“The Red Pen,” a play by Venicia Coleman, did not premiere Sept. 14 through Sept. 19, as previously scheduled due to a lack of appropriate actors, said Lauren Hirsch, the director of the play.
She said it was very important to have African-American actors and actresses in the play, since one of the primary themes dealt with race.
“We just didn’t get anyone interested on campus unfortunately, so we had to move to next semester to be able to deal with the play as truthfully as possible,” Hirsch said.
Hirsch said one of the challenges faced was the Idaho demographic, which is predominantly white.
The play is now scheduled for March 1 through March 5, which Robert Caisley, the head of playwriting, said was the original slot allotted for the play. However, Coleman was offered the Rex Raybold Fellowship through the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Her obligation to that would begin at an undetermined time during the Spring Semester, so the show’s plans had to change, Caisely said.
“I didn’t want to, you know, hold her back from that opportunity, so I said ‘Why don’t we move it to the fall semester?’” he said.
Caisley said the play would function as Coleman’s exit project, or senior thesis, and needed to be produced for her to graduate. However, he said changing the date made it more challenging to find actors that would fit the part.
“We sent it out even to our schools in the region, seeing if other students from other theater programs might be able to, you know, be interested in coming out and being a guest artist on the play, and we didn’t have any success in finding anyone,” Caisley said.
Caisley said in the academic theater there is a need to balance the needs of the students with the needs of the play. He said that means sometimes offering inexperienced actors certain parts in order to benefit their education.
“In the academic theater, at least, I think we have a particular opportunity and a particular responsibility to balance the needs of our students — who’s here in the department — with the needs of the play,” he said.
In this case, however, it is possible that professional and semi-professional actors will be brought in to cast the play appropriately, he said. For the spring semester production, Caisley said they have reached out to the Modern Theatre in Spokane and the Boise Contemporary Theatre in Boise.
“We’ve sent them the casting notice,” Caisley said. “They’re distributing it to their casting pool and we hope to be able to, you know, find actors that the director and that the playwright are happy with.”
Caisley said when it comes to casting ethically, the director should balance their own interpretation of the play with the intentions of the playwright’s. He said ideally, the playwright is part of the casting process, as Hirsh was in “The Red Pen.”
“The first job of any director is to cast the play, to make some decisions about — based on an actor’s talent and their type — whether or not they’re appropriate for the play,” he said. “And what I mean by appropriate is that — will the casting of this actor ensure that the play and the playwright’s intention comes across to the audience?”
Hirsch said although she was glad the play did not go through with an unsuitable cast, she was still disappointed.
“I wanted this play to go up, I wanted it to happen,” she said.
She said the play ties into modern American culture, including the “Black Lives Matter” movement and the current tendency toward ignorance about racial issues. This ignorance, Caisley said, is at the core of the play.
“Red Pen is about unconscious feelings that we might not even be aware that we’re harboring,” he said.
Caisley said all students in the Theater Department should constantly be thinking and talking about the issues of production ethics, as it is something they will deal with for the rest of their careers. He said American theater, as a whole, needs to work on improving this.
“I think that we can as a theater department in general, but I would also say this to the American theater, in a larger context, I think we can do better in seeking out plays that examine the intersections of differences,” he said.
While plurality and diversity are often discussed in the American theater, it is not reflected in the productions around the country, Caisley said. He said he’s noticed lately more conversations surrounding the issues of equality and inclusion, and agrees these dialogues need to occur now more than ever.
Nina Rydalch
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