, the story wouldn't make sense.

      Where do we draw the line then? An equally qualified white male could wish to play the role of Coalhouse but he will be turned down because of the color of his skin. I don't think color blind casting is necessarily a completely good or bad thing. 

When is color blind casting appropriate? Do you think there are limitations on color blind casting? If so, what?