toronto is cool

Hey, look! Colour! I went to High Park on Thursday and saw Comedy of Errors, and I loved it. Generally, I always like live theatre, but this was really fun. Some of the actors were 'meh', but Ins Choi (someone I met once) who played some merchants and the "saffron-skinned" Dr Pinch was really good. Ooh, and the Dromeos (pictured on the left) were Awesome.

The reason I think Toronto is cool is that the cast was so not totally white, and though I'm pointing it out, it really wasn't that big of a deal - even the identical twin Antipholuses were not the same race. Too often, I think we see groups of white people and think it's totally normal. If we watch television, and only see white people, it's just how it is. Sometimes, when they're looking to add diversity, they add a black person.

I think a lot of time, this is fine - if it represents the people its supposed to. But any sitcom is certainly not watched by all white people, and in Toronto, any theatre event is certainly not watched just by white people. I'm not saying we should go out of out way to hire "ethnic" people - I'm just saying it shouldn't be an issue - like if it's Shakespeare, why should anyone have to make sure that the person wearing the period costume is white?

Perhaps, this is a selfish topic. I mean, I want to go into musical theatre and I don't want to do Miss Saigon forever. But, hopefully, if I was white, like I believe myself to be, I'd still comment on how cool Toronto is for its unapologetic diversity. I remember at theatre camp last summer, I brought this up as an issue, and the fabulous Mary Francis Moore said that I shouldn't let it restrict me, that I should feel free to do the monologues I wanted. When I met Ann Harada on the West End in London, she told me that it (being Asian) helped her more than it hurt her. So maybe I shouldn't be worried. The world is changing. Things aren't as hard as they used to be for people who are (racially) different.