Theatre History Podcast # 11

“You Don’t Read Latino”: Discussing the History of Latinx Casting with Brian Eugenio Herrera

31 October 2016

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11–Brian Herrera–Theatre History Podcast.mp3

The recent success of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton has led to some casting controversies as regional theatres mount productions of his previous hit musical, In the Heights. As this week’s guest, Princeton University’s Brian Eugenio Herrera, shows, these controversies have a long history, as Latinx actors have unsettled the simplistic racial categories perpetuated by white-dominated American society.

vintage photo of actors in film — Lena Horne and Ricardo Montalban in *Jamaica*, 1957. Via the Billy Rose Theatre Collection at the New York Public Library.

Links:

Read Brian’s essay, “The Best Actor for the Role,” about the history and theory of casting in the Journal of American Drama and Theatre.
Read about a recent casting controversy involving In the Heights in this news story that quotes Brian.
Find out more about Brian’s award-winning book, Latin Numbers: Playing Latino in 20th Century US Popular Performance.

Listen to Brian’s reviews of contemporary theatre on podcast, StinkyLulu Says.

vintage photo of an actor — Undated photo of Juano Hernandez. Via the Billy Rose Theatre Collection at the New York Public Library.

vintage photo of two actors — Mel Ferrer and Joan Wetmore in *Kind Lady*, 1940. Via the Museum of the City of New York.

You can subscribe to this series via Apple iTunes or RSS Feed or just click on the link below to listen:

Michael

Lueger

Thoughts from the curator

This podcast aims to introduce listeners to the artists, scholars, and archivists who are working to bring the history of performance to life. We hope that, by listening to this show, you’ll learn about exciting new performances, fascinating books, and valuable repositories of knowledge, all of which will help you better understand theatre’s history.

Theatre History Podcast

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