Back in 2020 I wrote an article about how amateur theatre is racist! You can read the original article here (noting that some language has moved on since I wrote the original article) and I would encourage you to read it to understand just why diversity is important to amateur theatre. 5 and a bit years later I wanted to see what had been done and look once again at diversity in amateur theatre. There has been some concerning casting choices that are still happening in amateur theatre and in 2025 I have seen both an all white Avenue Q and Everybody’s Talking About Jamie cast announced. I’ve therefore sat down and spoken to some societies that were leading the way, not only on racial diversity but also in terms of gender and disability and hopefully this will give those societies who are keen to improve some ideas.

Racial and Ethnic Diversity

Sedos, an amateur group in central London, in 2024 put on a production of the Color Purple which requires an all black cast. I sat down to talk to director, Tasha Msanide about the process.

Pre-Auditions- Doing The Work Beforehand:

Tasha and her team pitched the show in August 23 for the show to be performed at the end of the 2024 season. They did this to ensure that they had the time in the lead up to auditions to reach out to existing contacts and create new ones.

Outreach started in earnest in January 2024 with auditions in July. They created an expression of interest form and those signing up were also asked to indicate which roles they would be potentially interested in. This would also help the production team ascertain if there were any roles they they may not be able to cast and decide where to focus their efforts.

They set up a new Instagram account specifically for the Color Purple. Through this account they reached out to other black theatre accounts, including previous cast members of productions of The Color Purple which helped amplify their voice. This Instagram account soon became a focal point not just for the show but for amplifying and celebrating black theatre.

Pre-audition workshops were held in specific areas, in particular the Bernie Grant Arts Centre in Tottenham and Brixton House and Brixton which also meant they could rouse interest from the local community. Due to demand extra spaces had to be added!

The result of this work meant that all 110 audition slots went within a week and all 25 parts were cast from within this audition process.

Within just over a month of tickets going on sale all 11 performances were sold out!

How Learnings From The Color Purple Process can Apply More Widely:

The team behind the Color Purple were proof that work needs to happen to cast shows. It is not as simple as put on the shows and the cast will come and in fact this mindset can be harmful. Often in casting calls in the amateur world we see a cast announced, followed by an announcement that they still need to cast (insert name of a character that is from a global majority background). From the start of the process the performer playing this character has been singled out and sets a precedent that they are an afterthought.

The legacy of a show can be hugely influential on the future of your society. After The Colour Purple Sedos have since produced Violet, Hairspray and Dreamgirls. The pitch for Dreamgirls actually came from The Colour Purple Instagram account when the Instagram story asked what other show would audiences like to see and Dreamgirls was one of the answers.

Other Tips:

Tasha gave some practical tips that all amateur groups should be implementing:

• In character breakdowns use visuals and be diverse with your vision of the role. Having a diverse range of performers depicted in in the character breakdown lets people know that you can visualise them in the role. Simply saying ‘you are open to anyone’ can often translate to open to anyone….who looks like the casting panel.
• Make the process for those wanting to audition have as few pinch points as possible – for example some societies say you have to be in the ensemble to play a lead, however this stops new talent and if your ensemble have very few performers from a global majority background then this will feed into your leads. Do you even need members auditions?

Rights Holders:

There has previously been criticism that rights holders should do more to ensure authentic casting and there has been steps forward recently by rights holders, for example the change of the wording in relation to Hairspray but do they do enough?

I reached out to the big rights holders for musical theatre to ask about this topic and what practical restrictions they put in place for relevant shows.

A spokesperson from Concord Theatricals advised –

When we work with our customers on any of our shows, we always encourage them to consider diversity and inclusion in their casting choices. For some titles, where it is pivotal to the plot, it is part of their agreement. An example of this is Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Flower Drum Song. Our casting note makes clear that it is “set in San Francisco’s Chinatown in 1958. The characters are Chinese or Chinese American, and the roles should be cast accordingly. The use of make-up or prosthetics to alter an actor’s ethnicity is prohibited.

Having recently worked on Everybody’s Talking About Jamie they specifically stated in the rights for this show –

“My steer would be to cast Asian Muslim if possible for Pritti, Fatima, Sayid etc, but white Muslims do exist and I would rather the spirit of diversity was honoured rather than having a specific checklist which could be a bar to some productions. Ray is an everywoman, and can be cast however they like. It’s nice for her to be a  different version of a Muslim woman from Pritti and Fatima and that honours the spirit of Sheffield but open to being flexible with her.”

TRW also provided the following response

The TRW Production Contract requires that the cast members in our shows accurately reflect the characters as written. Where race and ethnicity are indicated, they should be honoured. Where race or ethnicity are not indicated, a character can be of any race or ethnicity. We advocate that societies should aim to choose shows which they are able to cast appropriately, to avoid the kind of “whitewashing” of shows designed for more diverse casts which has sadly been taking place in the theatre for many years. We clearly specify in the casting information published on our website that there are requirements for specific shows, to enable groups to make the best choice for their society.

However, each title does vary in the rules that have been put in place by the authors on how they have decided they would like their shows to be cast. Please see below how this varies show to show:

ALL SHOOK UP

Sylvia and Lorraine are written as African American women, but the author has provided alternative lines/cut that can be implemented if they are to be played by any other ethnicity. This changes the focus from segregation to the rich/poor class divide but keeps the intention of the story (the healing power of music!) intact.

THE COLOR PURPLE

This show requires an all-Black cast.

GHOST the Musical

Oda Mae Brown and her sisters are written to be Black women, and Willie Lopez is written to be a Latinx male. Groups must make concerted efforts to cast the show as written (advertising specifically for Black performers on social media, approaching local POC performers, local groups such as gospel choirs, colleges etc). If their efforts are unsuccessful then they may submit a request to us to cast the show with the best performers for the roles, regardless of ethnicity, and they are required to show evidence of their efforts. It is then at the Authors discretion to decide if they are happy to allow these roles to be cast with non-Black/Hispanic actors. We do not encourage groups to whitewash shows, and there can be backlash from the local and theatre communities when they do so, but we can consider applications to cast the roles not as specified in extenuating circumstances.

MEMPHIS

50% Black cast is required as the whole story is about segregation and race. 

ON YOUR FEET!

The show is written to portray members of the Estefan family and Miami Sound Machine, who are all from Cuba. However, it is understood that casting Latinx people in some areas can be problematic. Gloria Estefan should be played by an actor who looks and sounds like her. Emilio must also look Latin and must be able to do an authentic Cuban accent (which is written into the plot). In other productions, Gloria has been played by actors from Spain, Brazil, Mexico, Italy, Israel, Puerto Rico, and Cuba. The one thing in common is that they all looked and sounded like Gloria. 

I reached out to MTI on a couple of occasions but sadly they didn’t respond. Their website is silent on race when it comes to shows such as Avenue Q, Come From Away, Sister Act and Kinky Boots and however upon a local society announcing that they were producing ‘The Prince of Egypt’ I found this on their website in relation to this show –

“From the very beginning of working on The Prince of Egypt theatrical musical, we wanted to tell a universal story that spans all racial and ethnic divides, and so we always felt it was important to have a diverse cast whenever possible. In the various productions up to date, we have had a Sri Lankan Moses, a Filipino Tzipporah, a Palestinian Tzipporah, a Black Ramses, a Chinese Keturah, and countless other permutations. The point is that anyone, no matter what their background, can play any role. In many productions, our diverse casts have tripled as Egyptians, Hebrews and Midianites.”

The Hairspray page also states:

MTI receives many inquiries about the casting requirements for Hairspray. At its core, Hairspray is a story about acceptance and inclusion (and rejection and exclusion) during the early days of the civil rights movement. The authors’ artistic vision requires that, in order to clearly and appropriately tell that story, the cast members in the show accurately reflect the characters as written. As such, the Production Contract requires that the cast members in your production of Hairspray accurately reflect the character descriptions contained in the script. Note: The use of make-up to portray Black characters in your production (e.g., blackface) is not permitted under this Production Contract. By signing the Production Contract, you agree to inform the director of your production of the casting requirements and that such use of make-up is strictly prohibited. In the past, performance licenses for Hairspray did not include this provision. However, the authors have determined that expressly stating this requirement is an important component of ensuring that licensed productions of Hairspray accurately reflect the authors’ intent.

As pointed out in my previous article this statement only seems to exist to try to undo some of the harm that their previous statement which justified white actors paying Seaweed, Little Inez, Motormouth and other black roles within the show.

I think what is apparent from the rights holders is that there doesn’t seem to be a huge amount of consistency, whilst some shows have strict rules around their rights others just have guidance. It seems that the shows with guidance rather than tight restrictions are often the ones not cast appropriately and potentially if the rights holders were tighter with restrictions around certain characters this may avoid inappropriate casting.

LGBTQ+ Diversity

I also spoke to Clodagh ONeill from Bromley Musical Theatre Company, a now 4 year old company based in South East London. They are a society who caught my attention for the work they are doing in gender diversity and inclusion for LGBTQ+ members. They estimate that over 1/3 of their company is part of the LGBTQ+ community and says that this contributes to their open and accepting company vibes and being a safe space to meet other queer people.

I asked them for some top tips of how to build an inclusive space. Some examples they gave were:

• Something as simple as saying ‘Good evening ladies and gentlemen…’ at the start of a performance is so ingrained but is not gender inclusive. Why not try gender inclusive language greetings like  – ‘Good evening everybody’, or ‘Good evening theatre lovers’. 
• Where society members are comfortable, we should be listing cast and creative’s pronouns on socials and programmes. Pronouns are not something to be assumed based on headshots, and it is disappointing that West End Programmes are still not adopting this (often only until they have a Trans+ member in the cast). This shouldn’t be a reactive step to add pronouns to programmes, it shows that your society respects peoples pronouns and is promoting inclusion. 
• The same goes for when starting a new production. We all know that circle on the first day of rehearsal far too well, going round and introducing ourselves, pronouns should be one of the prompts. 
• It is very specific to different groups on how to best work on your gender inclusivity. In the current society we live in, think about not only what will make people of different gender identities feel welcome, but what will make them feel safe? Talk to your Trans+ friends, talk to the Trans+ society members you already have. Approach situations with curiosity, respect and care. 

The Team from Bromley Musical Theatre Company also spoke about a specific example in which they hosted the ‘BMC with the T’ quiz which was in direct response to the Supreme Court Ruling, the latest in a long line of actions attacking the Trans+ community. The quiz was to fundraise for the Trans Legal Clinic and not only did they raise £461.50 for the charity but the day was a celebration of Transness and BMTC showing solidarity with their Trans siblings. The day featured many Trans+ flags, stickers, and quiz questions celebrating Trans+ musical theatre creatives. 

Relaxed Performances

Having a diverse audience base is just as important as having a diverse cast and there are steps that amateur groups can take to improve this. As regular readers of my website might know I am on the committee for Bromley Players. Bromley Players regularly try to include relaxed performances in their program of events. For those that wondering what a relaxed performance is, essentially it is a show with a more relaxed atmosphere aimed at those with additional sensory needs. It will often include (and this list is not exhaustive) –

• A booklet sent out prior to the performance so audience members know what to expect at the theatre – it will include information about the theatre layout, the show itself.
• An area outside of the auditorium where audience members can use during the show
• Reduced tannoy announcements
• Often an introduction from some of the performers before the show starts
• Lights up during the performance
• Spaces between seats which means audience members can move around if needed.
• Additional consideration about lighting and sound fx – for example removal of strobe lighting, sudden loud noises.

How this works in reality for Bromley Players is that we add an additional show, usually Saturday morning during show week. Some practical considerations are:

• How do you run your box office – can you have a system which leaves spaces between seats. You will also need email addresses for audience members to send out the information leaflet around 7-10 days prior to the show.
• For all performances, not just a Relaxed Performance, under the Equalities Act 2010 you are required to make reasonable adjustments. Whilst the Equalities Act doesn’t specify how these adjustments should look, one adjustment Bromley Payers makes is offering free carers tickets. Remember saying ‘we can’t afford it’ is not a defence, especially if no alternatives are explored. Equally consider the reason you are putting on the relaxed performance, whilst amateur budgets are often stretched profit should not the the paramount consideration for this performance.
• Don’t forget the extra timing for plotting the lighting for this show or changing the cues. Depending on the show itself and the original lighting design this job could vary in size.
• Marketing the relaxed performance will be different to marketing the rest of the run. You will need to reach a new audience so think in advance as to the best places to advertise this performance.

Of course relaxed performances are not the only way to improve audience access to your shows. Bromley Players has also had several performances with a BSL interpreter and you can also think about captioned or audio described performances.

Has amateur theatre improved in the last 5 years in relation to diversity – yes. Does amateur theatre still have a long way to go – also yes. I hope this article has given some useful tips or at least sparked some thought or conversation about what your society could do better. I would love to hear about what your local groups do well, or not so well.

If you found this article interesting you might also like An Appreciation Post Of Musicals With Black Creators, Trans Performers in Theatre That You Need to See, Gender Inclusivity In Amateur Theatre and my review of Sedos’ production of The Color Purple.