No Actor Was Included or Excluded Based on Race
We are writing regarding the review of our production of The Philadelphia Story that was recently published in Bay Weekly and posted on the web. 2nd Star respects that everyone is entitled to their opinions, we very much appreciate all of the excellent reviews we have received from Bay Weekly staff in the past, and we certainly don’t expect every review of community theatre to be glowing.
However, we are quite concerned regarding the emphasis in the review regarding our “updating” of the story and “color-blind” casting rather than an analysis of the performance itself and, honestly, the detrimental impact this has possibly had on our ticket sales as a small non-profit serving the community.
It is a long-standing policy of 2nd Star to cast the best possible actors from our open auditions to fill the roles in a show. We pay little attention to ethnicity in this process as the community we serve is so multicultural. There may be shows such as A Soldier’s Play or Ragtime where race is an important aspect of the story that will demand us to consider skin tone, but beyond that we try to be as inclusive in our casting as possible. No actor was included or excluded from a role in The Philadelphia Story based on race, and we intend to continue with this policy in casting in the future.
2nd Star’s The Philadelphia Story is not intended to be a remake/update of the classic movie but a telling of the tale, which many of us find charming, with our own actors under Chris Overly’s excellent direction. Yes it is different from the movie, and our actors are not Hollywood icons, as the review points out. But if we wanted to present such a production, then we could have just shown the movie.
We would truly appreciate a response regarding our concerns on this matter, as well as Bay Weekly considering taking down the review from the website.
–The Officers of 2nd Star Productions