Theatre Diversity Quotes

I don't think that everything on Broadway relates to us, and I think that's why we as black people don't always go to Broadway shows, but shows like 'What's on the Hearts of Men' has a lot of issues that can relate to black families, and that's why I enjoy it.

Do I think the West End relies too heavily on star names? Yes, I do, and it can result in miscasting and sub-standard stuff. Not always, but occasionally.

I come from the theatre where there are no boundaries to the style you're doing; you're doing Molière, then you're doing Chekhov and then you're doing Arthur Miller in a season and no-one bats an eye.

Is the American theatre allowing itself to become irrelevant? The problem isn't that playwrights aren't being paid enough. It's that theatres all over America are looking towards New York to tell them what new plays to do.

A few years ago, I got cast as a white boy in an off-Broadway play. So not only was it colour-blind, it was gender-blind as well. That would never happen in film.

I'm trying to bring a new generation into the musical theater and to create a new audience.

When I was in school, I didn't get exposed to Latino playwrights.

People don't see me in traditional roles; I'm not getting cast in the revival of 'Company' as Bobby.

There was a saying going around the theatre: It's a train, and you can jump on at any point whether you're a lover of musical theatre or a lover of theatre or a lover of hip-hop or a lover of history - there was a way to jump on the train.

I guess I've accepted that theatre is never going to be edgy in the way I want it to be. It's too expensive for a start. And, the audience seems to be complicit in the dullness.

I want to make 'Broadway' a word that doesn't have pejorative connotation. I don't want 'musical theater' to be a dismissive term. I want it to be something that people can be proud of, that people can say, 'Look at the possibilities.'

There's still a bit of a problem, in that so many leading English roles are taken by American or French actresses.

The number of Latino roles is very limited, and it's unfortunate there isn't more color-blind casting.

I've only auditioned for one non-culturally specific role. I went through drama school and studied classic texts and played lead roles in 'Measure for Measure' and 'The Importance of Being Earnest' alongside a very culturally diverse group of acting students. But as soon as we graduate and enter the industry, all of those roles fall away.

When I look around at Broadway and the West End, theatre is becoming an exclusive club.

I wish Wales was more represented on the British stage, and I have missed that being in London.

Generally, the realm in which black playwrights have been allowed to achieve success has been social realism or musicals.