Theatre audience demographics

And yet still whenever the NT or the RSC cast a non-White actor as anything but Othello there are still howls of outrage. These are exactly the attitudes that need to be bulldozed out of the way.

I don't think it's so much "don't notice the colour of anyone on stage" as much as "acknowledge it in a respectful way." Like you're not going to look at a colorblind-cast production of a traditionally very white show (so, not something akin to Hamilton) and not notice someone's ethnicity. That's an unrealistic expectation. At the same time, you shouldn't let colorblind casting get in your way of enjoying the show.

Well, as long as you're hot...

Who is talking about forcing anyone to do anything?

The purpose of theatre is to reflect society and humanity. But in reality most plays only represent a small privileged minority. That is a problem. The resentment and racism that exists in the industry, that those of us who work in theatre unfortunately have to deal with, is a problem. The way that racism affects and marginalises audiences is a problem.

Fortunately many of us theatre-makers are working hard to overcome those problems. I'm proud of what we've achieved so far but we still have a long way to go.

If I've got an afternoon to spare and two possible plays to see in that slot, then as a woman, I will choose the one that puts more women on stage every time, and I can't even BEGIN to tell you how much I'm loving theatre's current phase of casting women in male roles in Shakespeare. Say what you like about the lighting rig and the microphones (only please don't, you've said it all before and I'll never agree with you), Emma Rice's Globe is IMMEDIATELY better for gender parity than it ever was under the previous administrations.

So yes. And not just gender-blind casting, but also purposefully gender-bent casting.

Tokenism at its very worst. 

To throw another two cents in here: Personally I'm not interested in seeing female Hamlets or Lears. I'd much rather see fewer productions of those and more productions that are centered around strong female leads which aren't done that often. I understand the British obsession with The Bard, but really, there's so much more than Shakespeare and his canon (and even he wrote a bunch of decent female roles). But our own Schiller for example wrote two fantastic female leads in Mary Stuart with Mary and Elizabeth I. facing off throughout the play. There's Dangerous Liaisons which recently gave Janet McTeer a chance to shine, there's plenty more in the canon and most certainly dozens of plays I've never heard of.

And what's stopping writers from creating new strong female parts and plays centered around female characters? Just as I'd love to see more stories from other parts of the world that will give more black or Asian actors juicy parts to play, I'd love to see more stories about strong and interesting females.

While I did love Harry Potter for example, I found it rather typical that despite everything, the plot once again centered around two boys and not two girls. In musical theatre, far too many female characters are still all about finding/holding on to/winning back a man instead of doing other things. For all their flaws, one of the great things the recent string of London flop musicals had in common was that they had female leads that were NOT concerned with a man - they wanted wanted to run a theatre and get through the war, fight for equal rights in a factory or simply play football.

So, to get back to topic: It does feel to me a bit like tokenism to say "here, we do something for gender balance and let a woman play Hamlet" instead of just writing/staging more plays with strong female characters in the lead instead of forever recycling the same few plays with fat male leading parts?

Sexism in the industry.

I make theatre. I've made West End shows. I've been told to my face, by major industry names, that audiences won't come to plays without a male protagonist or that "having only female protagonists makes a political statement and I'm personally not comfortable with that."

It's simply astronomically easier to get a female-led Shakespeare production on than to get a female-led new writing production on, unfortunately. It's much easier to get a Shakespeare on than a new writing piece anyway, of course. Maybe, hopefully, seeing female Hamlets etc. on stage will make people more open to the ideas of female-led theatre in general?


Agree 100%.

OOH! Excellent, I can go back to moaning unreservedly about the Greg'n'Ant Show that the RSC has become! Thanks!

Please don't call me "buddy", unless of course you'd like me to call you "sweetheart"?

Sorry for the brevity of my earlier post. I'd love to spend all day musing about how ridiculous it is to cast women in male roles simply to make a point about how hard done-to women in theatre are,  but the day job and my very inadequate coffee breaks forbid it. 

And anyway Viserys put it more eloquently than I could ever hope to. 

And now, if it's ok with you, I have a Kit-Kat to deal with. 

The tea lady person gave it to me. Whilst calling me "Sir"