This symposium took place in the midst of the non-traditional casting movement, a precursor to what we have today, the drive for diversity in casting. <\/p>\n
I was asked to direct a scene from \u201cThe Importance Of Being Earnest,\u201d a non-diverse play by Oscar Wilde, with actors of color, in this case, a Chinese-American actress and an African-American actress. Very non-traditional. There were other scenes from other plays directed by other directors as well. Part of this for me, of course, was to direct something from a play that I would not even be in the conversation to direct, my relative youth and experience aside. So, directors as well as actors working non-traditionally for an audience of industry people that had the power to make the non-traditional casting movement a reality in theatres across the country. No pressure. The actresses were terrific and the scene got big laughs. But that\u2019s not why I\u2019m writing this. <\/p>\n
The following year I applied for one of the first Theatre Communications Group TCG\/NEA Director Fellowships. There were six fellowships to be given out. I think my work in the symposium was seen by people on the selection panel, and that gave me a leg up, and maybe tipped the scales in my favor. I got one. The other recipients that first round were: Amy Gonzalez, Stephen Dietz, Kenny Leon, Liz Diamond, and David Petrarca. A good group. <\/p>\n
That Fellowship was another big boost for me in terms of my confidence, but also in terms of my sense of self and how far I\u2019d come in my directing. <\/p>\n
A scene at a symposium. Hey, you never know.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This symposium took place in the midst of the non-traditional casting movement, a precursor to what we have today, the drive for diversity in casting. I was asked to direct a scene from \u201cThe Importance Of Being Earnest,\u201d a non-diverse play by Oscar Wilde, with actors of color, in this case, a Chinese-American actress and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":172,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-204","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-highlight"],"metadata":{"_edit_lock":["1574062208:172"]},"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n