HRDC Hosts Meeting on Minorities

Students interested in seeing more minorities in campus theater productions met with the Harvard Radcliffe Dramatic Club (HRDC) last evening to discuss ways to get a more diverse group of faces into Harvard theaters and onto the stage.

In the spacious west lobby of the Loeb Drama Center, about a dozen students sat in a large circle, set up to accommodate many more students. The few who did come joined with the HRDC executive board to toss out suggestions and brainstorm ways to diversify the staff involved in putting up shows on campus.

In an extremely informal discussion-based format, students wondered out loud whether mounting shows that specifically incorporate race issues would bring more minority actors to the stage.

"Are minorities at a disadvantage coming into Common Casting?" asked HRDC President Michael P. Davidson '00. Common Casting is the College-sanctioned process by which campus shows choose their actors.

Others questioned whether a sufficient number of minority actors are currently cast in shows that do not call for characters of a specific race.

Many students said they thought HRDC should formally encourage directors--through the written guidelines that govern Common Casting--to cast shows without consideration of the actor's race and the character they could possibly play.

Students at the meeting also expressed interest in establishing permanent relationships with various ethnic groups on campus in an effort to bring more of these groups' members to the stage.

The discussion forum was advertised by e-mail to many minority groups, including the Association of Black Harvard Women, the Black Students Association and the Carribean Club.