Is there racism in live theater? I think every performer has their own opinion, but most people will admit, yes there’s at least some if not more.
As a performer, it depends. There’s so many different gradations of racism and, some of it, you just flow with it. You don’t have any control over it, which is why you might have to let it go.
Then there are other times that you speak up, right?
So with auditioning, people would see me so differently. Two auditions. One, I went to where at the first audition, somebody said,”Oh, you look too girl next door.”
At the second audition, they said, “Oh, you look too exotic.”
And I hadn’t changed my clothes. I hadn’t changed my hair, nothing.
There is a freedom in knowing that subjectivity is out of your hands. But yeah, I’m not going to lie there, I was super aggravated that day. Before I realized, hey, just let it go and keep persisting, I feel like helplessness is the other side of depression, right?
So it’s hard not to walk into a situation and not feel like I know who I was presenting.
That’s such a big thing in grad school and undergrad, know your type. Whoa.
It’s like all of those kinds of adages did not apply to me in a way, and then there would be other things too.
Maybe there were castmates who thought that I shouldn’t be doing a role that had anything to do with any kind of blackness, even if the role said something about me being light skinned or passing.
But all I can do is show up and do my job because there were people like me in the past that I was representing. These were more historical shows, so somebody’s got to show up for them.
In “Living IncogNegro”, I talk about how one director, a white American, said that I needed to be blacker in my performance.
That’s always funny, especially coming from a white man.
I know with a lot of my friends who are black performers, they’re like, Oh, how many times have I gotten the direction? Be sassier. Or be more urban or, it’s just all these kinds of codes that come with being a black performer.
There’s so many more things, but those are the first things that come to mind.
I’m Gin Hammond and I’m Living IncogNegro. I’m glad you’re here and we’re on this journey together. Find me on instagram here. Send me a note here.