Theatre is a collaborative art form. It has existed for merely as long as humans existed; through forms of singing, dancing, storytelling or worship. However, in our age, the art form has become a job. Like any other job, you work for it, you do hours, and you commit to using your body as your tool of storytelling. And like any job, it has its cons. I’ve lately became aware of how theatre has real shaped New York and how its diversity doesn’t co-exist. In order to gather my thoughts, I had sat down with me, myself and I to really understand what this meant - or at least what it meant for me.

A famous actor came to speak to my theatre community at Hunter College. Everyone idolized him and was in this star-struck daze. Honestly, in my head, all I said was "another old white man" – which wasn’t fair in my corner at all. He did speak wisely about theatre but brought to an enclosed audience. The theatre department doesn’t have much colored people in it. The majority are White-Americans or White-Europeans. Which is half of this country, but as this man spoke I realized he saw only those people. I was in the crowd amongst many talented artists, and here came a rich man who believed it was easy to get to the top. He did take questions, and they were answered very precisely. He did speak much of going out there and just doing it, but how is that possible in this social structure that we have created in America?

I graduated Queensborough Community College with my associates in theatre. Their department is home to me. We had a mix of so many cultures and we all united to create art. Nothing was ever seen as a “label” or as a race, but just as an artist. I entered Hunter and the department was a bit different. It isn’t their fault that the ratio of students is 2 to 1 of 300 students are white; of course that is estimation.Yet, shouldn’t we include everyone and take into consideration everyone, no matter their skin color? When I first went to an audition at Hunter, I was pretty nervous. It was a Spanish play called Blood Wedding by Federico Lorca, and I wasn’t to positive that I’d even be considered for a callback. There was no Hispanic person at the audition, or a Hispanic that identified true to their background. It then spiral to the point where I refused to enjoy being in this production, and I suffered with anxiety attacks because I thought I wasn’t good enough like the others.This semester I didn’t get a role at all, but that wasn’t because of race or ethnicity – that was me as artist comparing myself to everyone and not giving my best performance. The department is full of wonderful people and they are so helpful, but at times it seems like there is this shift in power where they look at you as if, “Really? You?”

So yes, I do believe there is racism in every theatre department. Why? Well, the plays they choose always include people that aren’t necessarily of color. If they cast someone of color, that person has the challenge of becoming this character or criticized for it by the school community. It is definitely difficult as a student actor not having a voice of which plays can fit everyone. We have built a stigma that makes us perceive certain characters on stage to be a certain race.

I have never felt left out of the art until I reached Hunter. It was difficult hearing this famous actor speak with the chair of the department about their good old times and giving advice to the theatre students. I felt some sort of power drift in this idea we’ve created of minorities. I did come to terms that the industry is this way. It shouldn’t, and it is slowly changing, but it is this way. We just have to start to access other opportunities in other ways through the art of theatre. I’m not sure if I went on a rant, but I believe this is a start of a discussion.