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Kent State University has canceled its fall musical production of “West Side Story” after numerous complaints that too many white students landed lead roles.
Latino students were outraged after the three leading roles all went to non-Latino students. The characters of the ‘Sharks,’ a Puerto Rican street gang in the musical, were all given to white students.
The musical, an adaptation of Romeo And Juliet, is set in 1950s New York City and tells the story of forbidden love between the leader of the Polish-American Jets and the sister of the Sharks’ leader.
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Bridgett Martinez, a junior musical theatre major who is of Puerto Rican descent, was hoping for the lead role of Maria, but instead, she was cast as Maria’s understudy. The role of Maria was given to a white student.
“Once I read (the list) again, and I really saw all of the casting choices, I was just blown away because it was not correct at all,” she told student publication KentWired.
A senior theater major and president of the school’s Latin/x in Theater club Viviana Cardenas, who also identifies as Latina, got a callback for the role of Anita. Antia is another Puerto Rican lead role, but an African-American student got the part instead of Cardenas.
Cardenas told the student outlet that she believed the professors had made a mistake by not taking ethnicity into account during auditions. She also believes that Kent chooses the cast based only on talent, without taking into account the ethnic backgrounds of some roles.
“I think the professors who made the decision wanted the best for the show, and that’s what they considered, and that’s it,” she said. “I think there are more things that need to be considered than just that.”
Eric van Baars, the director of the School of Theatre and Dance, proceeded to hold a meeting after the significant uproar about the casting list.
“I felt it was important that as a school we come together and talk about it and come to some sort of decision to do next,” van Baars said.
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In the end, van Baars made the tough decision to cancel the show and went ahead to choose “Children of Eden” as its replacement. Van Baars felt it was not the right place or time for the school to continue with “West Side Story.”
Van Baars stated how the production is canceled in response to complaints raised over the casting.
He also stated that Kent State’s theater department supports ‘the progression of conscious casting’ which is the concept of ‘colorblind casting’. It’s a popular approach to casting roles without taking into account the actor’s race.
Not everyone was pleased with the decision to cancel West Side Story at Kent State.
Cardenas said she hopes this controversy will advance more progressive diversity efforts in the school for the future.
“I actually think that this needed to happen for changes to be made in the school, and I think things happen for a reason,” she said. “I think they know that what they did make an impact on a lot of people, and I think that’s why they changed the show.”
