Oakland Tribune from Oakland, California • 87

rtdSMU aidori' mim An actieieRtsonihecontioveisyoveithe casting of whites in minority roles forth says that it is Just as absurd for blacks to play white roles as it is for a white to day Othello, ignoring the fact that only in modern times, with the highly controversial Paul Robeson production of Othello, -r have black actors been allowed to play Shakespeares Moor. Nevertheless, there are those Susan Douglas (Lost Bounds-, ries), Yvonne De Carlo (Band of Angels), Elizabeth Taylor (Raintree County), Ingrid Bergman (Saratoga Racism in America today is nothing so crass as mere hatred of a persons skin color. It is rather an affliction of so many centuries duration that it per- American films also have been guilty of perpetual one-way traffic. From the early westerns, movies have served up an endless pageant of whites playing non-white roles, hardly ever the reverse. meates institutions to the point of becoming indivisible from them.

Only when the darker races attempt to break out of the and inconvenience whites in the process do whites even perceive racism as an issue. Only when a white is asked to vacate a role on racial grounds does the matter become a front-page issue. If the problems of black and Hispanic actors have been difficult, those of Asian-Americans have been harrowing. Some years ago, a Chinese actor said to me: At least you work every The South Sun Francisco mho sho apptarod in-1960. once in a while.

Do you realize my only hope is to go out in a touring company of The Flower Drum Song or Teahouse of the August Moon? I admire David Henry frwang and B.D. Wong for speaking up -in the present situation. As two of the only Asian-Americans who have gained a high degree of visibility in the New York theater, they labor under a tremendous moral imperative to represent the Asian-American acting community. Now that the Actors Equity decision barring Jonathan Pryce from the Broadway production of Miss Saigon has been reversed, my hope is that he can go forward in the role, reassured that the matter was not a personal attack on him. On the contrary, something much larger than the welfare of an individual was at stake: It has been vital and salutary to the health of the theater (and moV-.

ies) in this country that the issue of minority casting has been aired. It is regrettable that Pryce has had to be confronted with this issue as it bears upon a single role. There are those of us who consider him fortunate. For some of us, role by role, this is the issue that shadows our entire performing lifetime. Italian American Cicucns Club and SerrcuxGk NATURAL SfWMOJNa or The Tribune August 29, 1990 is 1 who argue to this day that the role should remain the preserve of the white male.

This in spite of the fact that black actors have brilliantly performed leading roles from the Shakespeare canon, at Joseph Papps New York Shakespeare Festival. A word about Joseph Papp and his festival. During my yeqp as a leading lady there, it was the only work that, as a black actress, I could find. It is significant that whenever whites wish to co-opt non-white roles, the only examples they can produce to suggest that the ideal works both ways invariably lead to Papps door. The fact remains that without his vision of an all-inclusive America, whites would be hard put to prove that the ideal world is a two-way street American films also have been guilty of perpetual one-way traffic.

From the early westerns, when armies of white males painted themselves as American Indians and collected paychecks while real Indians went jobless, movies have served up an endless pageant of whites playing non-white roles, hardly ever the reverse. Moviegoers have been presented with Dorothy Lamour and Hedy Lamarr ad Polynesians, Debra Paget and others as Indian maidens, Natalie Wood as a Puerto Rican, and legions of white actresses cast as lightskinned Macks. Genuine light-skinned Macks, (myself, Markl Bey, Hilda Simms, Jane White, Janice Kingslow, Isabelle Cooley) languished unemployed, pronounced inappropriate for white roles because we were black, and inappropriate for black roles because we looked like white. Imagine, then, the double dose of salt poured in our wounds as the occasional roles calling for a black of our color invariably went to Caucasian actresses Jeanne Crain (Pinky), Ava Gardner Susan Kohner (Imitation of Life), PROUDLY PRESENT THE ITALIAN AMERICAN GAMES Act ms and writer Eflen Holly, as By Elian Hatty Actors Equity voted last month to bar the British actor Jonathan Pryce from reprising his role In the musical Miss Saigon" on Broadway. The union said it could not appear to condone the casting of a Caucasian in the role of a Eurasian.

Producer Cameron Mackintosh canceled the production and the union later reversed its decision, but no decision was made immediately about the future of Miss Saigon" an Broadway. Whatever the final outcome, the debate has focused attention on nontradi-tional casting. Ellen Holly, a black actress and writer who has appeared In numerous theater and television productions, gave her view in this article that appeared In The New York Times. In an ideal world, actors should be able to play any fictitious role they are capable of creatine the illusion they are right for. While the argument can be made that historical nries should be cast for accuracy (Danny DeVito might be a questionable choice for Abraham Lincoln, or Danny Glover for George Washington); fictitious characters are works of the imagination.

Where a Hamlet or a Blanche DuBois are concerned, it is only when a range of actors attempt them that we can see how richly universal these roles are. In arguing for the Caucasian Jonathan Pryces right to play a Eurasian in the New York production of Miss Saigon, a spectrum of whites has invoked this ideal world. Such a world, believe me, is one that every performer longs for. My only problem with it is that, to date, it has been a one-way street in which whites co-opt roles from their darker brothers. Without question, Jonathan Pryce is an innocent victim of the tremendous controversy.

But be is not a victim of David Henry Hwang, B.D. Wong and the Asian-American theatrical community that, quite correctly, raised a question about his employment here. Rather, be is a victim of a long and profoundly frustrating histo-. ry in America in which, decade after decade, the ideal world we all long for has functioned so that whites are free to play everything under the sun while Mack, Hispanic and Asian actors are not only restricted to their own categories, but forced to surrender roles in their categories that whites desire. One argument recently put SEPT.

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