Disney Theatricals President Thomas Schumacher Talks Inclusion With Broadway Casting Directors Tara Rubin and Bernie Telsey

In a recent feature for Backstage, Thomas Schumacher, president and producer of Disney Theatrical Productions, sat down with Broadway casting directors Tara Rubin and Bernie Telsey to discuss inclusion on the stage and screen. They three discussed this topic in August of last year, and recently reconvened to assess the improvements made in the last year. In this talk, they discussed casting trends they have noticed, as well as the 2015 #OscarsSoWhite uproar compared to Moonlight's big wins this year.

Before getting started, Schumacher took a moment to acknowledge the fact that they are all white, middle-aged, "fairly successful theater makers" so they are speaking from a position of privilege.

One topic that was brought up was the possibility of "color-blind casting" being a generational thing. Rubin said, "Well, if you're a person who has been directing without considering diversity in casting for five decades, to suddenly begin to consider it requires quite a change in your imagination."

Rubin also brought up something that has become an ongoing debate: the difference between casting a white person in a role traditional to a person of color, versus doing the opposite.

"The reason we strive for diversity and inclusion is to offer more opportunities to actors of color and to offer an audience the opportunity to see a story told by people who might help the audience experience the story in a new way," she said.

Telsey said that he believes theatre used to be ahead of film and television when it came to color-blind casting, but now he says, "TV is ahead of everyone. And they used to be completely behind."

Schumacher commented on the difference between 2015's "Oscars So White" controversy and the diversity proven in this year's award season, with Moonlight winning in many of the categories.

"As an Oscar voter, I understand why it was an issue; actors of color deserve much more representation," he said. "But I would say that it is much deeper than the question of just actors of color, which is what we saw shift this year. It is about people in every area of production. It is about women in different production roles. It is about people of color. It is about people of different nationalities in roles throughout the film industry, which can be a very homogeneous crowd. I think that is what needs to be said."

The three agreed that while theatre, Hollywood, and television have come a long way, there is still much work to be done to continue to promote diversity in the arts.

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