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May 8, 2008
We will no longer hold the auditions here this coming Monday. This is because we at Theatre Arts are committed to the cultivation and empowerment of our majors as the next generation of Deaf theatre artists, educators, and leaders with the paramount expectation of equality.
Casting Deaf actors for a film where a hearing actor has already been cast in the (not "a") lead Deaf role runs the risk of creating 2 negative perceptions: 1) that Deaf actors are somehow unequal and secondary now that the main Deaf role has already been filled by a non-Deaf actor, and 2) that Deaf actors cannot be entrusted with the lead role of a mainstream film, even if the lead role happens to be a Deaf character. Marginalization is not a value supported by the Theatre Arts Department, nor can it ever be justified.
Holding auditions here on Monday the 12th as scheduled would only reinforce and enable those 2 perceptions. We cannot, and will not, in good conscience do that to our students, and contradict the spirit of our commitment.
Angela V. Farrand, Acting Chair - The Theatre Arts Department
Links to Individual Responses:
Monique Holt
Ethan Sinnott
Gerard Williams
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