An open casting call on the official website for the Broadway musical hit “Hamilton” — looking for “NON-WHITE men and women, ages 20s to 30s, for Broadway and upcoming Tour!” — is stirring controversy, with some calling the show to task for apparent discrimination against Caucasian and older actors.
A spokesperson for Actors’ Equity, the union that represents stage performers, told the New York Daily News that the posting is not consistent with the organization’s policies.
Equity stipulates in its guidelines that all actors must be considered “without discrimination on the basis of sex, race, color, creed, national origin, age, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity and/or expression or political persuasion or belief.”
However, Equity states on its website that “Equity neither runs OPEN calls nor provides Equity audition monitors for them. The producer runs all aspects of an OPEN call and is not bound by Equity’s audition procedures.”
Writer-composer-star Lin-Manuel Miranda‘s hit hip-hop musical features a primarily non-white cast retelling the story of Alexander Hamilton and the founding fathers, making a statement on the role immigrants played in the forming of the United States of America.
A “Hamilton” spokesperson told the Daily News that the wording of the casting notice is being reconsidered.
Representatives for Equity and “Hamilton” have not yet responded to TheWrap’s requests for comment.