A scholarship scandal and an Oscars announcement have prompted calls for more diversity in Australian musical casting - and behind the scenes.
, says Australian theatre is at least 20 years behind the US, where even the most recent Billy Bigelow was black."Until we can all be on an even playing field, we’ll be behind," Frank says.
On Wednesday RGE issued a statement saying it accepted "unreservedly that the leadership committee should have done more to ensure that contestants in the competition were drawn from a much more diverse cross section of emerging theatre performers". "I had to work harder than my peers, who came from caucasian backgrounds, to be seen and taken seriously," he said.Performer Melanie Bird would prefer to focus on her exceptional voice and promising career but says lately she’s been thinking more about her Thai heritage."It wasn’t until I entered the world of musical theatre that I became much more aware of it.
"It makes me upset for my friends who are even more ethnic than I am and I’d love the situation to change. I feel the audience suspends disbelief in the theatre anyway and it’s the producers’ responsibility to cast people of colour in a variety of roles, in the way that"Musical theatre in Australia needs to catch up with Broadway. The attitude here of just being defensive is not the way to go.
Australian theatre producer Damien Hewitt notes that Broadway and the West End also have issues to overcome regarding race.
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